Hi Nancy.

Thank you so much for your response. I wouldn't say I “want” to water them more ;) I‘m just curious about this, because I keep reading about Aglaos liking moist conditions and mine are SO different. I get that everyone’s soil and watering techniques are different and that certainly factors in. I’ve read it’s better to feel the soil for dryness, rather than trying to water on a specific schedule and, when you do water, to soak the soil until it pours out of the bottom. I just don’t know if my plants are weird or I’m doing something strange (maybe I broke them?), because my Aglaos (some others too) will have a lot of yellowing and then loss of leaves if I water too often or too much at one time. I definitely can’t go by soil dryness. I mean it’s bone dry for over a week and I still have to wait and, then when I water, if I soak it until it drains out of the bottom, they yellow then too, but if I give a smaller amount (like half my watering bottle, about 200mls) then they’re totally happy and fine, and it’s not like they’re new plants that just haven’t had a chance to really show signs of neglect or incorrect care. I’ve had one for over a year and the others for about 6-8 months. It was some of the newer ones that are smaller that caused this whole thing to come up. because they are smaller and in smaller pots, I figured they would dry out faster, so then I should water a little more (once every 7-10 days) and I was wrong. Watering any of them more than every 2-3 weeks just caused so much yellowing :( It’s just so far from what everyone online says to do, it’s making me feel like I must be doing something wrong, even though they look great. I suppose you’re absolutely right though, if these plants look healthy and happy with what I’m doing, I guess I’ll just keep doing it :) Again, thank you for your reply and info. I appreciate the input and time.

Pls show some pix: are you absolutely sure they're Ags? Will try to write more this wknd, mine don't behave like that.

They’re definitely Aglaos. Here are pics of a few of them. For some reason I have trouble posting my pics on Houzz, so I couldn’t post them all, but there are some. You can see from the photos what I’m talking about. The last pic is the one I’ve had for over a year and it was beautiful! Just amazing until I watered (just once) it after about 7-10 days instead of 3 weeks. It was my favorite prettiest plant and then, seriously just one time, I watered it early and within a few days it had so many bottom leaves yellowing and it was really droopy. Its just starting to look better and recover from that. It’s been about 2-3 wks, I have not watered it and It’s not making new yellow leaves and it finally stood up and looks really perky again. The pic above that Im so sad about. That Aglao just yellows every time I water it and it’s lost so many leaves :( The green Aglao above that I never water and its fine. The White Osaka above that looks fine too, there’s one bottom leaf that is yellow, but that’s left over from a while ago. I barely water that one too and it’s fine too, I think. You can tell the ones that look the best are the ones that I’ve had for the least amount of time (about 6-8 months. I learned from the older ones not to water more than 1-2 X a month and have followed that for them and they seem good. And see Karen said that hers are so different she wasn’t sure my were really Aglaos, so you see why this is something I was wondering about. Just weird! Thanks for your input/advice and help.

Ok, I was able to upload two more pics of this Aglao and you can really see how awful it looks and the yellow limp leaves. It was totally fine and then I, stupidly, watered it after a week instead of waiting. I was trying to go by feel of soil instead of a specific amount of time, because I read that that’s what you’re supposed to do. I felt the soil way down in the pot and it was DRY dry dry, so I figured ok I’ll water it now instead of waiting. Nope, too soon! Within a day or two, I had a bunch of bottom leaves turn yellow and limp.

But, if I wait weeks to water, like I said above, they look great. So I feel like that must mean that, for whatever reason, my Aglaos prefer drought. They all have lots of new growth at the tops and one is even blooming right now.

Hi ND,

Thx for the pix, you sure do have Aglaos!!

Nice collection, more varieties than I'd seen. I was doubtful the 1st even was an Ag, but I looked up varieties first & yup, there it is. Pls post pix of the one in bloom, as some folks have never seen Ag blooms. I recently had a bloom & took pix, but they were no good. I just have a pic of the spent bloom, lower left, 7 o'clock position.

I'd say I water abt every 7-10 days, but I keep mine on pebble trays & water deeply, allowing the overflow onto the pebbles.

Here's my other one, in a similarly porous mix both of which are abt 1/3 each C&S mix, Perlite & Reptibark (a packaged bark from Pet Stores).

I suspect your yellowing leaves may be a drainage issue of some kind. Can you say abt what proportion of Perlite & gravel to soils did you use, more or less?

Note: I've failed twice w/ the Red tinged Ags like Siam, have heard others had problems w/ those varieties too. Folks seem to find them fussy & unstable. I DO recall the same yellowing / drying of the lower leaves, so frustrating, I tossed it. But last time I tried one I wasn't using any bark. These 2 I've shown above, are recent additions here in this mix I mentioned & they're happy. The bloomed 1 I've had 6 months, the other maybe 2 yrs.

May I add you weren't stupid, you made a mistake (pls be kinder to yourself). More importantly, you noted it wasn't working for ya & figured out how to adapt it to do better.

Here's an idea, maybe take the most yellowing one, least hopeful one & unpot it to assess the roots, crumble off all the old soil, post a couple of pix here & let see what you find.

An older, now gone plant mentor of mine used to say that trying to diagnose a plant w/out turning it out to see its roots is like trying to see while blindfolded.

Thank so much for your reply and advice Karen.

