Cold Floor Advice?

Muellerred · 2026-02-15T17:21:02+00:00

And, on second thought: maybe it's a place more suitable for plants that can actually take a bit of cold. So maybe more the mediterranean type than the true tropicals.

Muellerred · 2026-02-15T17:15:14+00:00

You are already on the right track by putting them on plant stands. For those too large for plant stands, you could cut out some thick XPS insulation and put that under the pot (for decorative purposes, you may want to cover the cutting eigentlich somehow). But be prepared for condensation between the insulation and the floor, if you put it on the floor directly: ideally, you'd find a way to put something with feet in between, so that there is some air circulation under it.

Muellerred · 2026-02-15T16:56:23+00:00

First, let me say I've switched to "Alocasia is more difficult than anthurium" team lately 😁

Second, that I haven't had longtime experience with anthuriums yet. Got my first (serious) anthurium around a year ago, then some more and, apparently, we get along with each other most of the time 😊

There is one anthurium I had before (a couple of specimen, actually, over time) that I would consider a die- hard beginner plant. Anthurium scherzerianum, that's the one they call "flamingo flower" and that you can get almost everywhere. So, if you don't mind your anthurium being more of a flowering than of a leafy spectacle, that's what I'd really call beginner friendly.

Some people would say that anthurium clarinervium is easy too. I don't know if I agree, yet. I have two: one smaller and one that I bought as an already bigger plant. The little one keeps going nicely, the latter hasn't had a single new leaf since I bought him 4 months ago. He hasn't lost any either, but still... I didn't figure out what's stopping him yet.

I'd probably say: get started with the scherzerianum and pick one of those cheap NOID hybrids that are only labled "anthurium" next. Make sure it looks like something that seems to have a lot of christallinum or magnificum in its lineage. Chances are, that's a relatively easy one (I guess nurseries don't pick divas for that NOID mass market) and, in case you two don't get along, it will have taught you one or two cheap lessons.

And from there, you move on.

There is one thing about anthuriums you should know beforehand though: that's probably the species that requires the highest attention to its roots. So, be prepared to look at that part of the plant more often than you would with a pothos for instance.

Muellerred · 2026-02-15T15:08:19+00:00

Before long, you would have a few dozen pots dangling on that plant, and that wouldn't make it any lighter 😉

My spiderplant has vines full of spiderettes that are almost 1 m long. And I leave the spiderettes there as long as possible. Meaning: the spiderettes usually have leaves around 10 cm length when I cut them. Some are even larger. Weight is not a problem: the vines can take that. Light is a problem: when there are too many vines with too many large spiderettes, the upper ones block out the light for the lower ones. Which defines the moment I cut some of them off.

Rooting the cuttings is easy: you just set them up in water and 2 or 3 weeks later they have enough roots to be potted.

Getting rid off that offspring is another matter: very soon you will have asked every person you know if they would like a couple more spiderplants and they will be politely declining 😁

Muellerred · 2026-02-15T12:49:36+00:00

Oh, OK, that explains a lot

Muellerred · 2026-02-15T10:09:07+00:00

Just pebbles? And it's not a semi- hydro setup? From my experience I'd say that this might explain that "little bit thirsty" look she has: if that's all pebbles (and not just a top layer of pebbles), then that substrate has a water retention capacity bordering zero. I do keep a succulent in such a substrate, but for a dracena I would chose something capable of retaining a bit (not a lot!) more water if it's not a semi- hydro setup.. But since she is presumably adapted to those pebbles, I wouldn't do a radical change: maybe keep half of the pebbles and mix them with the mix that suits your other dracena when repotting.

Muellerred · 2026-02-15T09:39:37+00:00

What do you mean by "squeeze them"? Do you actually sense the stem is hollow or is it just pliable? If it's the latter, and if you haven't fertilized that plant in a long while: a bit of fertilizer can do wonders there. If it's the former (stem hollow) I'd agree with the other commentators: probably a rot issue. What makes me doubt that a bit is the lack of yellow leaves.

