This isn’t going to be a very long post, because I couldn’t find much information on the topic, but no, you can’t currently get pink Monstera.
However, if you google it, you get a different story – in fact, it seems like there are two different scams* going on here.
*Scams may seem like a harsh word, especially for the second one, but that is, in all likelihood, what they are.
If you’re new to Monstera, I have a guide here.
Scam 1 – Calling Philodendrons Monstera
Juvenile plants all look pretty similar. Philodendron Pink Princess has recently dropped in price.
Sooo there are a TONNE of people out there selling PPP as pink Monstera at jacked up prices.
I’m a big fan of buying plants online, but you need to be SO CAREFUL. I prefer to buy either cuttings or large specimens of common plants if I’m buying online. I’m lucky enough to live an hour away from a REALLY good garden centre so I got my Philodendron Pink Princess and Thai Constellation from there.
Plant names are incredibly subjective. It’s still super common to see Monstera adansonii being sold as obliqua in big box stores. Don’t trust the name. If you’re unsure, the guys on Reddit can identify a plant AND spot a scam a mile away so post a photo in the rare plants subreddit.
Scam 2 – Crowdfunding for pink Monstera
This may not be a scam. These may be botanists legitimately trying to create pink Monstera in the lab.
(By the way, they’re also trying to make Anthuriums with pink veining, and a few others. They present them as actual photos, with the small print admitting that they’re actually mockups).
But think about it. Think about how popular Philodendron Pink Princesses and variegated Monstera are. I dread to think how much money those things have been bought and sold for over the past few years.
Do you really think that the Thai variegation people aren’t out there making a pink one as we speak? They DEFINITELY are.
They’re just not rushing it because there’s still a LOT of money to be made from the regular variegated ones.
Will there ever be a pink Monstera?
I have no doubt that in a few years you’ll be able to get a Monstera in every colour under the sun. Will it be natural? No.
Philodendron Pink princesses naturally have pink variegation, because they have reddish leaves. Plants like syngoniums, calathea, and rubber plants have cultivars with a pinkish hue. Hoya have a lot of pink in their variegation.
Monstera, er, don’t. Monstera are green and white, and sometimes yellow. There doesn’t seem to be a pink-producing gene happening.
You can cross plants (which is how you get e.g. syngoniums with pink veining and variegation) but Monstera doesn’t seem to have any pink in their genus. You can’t create Monstera and Philodendron hybrids, because they’re not closely related enough – it’d be like to trying to cross a dog with a cat.
So creating a pink Monstera can’t be done without altering its genes quite substantially. That would cost a lot (hence the crowdfunding).
The botanists that know how to do that are probably working out how to feed the population when all the land is underwater, and the people who are working on variegated Monstera still have high enough demand that they can sell COMMON variegated Monstera for a freaking FORTUNE.
The only reason to make pink Monstera is to make a tonne of money, and the white ones are lucrative enough (for now).
