Cordyline

Thanks so much for the info. Oddly, the "gardener" at the store told me to keep it well watered and in bright sunlight! Everything I've read says direct sun will burn the leaves, also it has been about 5 ft from our woodstove all winter and I'm sure that hasn't helped as it appears this plant also likes humidity. We have NONE here.
Again thanks!

Ibisson,

Sounds like you may have Dracaena marginata 'Colorama'
Check out the link, its geared toward Colorado houseplants

JG

Here is a link that might be useful: Dracaena marginata 'Colorama'

Thanks for the lead, however, I do think it is a cordyline of some sort. The Dracaena leaves are too skinny. I will try to post a picture to the "ID" section.

Hello Ibisson:

Really sounds like a Cordyline fruticosa, or commonly know as a ti plant. The variety you're describing sounds suspiciously like "Red Sister", which is the one retailers usually carry.

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The symptoms you describe sound like rot is setting in, but it's hard to know because they kind of do the same thing if they are dry, but it takes them much longer to show stress from underwatering that over.

Put your finger in the soil...if it's wet down to about 3", don't water. They like moderate to heavy amounts of water, but in warm, well-drained soil.

Depending on the variety, tis can prefer high sun or near to partial shade. Red Sister is chosen because of it's tolerance for inside level light. 8,000' sun may be a bit intense...for example, in south Florida they grow in full sun at near sea level and look great, whereas here in San Diego, our drier air (which diffuses the sun less) gives ti plants a matte look and a bit of dry tipping. Again, this is for Red Sister, I have other varieties that take sun and look great all year.

Let it dry (if wet is the problem) and see if it comes back. If not, repot it into a mix with plenty of perlite. If the stick seems dead (no leaves), cut it back to a green spot (by scratching the surface to tell) and cut it there. In a few weeks you should start to see buds and branching. At this point, I'd give it all the heat you could give it.

Good luck.

spectre

Thanks so much for the advice. The plant looks more like this cordyline, though I think it is in the same family. I'm still trying to figure how to upload a pic that I have of someone else's plant but looks just like mine.

Hello Ibisson:

If you have the ability to upload the picture to a server (like PhotoBucket, Flickr, Webshots, etc.), upload it because there is no way we can see the picture if it's on your computer.

Once that's done (or if it's already there), get the image location URL (by right clicking (PC) or holding the mouse button down (Mac) and copy it. It should look like http://www.hostingsite/blah-blah-blah/yadda-yadda/yadda/cordyline.jpg.

Before you paste the link, type the following syntax in the posting window where you want the picture to appear:

, and it will appear. Hope that helps.

spectre

OK...the forum engine doesn't let me substitute code when I want to display a . Very well...For this example, pretend ( and ) are .

Type this: (img src="http://www.name_of_file.jpg";) The image icon above took my character substitution and turned it into a broken live image link. Sorry.