How to patchouli

I've had 30+ years of handling plants both privately and commercially, but my memory can still be crap when it comes to watering details. Some plants are very deceiving- tropical orchids like to be left alone with the occasional watering. Bamboo doesn't look prettiest with full hot sun because it will turn brown. Avocado trees are overly thirst and have to stay over 50 deg. China Doll's LIKE to be root bound. Dianthus makes an excellent mounding garden plant on a hill. Patchouli, however, is the worst. This week and all of its rain drowned my aging patchouli after I'd added more soil and left it outside. Have you ever seen seaweed? Ya... it's that bad. 3 days later and it still looks like something out of The Black Stallion scene where a boy is feeding his horse from a large shell. During my handling process I thoughtlessly removed the rocks in the bottom. You see, I'd forgotten that patchouli likes to have "dry feet". Due to the risk of root rot a patchouli plant should never be overly saturated. Now my lovely 20-inch pride and joy of air purification rivals a Dutchman's Pipe for sag. On the chance that the old girl won't recover, I have ordered two more plants. Now I must pay penitence and reinstall the rocks. Cross your fingers.

Hurray! it has been 3 months since I started this post, so here is an update. The Patchouli lost all its leaves and then budded out bigger than ever. The game changer really was the rocks which added to the drainage. It lives and is not being propagated. See also Jasmine.

Fast forward two years. Back in October, I had a fellow therapist who asked if I had any rooted cuttings of patchouli. I didn't, but I did have a patchouli 2+ feet tall that I thought needed a haircut anyway. Wrong move. Yes, there is a season for cuttings; and there is also a season of shock if you take cuttings. Oops. Now it is the end of May and my poor indoor patchouli is finally showing a little sign of happiness. I also switched out some of the old soil for fresh. I used a mix of the old plus some bark/coarse soil. Recovery I slow.