First is a Kalanchoe of some kind, maybe blossfeldiana, desperate for more light (the leaves should be much closer together than they are).

Second is an Iridiscine (help me here, folks, I don't know how to spell this), prob, needs more light too & yes, from what I've seen/heard these are quite the water hogs!

Sorry, thought I posted here earlier, but forgot to hit 'Submit'.

This is great!! So the plants both live in a south-facing (slightly southwest) window in New York. It's the brightest spot I can give them, unfortunately. Any guidance would be wonderful (should I just chop off the top half? They just seem so awfully unstable...) Could repot them in something larger, too.

Agree that the first one is a Kal, but not blossfeldiana. Maybe K. pumila.

Okay, so, at your latitude it's a little early yet to prune. You'll get better results if you wait until mid-June, when the sun will be stronger and the plants will most easily recover from pruning. Meanwhile, consider adding light with something like a crook-arm desk lamp and a 5000K or 6500K daylight CFL, making sure the lamp can take the wattage of the bulb -- the new LED-friendly desk lamps can't take more than 14 watts, so a 24 watt CFL will fry them. (Warning, 6500K is professional photography "daylight", and it's super blindingly bright. Plants love it, but it's painful for humans...and probably your neighbors across the way. Other options are blue/red grow lights, which are expensive but don't hurt and a small rack of CFL tubes.) Put the light on a timer and keep it on ~14 hours a day, with the plants fairly close to the bulb.

Otherwise the plants look healthy. They're just leggy for want of light.

Don't just put plants under the lights suddenly. They are starved for light - so were probably in low light for a while. They will burn if you just give them too much all of sudden.

Best practice is to acclimatize plants to new environment.

I do not grow red plant, so will not suggest anything regarding pruning, but recommend same for light as for Kalanchoe.

Kalanchoe stems could be cut into few pieces, leaving some stem with the roots and at few leaves and it should continue growing. I would suggest adding more perlite to a mix it is panted in, and using containers with drainage holes.

All of the pruning will not help unless you get supplemental lights. Use grow light if you want to buy it. If trying to save $ (and have only very few plants), you could use ordinary CFL bulbs (23W, 6500k). Put them about foot or more above the plants to begin with, lowering inch or two every few days. Light should end up as close as possible without burning plants - if you put your hand just on top of plant, you shouldn't feel burning. 12 -14hrs/day is good.

If you were to trim your Kal, don't throw away the pieces you remove. They will take root too if you stick them in the pot.

Tiffany

Thanks for mentioning it - that is what I meant to do with the pieces but I guess I didn't make it clear!

Awesome, that's what I figured. :)

Very good to know re: planting the stems I cut off! So if I'm not quite committed to getting grow lights (in any form) are these little two babies forever doomed to be tall and skinny? I don't think I have any brighter windowsills to offer them in my home...possibly my kitchen window because it gets direct light and then bounced light, but I'm not positive.

If you do not get some lights with which to supplement what they are receiving on your windowsill, then, yes, they are "doomed to be tall and skinny" with weak growth unable to support its own weight.

Here is a photo of a Kalanchoe grown with the appropriate amount of light >>> click here. Compare it to your plant's appearance.

Agree with the post, Paul, but the asked-about plant can't look like the one in your example link if it is not the same kind of Kalanchoe. It could be K. blossfeldiana but does not look like one to me.

https://www.smgrowers.com/products/plants/plantdisplay.asp?plant_id=903

OP plant could be K. pumila as Tiffany suggested, or maybe K. milotii - not easy to tell from the photo (not blossfeldiana). But regardless which one it is, it needs much more light.

I'm aware of that, Tiff. ;-) (That's why I just said "of a Kalanchoe.") I thought our comments might be more meaningful/useful for the OP if they were to see just how much shorter the internodes between leaves could and should be for the "average" Kalanchoe.

Agreed. :)