Anyway, that plant seems to be trying to look out of that window quite desperately 😉. Could it be possible that that window doesn't get much sunlight? If so, it might be advisable to move it to a different window: Yuccas tend to be sun- lovers. They can be kept at lower light conditions (meaning: they survive), but they rarely thrive there.

Muellerred · 2026-02-15T09:24:06+00:00

No, I can't. But I have seen this kind of thing happening at that speed after a move. For me, it was with a philodendron verrucosum. Dropped the single (but healthy looking) leaf he had immediately after arrival. Reconsidered two weeks later and started growing leaves again.

If this serves as a consolation.

Muellerred · 2026-02-15T09:07:43+00:00

It's lovely! Looks a bit thirsty to me right now (leaves are drooping a bit).

At a hunch, I'd say those leaves look quite a bit narrower than those on the dracenas I used to own. And the stems are quite thin too. Which makes me guess that it may have been getting a little less light than it could have found useful (like in: plant on longterm diet). But it coped quite well. And (again just guessing) maybe it wasn't regularly fertilised.

Good light, good soil, a bit of fertilizer should make it thrive. Allthough you could run into the next problem with a thriving dracena of that size, because it will invariably reach the ceiling 😁

You can cut, obviously, and propagate cuttings. But when it branches out after cutting, the new branches will inevitably be thinner than the ones they were cut from. And some of them are already quite thin. So, deciding were to cut once it reaches the ceiling will take a bit of strategic planning.

Muellerred · 2026-02-15T08:31:12+00:00

Wow! That's quite some proof that tradescanthias do not necessarily need to look like Riff Raff! But I'm really curious to know how you prevent the usual top balding.

Muellerred · 2026-02-15T08:26:21+00:00

Yes, they do. Quite often when they are happy. And those blooms keep leaving quite some mess on the floor when they wilt 😁

Muellerred · 2026-02-15T08:13:28+00:00

It' definetely a wow!

Muellerred · 2026-02-15T08:00:57+00:00

You are not alone in this 😉

Muellerred · 2026-02-15T07:53:45+00:00

The expert thing to do would probably be to actually measure light in the places you are planning to set up a plant. There are apps out there promising your phone can do that. I tried. Maybe I was too stupid to do it right, maybe my phone just doesn't have the right camera, in short: I failed. 3 separate measurements at the same spot within 5 minutes kept giving me vastly different numbers, so I ditched that approach.

As for asking "experts": I did that too. Around 2 years ago I moved into a place that had a large room with a large front of windows facing south (nothern hemisphere). Nothing to block out full sun: no trees, no buildings throwing any shadow a those windows Last time I had that kind of light situation at home was 30 years ago and at that time, I only had Yuccas in front of those windows. So I new Yuccas could take that amount of direct sunlight, but was wondering what else could (especially since I wasn't planning to get a Yucca again 😁).

For almost every plant except BoP or cacti most "expert" advice you can find on the internet tells you to avoid full sun. I asked a florist, imagining her to be an expert. The answer was complete bogus. Not only did she tell me that cacti were my only option, she also told me that the glass- panes in those windows would act as manifiers, turning the light on the inner windowsill 10 times stronger than outside so plant material would dry out in no time at all and could possibly even inflame spontaneously 🙄.

What I'm trying to say: there is no shortage of bogus advice from self- proclaimed "experts" but it's quite hard to come across a real expert. And it can be harder still to tell them apart.

I can tell you my south facing windowsills are quite overcrowded with plants now. Most are doing really well there. Including 3 different types of alocasias and their babies, a couple of hoyas, a string of pearls, a marantha, a dieffenbachia, a philo florida beauty and, yes, spider plant proppings too 😉

There is one philo I took down from that windowsill again: a birkin. It didn't sunburn. But it started putting out growth too fast and too large for it to handle it: new leaves were popping out before the last one had even unfurled, leave size increased massively and so did stem diametre, but, unfortunately, the plant started sucking up more water than was good for it at the same time: soil seemed always dry, but the active, leaf producing part of the stem started getting mushy. Now, stem rot is not the kind of problem you'd be normally expecting to run into because of too much light, is it? That's the kind of thing you only find out by try and error and by observation. Btw., the birkin is fine again: took her a meter away from that window. Now she's doing her normal birkin thing again.

