Peperomia Hope Plant Care

Peperomia hope is a wonderful trailing type of peperomia, a plant that is both popular and easy to take care of. It’s known by many names – peperomia rotundifolia, trailing jade, radiator plant…

While trailing types of peperomias aren’t as common as busy types, you won’t have any issues spotting this plant in a nursery or local plant shops.

Quick Summary

All the relevant info at a glance.

Plant name: Peperomia rotundifolia, trailing jade, peperomia hope

Native to: Central and South America

Lighting: bright room with indirect sunlight

Care: frequent watering (when top level of soil is dry), average to higher humidity, average warmth

Common problems: loss of leaves, leaf rot, brown tips and edges, fairly resilient to pests

Toxicity: Considered Non-Toxic to Humans and Pets (read more here)

Peperomia Hope Care

Trailing jade is a great beginner plant, as caring for it isn’t hard. It’s fairly easy to propagate, too, so you can grow your collection even without previous propagating experience.

Bringing the Plant Home

No matter where you got your plant from, it’s best to place it in quarantine once you bring it home – unless this is your first plant.

Even the most reputable nurseries or stores can get infestations of various pests, and you don’t want to bring unwanted guests (or plant diseases) that would spread to your other plants. Keep your new plant away from others for a week or two, frequently checking for any signs of pests or disease. Some plant owners treat all their new plants with insecticides.

Check the soil and if it is dry water the plant.

In the first few days, the plant might be stressed if the change of environmental conditions was significant enough.

Light – Where to Place Your Plant?

Peperomia hope will thrive in a bright semi-shady spot (indirect sunlight). It will tolerate spaces with lover light but will become leggy (get long stem).

It will thrive in fluorescent light too.

Watering and Misting Leaves

How often should you water your peperomia hope plant?

More in summer months, less in winter. Let the top level of soil dry out between waterings, but don’t let it dry out completely – you want to avoid seeing leaves starting to wilt.

The label on the plant usually states these need to be watered once per week. However, this depends on the plant’s size, the soil, climate, and many other things. The best way to work out the water routine for your plant is by feeling the soil.

What kind of water should you use to water a zebra plant?

Rainwater is always great; with tap water, it’s best to let it sit for a day before watering—water with tepid room temperature water.

Misting

You can occasionally mist your trailing jade in summer; this will help keep the leaves clean and give the plant a temporary humidity boost.

Humidity

In nature, you can find peperomia plants in areas with higher humidity, so it’s only natural that your plant will enjoy a higher humidity in your home as well.

However, they grow in average indoor humidity levels just as well (making this plant a good choice for everyone).

If you have other tropical plants or live in a home with extremely low humidity, you can add a humidifier to keep your plant happy.

Misting leaves during summer can help increase local humidity for the plant too.

Cleaning Peperomia Hope Leaves / Plant Maintenance and Pruning

You won’t manually clean the leaves (nor is there the need for it) as they are small and can break off.

Use a spray bottle to clean the plant’s leaves. Use room temperature water. You can use water with a dash of neem oil (as per instructions on the bottle).

If your plant has become leggy or you want to change its appearance, you can prune the leaves. Pruning dead or wilting leaves is also beneficial.

Do you need to fertilize Peperomia Hope plant?

You can add general liquid fertilizer during the growing season (prepare it as per instructions on the bottle/box). While it is not necessary for keeping your plant alive, it will encourage new growth.

Repotting

You don’t have to worry about repotting your peperomia hope; they like to be pot-bound, so it will be years before there will be a need (if there ever will be one) to repot your plant.

If you feel your plant does require a bigger pot, repot to a slightly larger pot (1 to 2 sizes max) in the springtime.

Soil

You will need a soil mixture with good drainage. Premixed houseplant potting mixes should be fine.

Peperomia Watermelon Propagation

Easy to propagate – you can use broken off leaves (that are healthy) and cuttings from pruning your plant.

propagating with leaves – place leaves with petioles into soil
propagating with stems

Toxicity

Peperomia Hope is considered non-toxic to humans, cats, and dogs.

Be advised, though, trailing varieties of peperomia are magnets for cats to play with. Ingesting any plant in larger quantities, even if non-toxic, can cause problems.

* There have been no negative health issues reported with Peperomia rotundifolia. Keep in mind toxicity information on plants can change. This is something that is best talked about with your veterinarian. Even with non-toxic plants, nibbling plants should be avoided, and keeping plants away from pets, especially if they like to eat them, is best.

Common Peperomia Hope Problems and Pests

This is a sturdy plant that isn’t prone to any pests or diseases.

Peperomia Hope Leaves Curling

If you notice the leaves on your plant start curling, this could be a nutrient deficiency, most commonly calcium deficiency. Adding calcium to soil should fix the issue if this is the cause.

Why are my peperomia hope leaves wrinkled?

If you start noticing leaves that are wrinkled and even feel soft to the touch, this most likely means you aren’t watering your plant enough.

Peperomia Hope leaves falling off?

Over-watering can be the case. Cats playing with leaves is another to consider.