its been 8 minutes.. are pictures coming??? ..ken

LOL I was being lazy. I can do that, give me a minute.

There were 3 new branches coming up from the center standing almost a foot taller than the rest of the plant. Now they won't stand up at all. The plant is potboundand really ready to be transplanted and get some fertilizer. It's not going to get any more light. It did fine for a year with the light in this room and I thought ZZ plants tolerated low light.

You told us the problem: it is not getting enough light. Closed blinds mean no light, not low light.

Move it to a room where you don’t have to close the blinds.

I would cut off the floppy leaves; they probably won’t ever firm up, even if you stake them up. If you don’t mind looking at stakes forever, stake. New leaves that grow in good light should stand up. There is no hurry to repot; I usually wait untill the ZZ is breaking the pot.

Thank you both, I'm sure a stake or pipe cleaner would work, but I'd rather avoid staking if I can help it. I was wondering if the floppy branches would firm up ifI put them in more light, but, that makes a lot of sense that they won't. I will cut them all off. And I've kept the plant in it's originial container for over a year and it is pretty much busting out of the pot. I won't need to pull the shades down in that room any more, so it should be okay. Maybe next summer I'll find a spot outside for it.

Thanks

Just a tip, if you do cut off those bent fronds, I always apply a bit of cinnamon to the cut point to prevent infection going down from that cut area into the rhizome. You want the cut point to heal and dry as quickly possible and cinnamon will help.

Nice Tip, Thanks. I'm going to be doing that today, so good timing.

i agree on lack of proper light levels..


note that not only are the stems etoliated.. stretched out.. but the internodes between the leaves is stretched out.. if those are the right terms...


ours has been out in full shade fo summer.. and it look 100


% better than it did in the south facing window...


on some level.. i suspect they are cheap disposable houseplants.. that yo throw out when they get to ugly ...but that is probably just personal opinion... i think there was some bad mail order nursery.. called zz and i associate it with the plant.. idk...




cut off the flopping stems.. and learn how to root them.. being such cheap plants.. i am SURE they will be easy to propagate ... thats how they make profit...


and then increase light.. so that when the next new set of stems comes out.. they look better..


you may have them rooted in time for xmas presents...

lol on being lay with the pix.. thats why i called you out on it.. tongue in cheek .. lol...


ken
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Caryopteris+incana+pavilion+pink&t=ftsa&ia=web

Ken, For sure, I always have issues with enough light. I’ve lived here for 40+ years without a south facing window. I have West and East and both have mature trees close enough to produce enough shade to reduce the maximum light possible.

I used to live in a number of houses that had Southern windows and had a much nicer collection of houseplants. I still miss having that.

I could use light set ups, but it just doesn’t suit my situation. I’ve gradually reduced my selection to just about all low light plants. I sometimes have the time and energy to move the plants from the East to the West and then they seem to be happier with that amount of light, but then I get busy and slack off.

So, in the end, yes, I agree, to some extent, houseplants become disposable. I’ve held onto my current collection for at least 5 years. I’m not ready to give up on these yet. But you make a good point, about propagating and cutting back on the expense of replacing them. They are getting to be VERY expensive to replace.

I also have Sanseveria which are flopping that are in less light routinely. If I put all the houseplants outside from May to September, I’m sure that would give them a shot in the arm and help them manage through the winter months. Especially since they seem to get less light indoors during the summer than they do in the winter. [g] Some years, it’s a job beyond me and this year that was the case.

And this year, we have had an unusual amount of cloudy weather. I had two months during May and June where I had one day of sunshine out of a week. And I just looked at the weather forecast - it’s pouring right now and no sun expected until Monday followed by 3 more days of cloudy rainy weather. So - I’m going to put off repotting the houseplants. No sense in starting them off with more shade.

