Plant Help Needed:

[Michelle in KC]

I have a plant I am nursing along. ok, 2 of them.

One is a cheferlara (sp?). It's from 2001 and is from my Dad's funeral. It WAS huge, a nice BIG pot and well, jut big. I left it outside to get some sun and forgot it overnight. This was back in 2002. It was all dead except right in the middle I found a tiny, green sprig with leaves. It was as little as my pinkie finger.

I took off all the dead parts and roots and re-planted it and babied it, but I don't relly know what i am doing.

It is now as big as maybe a gallon of milk. I can't seem to get it to grown any bigger. I keep it watered. I do not have any windows with direct sunlight at my house. Soooo many trees.

I need a green thumb advice for this please.

Also, my other plant is a philodendron (sp?).I hear it's hard to kill them. It's looooong but does not have many leaves. What do I do??

I recently found a little piece of mold (maybe?) on top of the soil in the pots. I scooped it out and watered them both. I think it was dog hair or cat maybe?

So, anyway, as a friend would say "I'm plant-tarded!"

Thanks, Michelle.

[IC SARAH-CPP]

Hmm okay well I am better at outside plants but I will try to help. You have to remember that they plant that almost died was from 2001, so it most likely took quite awhile to get that big and when it is coming back from trauma, it can take longer to get get back up to normal size. Did you replant it in the same pot and put it back in the same place? Another trick is to add some plant food to it once a month when you water. Also I dont just water my plants, I always put my finger WAY down in the soil to check how moist it is b/c they dont always need the same amount of water.

For the other one, something I have learned is that plants can grow branches/forks that just dont grow leaves or flowers on them. We had this huge bush that grew purple flowers at our last house, I cant remember what it is called, but I had to be so careful when I trimmed it b/c only certain vines grew flowers so I had to learn which ones to clip and which ones to leave alone. At first I just clipped them all and then I had no flowers for almost a year!

If they still wont respond, I would try to move them to a new location and just try a couple spots until you get a good growth. It is amazing how you can "nurse" a baby back when it has only 1 tiny shoot on it. When we lived in CA, we had a big house and we had............get ready for it - 140n house plants! my husband is an artist and works from home and he would spend an hour or two a day taking care of his "babies'! People would alwasy say our house looked like a jungle.

Hope they come back!
Sarah

[ICNDonna]

I'm not familiar with one of your plants, but the philodendron (I also can't spell it!) is one of those plants that if you pinch off the ends when there's new growth, it will make more branches. You do the pinching when it's just a tiny bit of growth.

You will want to be sure you're not watering them too much; that's my failure in doing plants --- I have a tendency to either drown them or dry them to death!

Donna

[Claredale]

I just call my plant Phil (also can't spell) and he tends to get leggy sometimes. I don't know if it's overwatering or not because he goes through cycles with my watering habits! Luckily he is at work with me or he wouldn't get the attention he gets here. But when he starts getting the long legs with no leaves, I just cut that part off and put the clipping in water to start another "Phil".

With your other plant, is it the kind that the leaves look like little umbrellas? I think it is a Schefflera and it is a common plant to be used by florists. I received a couple of them when my father died too and once they start going down hill, it's hard to get them back. They are a tropical plant and constantly shedding it's leaves which makes us think they are not doing well. I don't have a green thumb with indoor plants either, just my perienneals, but I did a little research on that plant when I thought it was dying. I finally just threw it away. Now my MIL has one that has been growing for years and she has repotted it several times. I don't know her secret, but she normally can't even keep silk plants alive.

[Bessie]

I don't know if this would help your plants or not, but I used the Bayer Rose Feed which comes in a blue plastic container at Wal-Mart. I put it in my flower beds and in all of my plants and they have grown like crazy. I usually destroy anything green so it has been a miracle plant food for my flowers. I was told to use it once every 6 months. My elephants ears have grown from around 18" to almost 4 feet tall!!!