Petite & Peppery — a Peperomia Care Guide

Peperomias are a genus that contains over 1,000 described species in the Piperacae (or pepper) family of plants that grow primarily in Central and South America and are smaller in stature. With so many species, they can vary quite a bit in terms of appearance, and they make for excellent houseplants due to their ease of care—so much so, that the National Garden Bureau even named Peperomias the Plant of the Year for 2022! Read on to find out more about these small-statured members of the pepper family.

Native Environment & Plant Profile

Peperomias grow in the understory of humid, lush rainforests in both Central and South America, the Hawaiian islands, and Australia.

Peperomias will typically grow on trees, rotten logs, bark, and rocks, which makes these plants both epiphytes and lithophytes, depending on where they’re growing. Because they live beneath the tree canopies, Peperomias receive dappled or filtered sunlight where they exist natively and most won’t be found in full sunlight conditions.

These plants also push out flowers rather easily compared to some other houseplants, however, Peperomia flowers aren’t showy and are often called “rat tails,” as the inflorescence is typically thin and elongated, looking similar to a tail.

Peperomia maculosa, featuring one of the genera’s iconic flowers.

Watering

Most Peperomias are semi-succulents, which means that they hold a back-up supply of water inside of their leaves and stems. When plants have a reserve of water to draw upon, that means that they won’t need watered too frequently by us, especially when living indoors.

A majority of Peperomia species will want their soil to dry out almost completely before getting watered again—this might happen roughly every couple of weeks, depending on the size of your planter and your own unique home environment.

Much like other plants with water-storing capabilities, Peperomia leaves will start to feel a bit more thin and pucker slightly when they’re ready to take up more water. As always, it’s important to water thoroughly until water comes out the bottom of your planter to ensure the entire root system is saturated and gets a chance to drink up what it needs.

Peperomia tetragona, or the parallel Peperomia, with its leaves just starting to cascade over the edge of the planter.

Light Requirements

Due to where they grow in nature—typically along forest floors—Peperomias will do best in a bright, filtered light. If it’s available, they can handle some morning sunlight, and some species can tolerate a little bit of evening sunlight as well. If placed in too much direct sunlight, the leaves on Peperomia plants can get scorched by the sun and lose their chlorophyll, taking on more of a faded or bleached appearance.

If Peperomias aren’t receiving adequate light indoors, they will start to stretch and become spindly, reaching for more sunlight. This is known as etiolating, and this can be easily fixed for future growth by placing your plant in more appropriate sunlight. For those looking for ideas where ideal spots to keep plants indoors would be, we have an entire article devoted to demystifying sunlight indoors.

Peperomia incana, commonly known as the felted Peperomia. This is a larger species with a fine fuzziness to the leaves.

Soil

Peperomias will do best in a soil mix that is well-draining. Since these plants are adept at storing water inside of their stems and leaves, they won’t want to sit in wet potting mix for too long. Adding amendments to your soil mix, such as horticultural charcoal, perlite, pumice, or bark chips is an excellent way to create air pockets inside of the soil—this allows both the roots to breathe (thus decreasing the risk of rot), and it allows for water to pass through the soil quickly.

A good majority of Peperomias grow epiphytically, so mounting your plants onto a piece of wood or cork bark with sphagnum moss is also on option for how you want to grow and display your plant.

Peperomias are an incredibly varied family of plants with so many different ones to find and collect! There truly is a Peperomia out there for everyone, with there being 1000+ described species.

If you have any questions regarding Peperomia care, feel free to ask down below, visit one of our shops, or get in contact with us!

Words & photos by: Egan Thorne