Forum home› Problem solving
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Is there any hope??

Helen 51Helen 51 Posts: 3
in Problem solving
I left my plant in my conservatory for a week when i was away, not thinking the weather would be so hot.  Most of the fronds were dried out and dead but some of the stems have still signs of life and I am hopeful they may recover. Can anyone advise, should i could off the stems which are now completely bald - i dont imagine there will be any further growth.  Any tips, gratefully received.

Posts

  • AnniDAnniD Posts: 12,585
    Bumping up for any houseplant experts  :)
  • msqingxiaomsqingxiao Posts: 482
    Think the usual advice would be to soak the whole pot in water for a while, say an hour. I didn't manage to revive some of mine though. Yours doesn't look very promising either unfort but worth a try.
  • philippasmith2philippasmith2 Posts: 3,742
    I'd suggest you cut down the bare stems until you can see whether or at which point the stems show sign of life.
    Tip the plant out and check the roots - if it still looks viable . give it a good soak as described above and place it out of direct sunlight.  With any luck, new growth will appear from the base.
    Good luck  :)  
  • Helen 51Helen 51 Posts: 3
    Thanks all.  I did give it a good soak and put it in a cooler room right away.  There are 3 separate parts of the plant growing from the ground, each has 3 branches and at least 1 on each looks completely dead with the other branches still having some sign of life.  Im reluctant to start cutting branches in case it finishes it off completely but maybe need to do that now.  I have had it for about 10 years and would love to try and save it so fingers crossed  :)
  • Desi_in_LondonDesi_in_London Posts: 731
    At the risk of stating the obvious , has it been repotted into fresh compost and possibly a bigger pot in that 10 years?. I can't exactly identify your plant , but a good friend had a similar looking specimen ( a dracaena marginata ) -- which they had kept for 15 years in a small 5 litre pot, without repotting. When finally extracted, there was a large mass of white and browning circling roots, and no real compost left to speak of. It seemed more remarkable to me that the poor plant had survived as long as it had.

    I'm not suggesting this is an identical situation, but if the overall environment isn't perfect in terms of pot size / fresh potting medium, clearly it would have been more susceptible to damage in the heat etc - don't stress it now but if it shows signs of recovery ( either before or after cutting back ) - might be worth investigating.
    Kindness is always the right choice.
  • Helen 51Helen 51 Posts: 3
    Thanks Desi, it has been repotted several times but would be due for another move.  I thought it best to leave it for the moment too but will maybe replenish the compost on the top for the moment and see if that helps any. 
Sign In or Register to comment.