String Of Hearts Vine Propagation

String of Hearts Vine, along with Rosary Vine, is a common name for Ceropegia woodii. Ceropegia woodii is a popular hanging houseplant because it is easy to care for, beautiful and being a succulent it is very forgiving to being under-watered. When being grown indoors as a houseplant it is recommended to grow it in a very bright area where it receives direct sun. I grow my plant in a west facing window and don't supplement the low light levels with grow lights and it does pretty good for me. If you're interested I've written a previous post titled Ceropegia woodii: String of Hearts where you can see a photo of the flower. While better known for the foliage and tubers this plant does produce a small flower that is as interesting, if not more, than the tubers and leaves.


After you've grown this plant and observe the way it produces tubers along the vine it becomes clear why it has been nicknamed "Rosary Vine" or "Rosary Plant." The tubers growing along the stem do in fact resemble the beads on a Rosary. They become more pronounced if you grow this trailing vine as a hanging houseplant and allow the vines to get longer and drape towards the floor.
Famous for the shape of the leaves you can see why it is called "String of Hearts." The diminutive foliage develops to resemble little hearts and they grow along the stem along with the tubers. In full sun the leaves and stem develop a rich purple hue to them. I purchased this String of Hearts plant at a local Home Depot greenhouse.
Another String of Hearts, though the leaves on this houseplant are sparser and look more like arrowheads, it develops the same flower as the houseplant in the picture above and in the link above. This was my first String of Hearts and I bought this plant at Jamaican Gardens; a nursery just north of Chicago in Morton Grove, IL. You can click the pictures of these String of Hearts vines to get a larger view.
String of Hearts propagation:

Propagating this succulent plant is extremely easy and you don't need any special tools or rooting hormones to make more plants. What you do need is a plant that has produced tubers and a fast draining soil mix. I use a cacti and succulent potting mix that I amend with perlite for my succulent plants.

To propagate this plant simply take a developing tuber and place it so that it comes into contact with soil. The soil should be moist but not kept soaking wet as too much water will rot your tuber. After a few weeks gently tug or lift the tuber to see if it has rooted. Once it has rooted you can remove it from the original plant by snipping off the vine(s) that attach it to the parent plant.

If you're growing your plant as a trailing plant you may notice that the top of your plant becomes bare if sunlight doesn't directly hit the leaves and vines on the surface of the soil. I personally don't mind when this happens because it exposed the interesting caudex that develops in older vines. But if you'd like your plant to look lush simply coil the vines with tubers on the surface of the soil and allow them to root in your pot. When you don't have room to grow this plant as a hanging houseplant in a window you can wrap the vines along a wire topiary frame.