From one chronic under-waterer to another--my sympathies for your losses! Just dumped a sinningia I forgot to label, so I can't even say if I have another one (think it was a piece of something that got broken--I stick things like that all the time--no wonder I have too many to take proper care of them!) Dumped a small cutting of an episcia that rotted instead of rooting today too. I think it's because I didn't get it in before the weather got too chilly. Have several others rooting nicely though. The other day I was out trotting around in shorts and 80 degree steamy heat trying to get the rest of the plants in before a predicted cold front when I was suddenly hit by a rainstorm with wind that brought the cold right behind it. The weather guy on TV said it would drop ten degrees an hour, and it did. I'm sure I'll lose some more of the things outside I didn't finish getting in. It's a terrible thing to say, but sometimes I'm grateful when one doesn't make it!

Perhaps some useful advice would be to develop a clear idea with how your potting medium reacts. Sounds kind of simplistic, but you need to understand what it does when you over water, under water, over pot, etc. Perhaps you are using something that is not forgiving, growhappy.

Some commercial brands become mucky and almost anaerobic when over watered (even ONCE)! And then, when they dry out, they become hydrophobic....making it danged difficult to get them watered right again.

Know, too, that bringing your plants in from the outdoors creates stress for the plant. I know, I know....I am waaaay in the minority on this one (I never take mine outside). As long as you understand some of the things you need to do to make it easier on the plant, they eventually make the transition. Otherwise, they just seem to barely hang on with their fingernails, looking forlorn...coughing up mites and aphids all winter long.

A forgiving potting medium can help with that, too. What brand do you use, or do you mix up something on your own?

Every year I bring in pots of coleus with the thought that I can keep them alive. They die within a month. I do not know why I do not give up.

My shefflera just died. I had burned some toast and the smoke alarm was making me deaf, so without thinking I....opened the window. It was about -5F outside----a gust of cold wind blew right in and I watched my sheff collapse within 1/2 hour. Egads. My thanksgiving cactus, which was *covered* in buds, dropped every last one by the time the evening was over. Waaaaaa!!!!! I hate Minnesota. :(

So sad Shiver....:( How traumatic to watch them deteriorate so quickly- right before you eyes. See, we could add our goofs to Toots' thread "Christmas plant tips". Wouldn't it be cool if we could all contribute a "What not to Do" sticky here? Ooops.....we don't have sticky's here at GW....:(

GH

Marquest- I tried taking cuttings of my coleus summer before last and they just failed miserably. I mean, these cuttings died in water! They grew roots, but something went wrong, though I'm not sure what. But, we keep trying believing we will eventually get it right. And in my book, there ain't nothing wrong with that!

GH

In some respects it would be better if more of my plants did die, but if so I'd most likely not be so overcrowded with so many now, if I lost more from time to time, and didn't have excellent "luck" with most I've tried over the years. I think way too many gardens "experts" repeat that ol' rub, that "overwatering kills more plants than any other cause" and that encourages people to underwater, or in some cases encourages folks to "forget"?? the watering. I know in some cases , I've had friends , who chronically forget to water their plants or underestimate how dry they really are on a constant basis, and of course they lose tons of them or the survivors look very pitiful!! The solution in most cases is to go to the best potting mix and often the most pourous and fast draining ones, in which case even when saturated, there are still some small air pockets in their to provide air to the plants' roots, and the only way to overwater, in warm weather is to leave standing water in the saucers of most plants. Cool winter conditions do of course mean you should keep things a bit more on the drier side however , in most instances. I never let my gardenias go completely dry for example as that seems to kill many a home grown gardenia.

Marquest,
Bring them in a few hours a day at a time to get them used to the lower light conditions. Also, take some cuttings and root them to have during the winter months. They are VERY, VERY easy to start from cuttings!

You CAN do it!

Tom

I had a very large corn plant with red leaves (Or is it a variety of dracena?) which I nearly killed last winter by letting it get nipped by frost. I cut it right down to a stump, and it sprouted nicely from the stump. But now the young plant is dying! Leaves falling off right and left. I think it must be a disease.

