I just noticed Planto left comments. Planto, sorry if I repeated anything you said. Blabberboca. Your Dracaena looks a lot taller on your link. Are roots growing out of drainage holes? If so, your marginata definately needs a larger container. Before, I forget. You said you watered straight from the tap. Is it possible to fill a container w/water and let it sit overnight before watering?? Is soil crumbly after you water?? How often do you water, and do you water thoroughly so rootball is saturated? Sips don't do the job. Ah, you have a garden window..Lucky you! :) Yes, I'm certain a south, 'semi-enclosed area' gets hot in summer. Is it possible to move your marginata in the background, or another room? During winter, your garden window would be a great place to for your marginata and other plants. Don't fear repotting. :) Select a larger container, (5-6")add a little soil on the bottom of new pot. Remove plant carefully from old pot, center in new pot, then add fresh soil around the rootball and top.. Once you repot, you'll soon be an expert...lol.

In most cases, stem and root rot in D marginata plants comes as a result of a bacterial infection (Erwinia carotovora), which doesn't respond to chemical treatments. Warm and wet conditions promote the growth of this organism, so over-watering and heavy soils should always be avoided. The disease I mentioned, and other soft rot diseases are usually first noticed on the basal (bottom) portion of the plant, most often at or just above the soil line or in roots. The affected part of the lower stem gets wet looking and dark, before it turns dark brown dark brown and turns spongy. The periderm (bark) usually separates from the cambium, which is the 'puffy' symptom you described. It also usually has the same odor as wetwood or slime flux in trees - a sour smell. If all the stems have a common root system, it's unlikely the plant will maintain viability over the long term. If they are separate plants, started as individual cuttings, I would remove the infected plant and the associated roots, and repot the remaining cuttings in an appropriate soil - one that is durable, well-aerated, and free-draining. In advance, I'll say it's a poor time to be repotting, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Your call. Fertilizer sticks provide nutrients in a form that is slowly soluble. As soon as the nutrients dissolve in the soil solution, they disperse throughout the container, so it's not true that they only fertilize in the immediate area of the sticks. Think of a sugar cube or teaspoon of salt dropped in a cup of cold water. As soon as the sugar or salt goes into solution, it evenly disperses throughout the water and reaches an equilibrium (isotonicity). The same thing happens with the sticks and the soil solution (water in the soil). For a number of reasons, though, I don't like fertilizer sticks and would avoid using them if I could, though they are better than nothing if used appropriately. Did I understand correctly - that you potted up, then returned the plant to the smaller pot it was originally in? Commonly, I suggest that you leach the container to try to ensure the level of soluble salts is as low as it can be, while still maintaining an adequate charge of nutrients in the soil, but how you decide to proceed with regard to what you do about the dying plant and repotting would probably have an impact on what steps are most appropriate ..... Al

A couple of things that might help you to understand what might have happened. Plants often don't show signs right away when something goes wrong; often, especially in plants like the marginata, you don't see a sign (except MAYBE a few yellow leaves) that the roots are rotting until the whole plant is basically dead. And feeling the soil on the surface doesn't really help - you have to check the soil moisture down near the bottom of the pot. That's where all the roots are. Even if the soil is all dry now, if it was wet for a month or so at an earlier time, the rot could get started. Once it gets started, it's almost impossible to stop. However, I'm like about 99.99% sure the heat had nothing to do with it. Heat and humidity just aren't the factors that many people think. After all, the things are native to the tropics, and their adaptability is what has made them so significant as indoor plants. The only thing that can really kill them is wet roots.

Kristi, potting down to a smaller pot that fits the size of the roots is a good idea. By 'regular' potting soil I'm assuming you used one of the lighter peat-based mixes, which is far better than the heavy, dirt-type soils. I would have recommended you mix some perlite with it before potting, but let's see how it goes. Regarding the 3 tip cuttings, they're too dry and need to be rehydrated. They also have too many leaves which demand more moisture than the cut stem can take up. You should take most of the drooping leaves off, leaving 4 to 6 or so at the top, and put all the cuttings into water for a day to rehydrate. To 'hedge your bets', I would leave 1 in water and put the other two back into the vermiculite/soil medium. Or vice versa. If leaves of the ones in soil droop again after rehydrating, put the pot into a plastic bag or invert a glass or bottle over it to retain extra humidity. If the bottom of the stem of the cutting in water appears to be rotting, cut it back to good tissue and change the water. The main plant is also seriously dry, and all those leaves will continue to lose the moisture left in the stems and trunk. So I would cut most of those leaves off, as with the cuttings. If the long, stringy roots came apart in fragments and didn't hold together during the handling of the repot, they were rotted. It's hard to tell 'healthy' from the color, but rotted roots would be dark brown and might have an unpleasant odor. There should have been at least some larger roots that were fleshy and light colored if they were healthy, did you see any of these? Please squeeze the stems of the main plant at various places. If they are spongey and not hard and firm, rot has moved up the stem to that point. Good tissue can also be determined by lightly scraping the surface of stems, rotted tissue will be dark and the outside bark will come away easily, healthy will be light colored and firm. Let me know what you find. Russ