The Snow White Waffle Plant is a beautiful house plant that is commonly known and referred to as ‘Hemigraphis Alterna.’
Although it still requires a certain amount of care, the Snow White Waffle Plant is one of the easiest to look after natural house decorations you can come across and is especially great for people who don’t have a lot of time or experience in order to care for a more demanding plant.
| Botanical Name | Hemigraphis Alterna |
| Common Name | Snow White Waffle Plant |
| Plant Type | Perennial |
| Flower Color | May produce and bloom small white flowers during the summer |
| Size When Mature | 6 in height, 12 in width |
| Bloom Time | Late spring and early summer |
| Sun Requirements | Partial Sun |
| USDA Hardiness Zones | 10 to 11 |
| Soil PH Range | 6.1-7.5 |
| Soil Type | Moist and fertile |
| Water Needs | Low |
| Native Area | India and Indonesia |
What you Need to Know About the Snow White Waffle Plant
The Snow White Waffle Plant is a pretty minuscule house plant and common decoration. It possesses green leaves which are tinted with vibrant white, pink, or possibly even magenta edges that sometimes bloom white flowers during the summer.
This beautiful plant is part of the Acanthaceae plant family, which includes well-known plants such as the polka-dot and zebra plant. It should also be known that this particular plant is toxic and poisonous, to both animals and humans, if it is ingested and so therefore should be kept out of reach from pets and children.
How to Care for your Snow White Waffle Plant
Here’s everything you need to know about growing and caring for a thriving Snow White Waffle Plant:
- Caring for your Hemigraphis Alterna is a pretty easy task as long as you keep it out of and protected from harshly cold weather. Because of this, it is recommended that your Snow White Waffle be grown indoors, where changing weather and chillier temperatures aren’t a problem.
- Snow White Waffle Plants are best developed when they are planted in the spring or early summer due to their love for warmth. They prefer an indirect but steady source of sunlight as if they are put directly into the sun their color fades and their edges are in danger of burning.
- Putting them in partial shade would be the best way to make sure they get all the warmth they need without the risk of being damaged. In terms of heat, the perfect temperature for your Snow White Waffle Plant would be somewhere between twenty-one and twenty-four degrees when measuring in celsius or seventy and seventy-five degrees when measuring in Fahrenheit.
- Also, the soil in which your Waffle Plant is planted must be moist and fertile and you must ensure that you water the plant generously but not frequently. It is recommended that you water this plant once a week during the spring and summer and once every two weeks during the autumn and winter.
- As the Hemigraphis Alterna is not considered to be a heavy feeder it does not need to be fertilized that often. You should fertilize it twice as the growing season proceeds, any more than this could possibly damage the plant’s leaves.
- When propagating this plant, you should start by carefully but thoroughly trying to remove any and all dead leaves or branches. You should then untangle any crossed over branches and stems which are growing in an inwards direction in order to let your plant breathe more easily.
What to do if your Snow White Waffle Plant is dying
There are a few reasons why your Snow White Waffle Plant might be dying. The first, and most common, is over-watering. Giving this particular plant too much water often results in it drowning and then wilting and rotting from the roots upwards. To resolve this issue, minimize the amount of water your plant is receiving and possibly even try moving your plant into more fresh soil.
On the other side of the spectrum from this is under-watering, if you do not give your Hemigraphis Alterna as much water as it needs it will dry out due to a lack of moisture in its roots. Solving this issue is quite easy, simply make sure that you are generously watering your plant as recommended.
Over-fertilising is also quite common in Hemigraphis Alternas and it results in the plant losing its vibrance and not being able to properly blossom. In order to resolve this issue try fertilizing less frequently or even using demineralized water as a mild alternative.
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