And I’m usually good about posting pics with my comments, but I don’t have a smart phone, I have to pull out the big camera and the wire to upload it into my photo software and then edit and then export…so, there’s that. But, call me on it any time….a picture is worth a thousand words. :-)

I agree, been a gloomy summer here in NJ as well, so much rain, clouds and HUMIDITY. Weird though as most of the rain was at night. I have natural light in each direction, ironically, my southern exposure is sunniest in the Winter. Combination of the high sun angle and my Crape Myrtle trees that took over after a few years. As soon as the unofficial end of summer comes (Labor Day), there will be a heat wave in the East. Been a fairly cool and WET summer, only heat has been in early April and now in September. My winter light quality is actually better than high summer..., especially if there is any SNOW cover! Winters are pretty sunny here. My ZZ plant was not summered outside this year either.

41 North, That's lucky that you have such good light in the house. And makes sense that the light is better in the winter, I think I feel the same way. In the winter, the leaves are off the trees that shade my windows and I do get more light.

I did repot the ZZ plant and I've left it out in a shady spot outside for awhile. It gets a little direct sun during the day. Not sure when I will drag it back in the house.

I got up this morning and it is cold! Brrrrr! Already. I'm going to be dragging the ZZ plant back in the house today.

Yeah, I get a lot of sun, year round. These Crepe Myrtles are deciduous, they block my summer sun inside, but I hate to eliminate them. They were intended to be shrubs, but they seem to self-identify apparently as TREES! Now grown to the 2nd floor level of the house. And the ones near the house will be blooming into early NOVEMBER!

41 North - Nice photos of your Crepe Myrtle! They must be happy there to grow so tall! You're in a good zone for them. They are beautiful! Such a vibrant color! I wouldn't cut them back either. Totally worth it to shade the house in summer. Keeps the house cooler too and truthfully, I am paying way more attention to the outdoor garden in summer than houseplants. [g]

My indoor houseplant/tropical collection eventually evolved into an outdoor subtropical collection. Best of both worlds.

It looks fine. Indoor specimens are hardy ever straight upright, they are splayed like a Sago palm. It's a great look, IMVHO. A great plant for a spot with decent width but not much height.

41North, I meant to comment on your photos... your two outdoor photos look pretty steamy! Is that a Magnolia? I just realized your screen name has NE in it, is that for New England?

Thank you Tiffany, I did trim it back already and I'll take another photo once I get it back inside.

Prairie, I am in NJ, either considered the Norheast or Mid Atlantic, depending. My zone is 7a/7b, coastal. Yes, I LOVE Magnolias, I have a lot of them, mostly cultivars of M. grandiflora (Southern Mags). My Summers (and Winters) have gotten much warmer, I still have a Northern deciduous Mag. but it is not as lush as it used to be, Southern Mags. have taken over, now, self-sowing from seed.

I haven't tried a Magnolia here. We're getting warmer summers and winters but haven't really lost the low cold temps which still were cold enough to kill a number of plants last spring and have all my roses starting from the base. So it doesn't look like I am extending my zone at this point.

Do you find that there is a lot of fragrance in the air when they are in bloom?

Here is a photo of the newly potted and trimmed ZZ plant. It looks good. I've had it outside since I posted this and just brought it in yesterday after fertilizing it. Now it should be all set for the winter. Thanks for all the help!

It looks wonderful, and the pot is gorgeous too.

OH, and my DD bought a new houseplant this weekend. She found a dark leaved ZZ plant, which I am very interested in getting one now, it's gorgeous to me...

I came back here because i recently saw someone post on a different forum using a bendable moss pole to corral the flopping branches. I thought it was pretty genius. You can buy the bendable moss poles on Amazon. Instead of putting the moss pole vertically, they made it into like a hoop. Cool idea.

The dark ZZs whose trade name is "Raven" are super cool and grow just as well as the green form. There's also a new one called Chameleon which is variegated. But my experience with it is that the new growth reflects the yellow variegation but as the stem ages, it just turns green.

I do love my ZZs!