Paging Dr. Greenthumbs
Dear Ivy,
I wanted to ask you a plant question. I’ve inherited the responsibilities of caring for the dilapidated peacy lily at my mom’s taekwondo school. It’s about eight feet from the windows so I’m wondering what other problems I should tackle first.
The damage is pretty typical: tips and edges of the biggest leaves are crispy [...]
Concerned About Cloning
Dear Ivy,
I’m learning about plants and love the Pothos plant. My question is this: I looked up your blog saw how to clone a Pothos so I did it. It’s not dying, but it’s not growing the roots yet out of the nodes and do I have to wait until Spring or Summer to do [...]
Special Ivy Plants
Dear Ivy,
I have two ivy plants from a family member’s funeral. They are turning brown and dying. What do I do? Please help!
Thank You
Dear Reader,
Let me start off by saying I am so very sorry for your loss. I know many people that have “funeral plants”. I personally have one. These are living plants used [...]
Double Dracaenas
Dear Ivy,
I have a Dracaena Warneckii and it has two stems…can they be separated or do they need to grow together?
-Lisa
Dear Lisa,
You can separate the two stems, and you can even take cuttings of offshoots and propagate them. Dracaenas are a hardy plant that will adapt to many different home environments, and levels of care [...]
Reader Mail
Dear Ivy,
Can I cut ivy and replant the vine?
-Crew Cut Cary
Dear Cary,
Yes, you can! There are two main ways of propagating your ivy plant. The first one I’ll talk about is called “Pinning”. It’s a fun little experiment, and all you need is a pot filled with dirt, and a garden staple or two.
Pinning closely [...]
It’s Spring Time!
Ok, ok, it’s not really Spring yet. Not for about 5 weeks in my neck of the woods. But the weather here took a turn for the warmer today. It might have been the first direct sunlight my plants got in months! Spring means so many things to me. It’s time to start sprouting seeds [...]
Capsicum Casualty
Question: If you “botch” a transplant and cut or break a significant amount of a plant’s roots, should you: pro-actively trim foliage; trim foliage as it appears to die off; or leave it the heck alone (after transplanting, of course)?
Specifically asking about capsicum annuum, but curious if the instructions would be nearly universal.
The plant in [...]
Christmas Cactus Questions
Q: I have five Christmas cacti that had flowers on them when I brought them home but haven’t re-bloomed yet. What’s the deal? I have them in bright light and I feed them violet food, but no flowers, what should I do?
A: There’s a lot going on in this question. First, when did you bring [...]
How to clone pothos
The term “cloning” bring to mind visions of mad scientists in labs somewhere, working through the night. Really the term “clone” is used to mean any organism that has identical genetic information as the organism it was derived from. Today I’m going to do a photo and text demonstration of a simple technique ou can [...]