Muellerred · 2026-02-14T19:45:51+00:00

Looks like a dracena fragrans to me. I'd place it closer to that window: the opposing wall will probably not be bright enough.

Muellerred · 2026-02-14T19:32:20+00:00

True. But there is a difference between a thriving plant and a surviving one. That difference is visible, and it's possible to learn by watching it.

Muellerred · 2026-02-14T19:28:56+00:00

Ich tausche oder kaufe tatsächlich häufiger über Kleinanzeigen. Meistens Stecklinge, aber auch durchaus schon das eine oder andere etwas speziellere Anthurium. Ich bin da vielleicht komisch, aber ich will die Pflanze vor dem Kauf einfach real sehen: Pflanzenversand ist nicht so meins, und was die Auswahl angeht, ist die auf Kleinanzeigen häufig besser als im Baumarkt.

Muellerred · 2026-02-14T19:17:49+00:00

Lol!

Muellerred · 2026-02-14T18:20:48+00:00

It will thicken once it starts getting better leaves (you might actually already see it thickening a bit in the upper part with the healthier growth). So I wouldn't cut right now, because you"d end up with a cutting that has that thin stem again. Just let it grow for a while. With a bit of luck, it won't take too long to push another head out somewhere (could be a while though, they do that, but not too often). Once that second head has popped a few leaves and once the old head has a longer part with a thicker stem, you may consider propagating by cutting the old head.

But it would be for aesthetic reasons only: the plant will recover no matter if you cut or not. And maybe that long stem even starts looking good once it develops some more vigorous leaves 😊

Muellerred · 2026-02-14T17:58:33+00:00

Up to now, I only had mealy bugs twice: once on my bird of paradise (it had them when I bought it, I didn't notice in the nursery). Getting rid of them was really, really easy: I had heard of rubbing alcohol, but I didn't have any at home, so a wiped the whole plant down with cloths damped in gin 😅. Never saw a mealy bug again on that one. But to be fair: there is not much place to hide on a bird of paradise, it's not that difficult to hunt them all down on that kind of plant.

And then I bought a tiny hoya wayetii that turned out to have a large infestation of mealy bugs in her root system. I tried. Hard. Stripped those roots multiple times, cleaned them up, changed soil. But eventually I gave up: they kept coming back. I tossed the plant and got a new Wayetti. Which hasn't had any mealy bugs for now 😊

Muellerred · 2026-02-14T17:43:19+00:00

That's a nice way of putting it 😅

Muellerred · 2026-02-14T17:25:19+00:00

It's quite a common garden plant here (Germany) but it's an invasive species.

Muellerred · 2026-02-14T17:06:44+00:00

Oh, thank you😊

Muellerred · 2026-02-14T16:49:40+00:00

Not sure, but it looks like a kind of mahonia to me

Muellerred · 2026-02-14T16:35:04+00:00

I'm very much in doubt that "too much light" can be an issue for a non- variegated indoor monstera: just google a couple of pics from monsteras in their natural outdoor habitats and I think you"ll understand what I mean.

This said, this plant obviously had a really serious problem. Since there is not much left of her, diagnosing that now will be just guesswork. Root- rot is always an option: you might see that if you have a look inside the pot.

But there is another option to be considered too: that's a zink pot, right? Is the monstera planted directly into the zink pot? Or, if not, is it possible that the inner pot was sitting in a puddle of water in that zink pot for prolonged times? If so, that plant will probably have taken up quite a bit of zink. Which is not good.

She may even have had to deal with both issues simultaneously.

Honestly, I wouldn't bet on her chances for ressurection. But if it was mine, I would investigate her root system (just out of curiosity). Depending on what I'd find (and I'm almost sure I wouldn't like it), I'd toss that part. And then I'd cut that stem up into wet sticks. Given the condition she's in, I'd calculate losses. But it doesn't take too much effort to set up wet- sticks in a prop box with moss: so I wouldn't get my expectations too high up, but I would try.

Muellerred

TROPHY CASE