soil looks bone dry... take a tablespoon..and dig a couple 3 to 5 inch holes around and near that plant.. and FIND OUT about moisture at root depth...

then adjust watering accordingly ...

i though FL was mostly high draining sand.. and its hard to keep moisture in the root zone... if so.. maybe you just need to learn how to deal with it ....

hard to opine on leaves you cut off...

perfect watering.. and then lets see what new growth looks like.. id focus on that.. rather than tired older leaves ...

how much heat does the wall generate in full sun.. how many hours.. if the sun is baking the plant.. it way need even more water ... what hours are the shade... you want shade during the high heat of the day.. or else.. increase watering ...

ken

Depending on which zone in Florida you are, it could be a reaction to a cold snap. Firespike is very resilient and does not require much care. After being established, I very seldom watered and never even fertilized them. If you are trimming back in the future, you can always just stick the cutting into soil and it will root.....more plants.

I'm in 9B and so far the temp hasn't dropped below 46 degrees.

Kind of hard to tell from the small photo - it doesn't get any bigger when I click on it either - but the soil it's in looks like sand and rocks - have you tried mulching with an organic media that would add some humus to the soil? I buy bags of composted cow manure from Home Depot and mulch with hay, leaves, &/or shredded wood to help improve my soil.

Not sure where you are in FL, but bare soil can spread diseases when it gets on leaves.

And it is December - many plants enter dormancy this time of year and get pretty scruffy until the spring.

Attention to what Ken wrote : " how much heat does the wall generate in full sun.. how many hours.. if the sun is baking the plant.. it way need even more water ... what hours are the shade... you want shade during the high heat of the day.. or else.. increase watering" .

I grow very many of it. What it wants is all-the-time bright shade. That incl distance from a reflective wall; I would move them. More water now would be either useless or detrimental.

Its leaves typically are not lovely at this time of year. Summer and fall are when the leaves look good (provided the conditions discussed).