It's time to read and vote for your favorite article in the 2013 Write-Off Contest! The four finalist's articles are featured in the May 13 newsletter and can be found through this link. Hurry! Voting ends May 18.
Welcome!
You've found the famous Dave's Garden website! Join this friendly global community that shares tips and ideas for home and gardens, along with seeds and plants!
Check out the DG homepage for a brief overview of what you'll find in this gardening mega-site.
Login
If you don't have an account yet, visit the registration page to sign up.
My husband bought me this houseplant back in September. My question is, do I need to separate the different plants into separate containers? The only one that I can identify is the peace lily. One of the plants is almost completely dead. (The really light green leaf in the middle area). Anyways, any suggestions? Thanks so much!!!!
P.S. I don't know why the pic uploaded sideways. Sorry!
Does that container have a drain hole? I would encourage you to read the sticky at the top of this forum, about soil and drainage.
The variegated plant in the front is a Peperomia. The other with very light leaves is Syngonium which may be unhealthy, or becoming so. It probably shouldn't be that color. The thin leaf plant with variegated edges more to the right is a Dracaena marginata, and there may be a plain green spider plant there also to the left, Chlorophytum comousm. These plants need separate homes due to different light requirements, IMO/IME.
The peace lily and Syngonium are no-direct-sun plants, maybe very early morning or last rays of the day. They will burn in any significant exposure.
The other three prefer/need some direct sun, a few hours in AM or PM, just not the hottest couple hours in the middle of the day.
What your husband bought you is more properly called a "dish garden." Florists make them up by potting a bunch of small houseplants together with no regard for the light or water requirements of the different plants. They just want the plants to look pretty together, much like a flower bouquet. They really don't care if the dish garden lives a long time.
So if you want all the plants to live, you need to separated them and pot each one by itself. Your instinct was spot on. First you'll need to gather some pots, 4" or 6" diameter, and some soil. Someone here can give you some links to mixing good soil, or find a "soilless" mix, or use potting soil. Then lay out some newspaper on a work surface, and remove the whole mass of plants from the dish. carefully separate the different plants, you'll probably see where each one's roots are; I don't think they'll be too badly intertwined. If they are tangled together, don't be afraid to cut them apart with scissors. Again, I hope someone here can give you a good link to repotting, it's not hard. Just put some soil in the bottom - don't need anything for "drainage" - put in your plants, and they're good to go. Well, there is a little more to it than that, if you want to get into it.
By the way, in your second picture, the plant with the yellow-green borders is Dracaena warneckei 'lemon lime', the small one is a little cutting of pleomele reflexa.
I'll echo purpleinopp--does the pot have a drainage hole? If not, I would repot everything into different containers that do have drainage holes. So many people manage to kill plants accidentally by overwatering them anyway, and not having a drainage hole makes it WAY easier to overwater, so you really need to put everything in pots with drainage holes.
Agree with the advice. Getting the mass out of the pot is the hardest part, to me, I recommend having someone there to help make sure it doesn't flop upside down.
When gripping plants, try not to squeeze very hard, and they are usually most sturdy right below/at where they emerge from the soil.
FW, has Pleomele reflexa has been renamed Dracaena reflexa. I've only heard of it by the latter name, but am pretty new to this one. The one in Jessie's pic has a really nice, dark color! That's cool there were 2 more plants hiding in there! These two can also easily burn, but can be acclimated to some direct exposure.
Still not sure if there's a spider plant in there or not...