I also have a striped dracena that seems determined to bite the dust, and an areca palm that is losing what looks like a leaf a day. This is not a good time of year for house plants.

Brenda

Well, most of my plants are doing fine except ... I seem to be killing plain old Hoya carnosa variegates!!! I've bought a couple over the last few months; cheapies from the supermarket, $4-5 for nice, full 6-8" pots full.

The 1st one I repotted in my own mix, to no avail. Slowly but surely she croaked. So I got a 2nd one (couldn't resist, such a seemingly good deal). This one I took apart to examine the roots & check the mix for insects, etc., I cleaned up the roots, repotted it back up & still, a slow & sad decline. I trim, cut back, pluck dying leaves & still she ails. So now I've taken a couple of cuttings to try starting in water; I can root many Hoyas in water, but Carnosa hasn't liked doing that for me either.

W/ 35+ Hoyas including 6 recently new ones, I can grow almost any Hoyas, except it seems, gosh darn Carnosa! I just don't get it. An old friend/plant mentor of mine even gave me a Krimson Queens of his a few yrs. ago (it got too big for his place). Over time here at my place, some of it died back, now that it's stopped doing that, it's stopped doing ANYTHING, for a long time. I even unpotted it last wknd to check down below, & it's fine, just doesn't want to do a thing for me!!! Arghhhhhhhhh ... so frustrating.

Oh, also Anthuriums, I bought 2 last Winter & over time lost them both -- no more Anthuriums for me!!! )Maybe it's time so say that for H. carnosa too.)

Birdinpalm,

I totally agree with you on the overwatering warnings. I think I happily neglect watering--to the point even my succulents visibly remind me--in the happy belief that it is simply better not to water. (Not so, my croton cued me today, with its drooping leaves!)

On the other hand, there are so many people who use plants just as living decor and INSIST on watering "regularly." My mother in law has a livingroom and kitchen full of the most miserable looking plants--all etoliated, huge woody stems spiralling towards the window with just one puny leaf at the end, potfulls of yellowed leaves. Someone apparently told her she watered too much and needed to test the soil, but as she told me, "Who has the time for that!" ...This is not the forum to complain about your in-laws, but I definitely feel a pang for those poor plants. They don't have a hope!

So those warnings may have a point... but clearly the people whom they are aimed for don't read such things, or don't care.

Oh--and back to the point.. I've thrown out a few cacti that came home with mealybugs. I've got a pachira that has some weird virus?? Yellow spots and the baby leaves haven't grown a millimeter in months. I think I'm going to ditch that one too. It hasn't got any bugs, at least on the leaves, and seems to be mysteriously inert... Very sad about that. So I guess I shouldn't lambast my mother in law!

(well, it felt good to write all this!) :)

-Esther

Thankfully I've not killed any yet. It's so hard to make that transition into winter though. All of a sudden plants whose soil used to take 4 days to dry, are now taking over a week.

Then I had to force myself to not water my gollum jade right away when I saw some leaves drop. Cause I had a bunch of new healthy ones coming in just fine. The impulse is to water right away though.

So, no, so far I've not lost any. I hope I can keep it up.

Hi, if you plant the hoyas in a mix of 1/4 cactus soil (which'll be mostly peat) 2/4 perlite and 1/3 small aquarium gravel and mix them really well adding little bits of water only as you go so the whole thing ends up lightly moist but not anywhere near sodden, you'll be able to water more often and not rot them.

I brought home a bunch of drugstore babies, 2 for 5$ which sounded great. One was something short with broad colored leaves. Very pretty, but suddenly they started shriveling up and falling off one at a time. If I knew then what I know now, I would have put it on a bus to the dump ASAP. Bacterial leaf blight. It infected at the very least one other plant. (Pleomele).

I caught my 4yo plucking leaves off of my miniature rose last night. Walked in just in time to see little fingers pinch off a bract of 6 leaves. I did the *NOOooooooooo* scream, sort of like people in movies do when someone falls off a cliff.