I overwatered an almost killed my first plant (AV), because I didn’t know what I was doing and I had it in a pot without a hole. It took me over a year to get it back to a beautiful healthy state and it’s now blooming and looks great. Because I went through this, I definitely tend to use a more gritty well draining (I think?) mix. I also have a lot of succulents, which kind of made me learn about different amendments to add. So I like to use (hopefully this isn’t totally wrong), depending on the plant, a mix of 20% perlite, 30% gravel, 10% organic potting mix, and 40% cactus/palm soil. Give or take.

I think your idea of just taking a peek at the roots sounds like probably the best thing to do. I will do that this week and see what we find.

Thank you so much for your great advice and kind words.

Now, what do you know about Dieffenbachias?? ;)

Those are my other pain in the butt. I have three and my 3” is actually looking good and hasn’t had any issues for awhile, but my two 6” are kind of like my Aglaos. I haven’t been able to figure out proper watering techniques/schedule/whatever and they are constantly yellowing, browning, and losing leaves. I’ll attach a pic or two so you can see. I felt like it may have been an overwatering issue. I can literally pull the yellow leaves off at some point because they’re so soft, but when I don’t water, they turn yellow too. And you can see in one of my pic a leaf is brown and dry/papery and I thought that was an underwatering issue, but I recently watered it. I water these more than the Aglaos. The Aglaos I have I know to water every 2-3 wks, but these Dieffenbachias I have no idea what to do to make them happy.

Thanks again for all of your advice.

You're so welcome, so long as it's helpful. Sorry, no I don't know or grow Diffs. Saw your Diff post, those leaves look burned to me. I'd remove the plant from the skylight & give it semi shade to heal, but again I DON'T grow DIffs ;>)

Your soil sounds fine, it's a variable & individualized thing, but if you've read around here at Houseplants & at C&S, it's often recommended here to use 50/50 C&S mix & Perlite. That's more or less comparable to what you've used.

I don't know what else to suggest, hopefully others will chime in. Maybe give it a day or 2, hoping Rina might see it.

Was the Diff in a bright spot close to south window? It does look like sunburn to me too. But I found Diffs a tricky plant to find it's sweet spot for watering, so in case you are too,

Here is a blip from a care article on the internet that will show why I was confused.

Plant the dumbcane in a well-draining soil and water lightly, keeping the soil consistently moist, but not soggy. Check the soil to make sure it is dry an inch down before watering the dieffenbachia plant.

Read more at Gardening Know How: Growing Dumbcane Dieffenbachia – How To Care For A Dieffenbachia Plant https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/houseplants/dumb-cane/growing-dumbcane-dieffenbachia.htm

These watering recommendations befuddled me. sooooooo

After overwatering and then underwatering, and having to really work at figuring this plant out, Here is how I water my 2 ft plant in a 8 inch pot, of potting soil mixed with pumice for drainage.

I have learned to give the plant just enough water to trickle out the bottom. I water it slowly only giving it about 3/4 of a cup and in 5 minutes or so I pour in the other 3/4 of a cup, evenly getting all the soil. Then I wait for the soil to become dry down an inch and a half. Then I give it one or two more days to stay dry before watering again. These plants are one of the plants often called drench and drought plants. I was losing leaves before and have not seen one go with this regimen. Good luck

Neither of these two dieffs are getting any direct sunlight at all. They’re on top of a shelf (right next to each other) in a corner about 2-3 ft away from the skylight, but they are right under a 3 bulb light (I put 2- 6500k and 1- 3500k bulbs in for the plants) and it is the brightest room in the house right now. I’m thinking you both might be right about maybe moving it to a shadier spot. I was actually thinking about that yesterday, because I have another small dieff that’s in a 3” terra cotta and it’s on a low shelf of a plant stand in my bedroom and it gets so little light there, I supplement those plants with a grow light. I was having the same issues with that one yellowing and losing leaves too, but since I moved it to that super shady spot a few months ago, it seems to be doing really well. That one hasn’t had a yellow leaf in a few months, but the pot is TC, not ceramic, and it’s half the size of the other two, so I do water it more often.

Laurie- I read that article too, along with everything I could google a million times over and over and they constantly confuse me. I am going to try your watering technique and wait to water until a few days after soil is dry 1.5“ down, like you said.

I’ll move then both today to a shadier area in the house and then try Laurie’s watering suggestions and see how they do.

Karen- how lucky and wonderful that you had someone to mentor you and advise you with your plants. I wish I had that and could have a person to come show me and teach me in person, but it’s great to be able to a site a like this as a resource to meet people like you. I never had plants before, then 2 yrs ago someone gave me an amaryllis bulb for Christmas, and that was it. Now I have hundreds of plants, I honestly went a little crazy, and I have read everything I can get my hands on, but nothing is better than one on one teaching. Having someone there to answer all of your questions (which I have a lot) must have been incredible.

Thank you both for your great advice and wonderful help. I really appreciate your input and time.

Ok, so I pulled up (gently) 3 out of the 8 Aglaos today to take a look at the roots. I think they looked ok. There were some dry, desiccated, dead roots that I removed and one of the Aglaos has a small stem growing off of it and that was broken off. But overall, these three looked ok to me, but I’m interested to hear what you guys think. I also need advice on the little stem that broke off, can I restart it and, if so, where would you cut it? I’m going to do my best to post all the pics now.

Below is Aglao 1 (pink butterfly)-

Aglao 2 (Pink dalmation)-

Aglao 3 (moonstone)-

Here is the little stem that broke off of the Pink Dalmatian. I am hoping to be able to restart this guy, but am not sure where to cut it. Would I cut right in between the white and green? Or cut all down in the white area?