Stillwater. What conditions was your D. 'Janet Craig' getting at your friends workplace? In other words, amount of light, waterings, fertilizing and size of pot? It looks to be underwatered. Too much sun and not enough liquid. If it's rootbound, most likely soil dried one too many times. D. JC is fast-growing, compared to other Dracaenas. Roots can fill a pot months after being repotted. In order to save the 3 Dracaenas, they'll need work. Are your Dracaenas potted in one or three containers? Remove Dracaenas from pot/s. Is/are they rootbound? If possible, hose roots, trunks, foliage, remove excess soil. Prune dead roots..those that look limp. Do you intend on potting each plant separately or together in one large container? Repot in fresh, well-draining soil. What type of soil/mix do you normally use? After Dracaenas are standing erect, work on the leaves. Those that are all brown, remove. They will not revert to green. Any leaves that have severe brown spots should be removed too. Brown edges can be trimmed. Leave 1/8th" of brown on the leaf/ves, otherwise brown might spread. Pot must have drainage holes. Water thoroughly until water seeps out of holes. Place your plant/s in bright, indirect sun..a cooler room is best. If the room is 85F during the day, and 75F at night, it's still a tad too warm, but as long as your plant isn't in direct sun it should be okay. Wash or mist leaves daily. A week or so after repotting add half-strength, All-Purpose fertilizer. Soil should dry between waterings, but not to the point it cracks. Water when it looks a little crumbly. I can't suggest a watering date; watering should not be done by schedule. For any plant. There is no such thing as water 'X' plant once a week or every three days. Water should be given when soil is moderately moist, dry or super dry depending on the type of plant. If possible, placing your Dracaena in the tub and hosing leaves will perk it up. D. 'Janet Craig' is a pretty plant, and with proper care will develope fragrant flowers during winter months. You have other options like cutting leaves back and root pruning. The decision is up to you. If they were my plants, I'd plant all 3 together in one large container, 'compact' and hope for the best. Good luck, Toni

It may not recover from the frost, but if you want to try, cut off all the dead or damaged leaves. Cut the brown stalks down as far as you have to until the center of the stalk looks firm and healthy and alive, not brown. Repot ASAP as these roots do not like to be soggy - remove all old soil gently and use a fresh, well-drained soilless potting mix. Water until a little comes out the drainage holes, then don't water again until the top of the pot is dry to the touch. If it lives, it will not grow new leaves where the old ones were, it will just grow up from the existing top of the plant. Good luck!

What you need to do is eliminate the cultural factors that are preventing your plant from functioning in its sweet spot. Obviously, this is a pretty broad observation; nonetheless, it's true. An unhealthy appearance is your plant's way of showing that it's being asked to grow near, at, or beyond the limits it's genetically programmed to tolerate. The systems of a happy plant are like a well-balanced top, spinning happily along. Inappropriate cultural conditions can unbalance the top to such a degree it eventually spins entirely out of control. The major factors that you have control over are light, temperature, root health, and nutrition. Most problems that bring growers here looking for help are related to root health and light issues. Light issues are pretty elementary - your plant is content with the light it gets, wants more, or wants less. That's about it. Root health is a bit more involved, so before I go too deep into that topic, I'll wait to see if you're even interested. Al

Unless you're using a medium that doesn't support several inches of complete soil saturation at the bottom of the pot (perched water), you're over-watering. The tip-off was "Watered when top inch of soil [felt] dry". You should water when the soil at the bottom of the pot shows dry or nearly dry. Use a TELL to 'tell' you when to water. I'll post something I wrote about using a tell and the limitations associated with excess water retention (or over-watering). Using a 'tell' Over-watering saps vitality and is one of the most common plant assassins, so learning to avoid it is worth the small effort. Plants make and store their own energy source – photosynthate - (sugar/glucose). Functioning roots need energy to drive their metabolic processes, and in order to get it, they use oxygen to burn (oxidize) their food. From this, we can see that terrestrial plants need air (oxygen) in the soil to drive root function. Many off-the-shelf soils hold too much water and not enough air to support good root health, which is a prerequisite to a healthy plant. Watering in small sips leads to a build-up of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil, which limits a plant's ability to absorb water – so watering in sips simply moves us to the other horn of a dilemma. It creates another problem that requires resolution. Better, would be to simply adopt a soil that drains well enough to allow watering to beyond the saturation point, so we're flushing the soil of accumulating dissolved solids whenever we water; this, w/o the plant being forced to pay a tax in the form of reduced vitality, due to prolong periods of soil saturation. Sometimes, though, that's not a course we can immediately steer, which makes controlling how often we water a very important factor. In many cases, we can judge whether or not a planting needs watering by hefting the pot. This is especially true if the pot is made from light material, like plastic, but doesn't work (as) well when the pot is made from heavier material, like clay, or when the size/weight of the pot precludes grabbing it with one hand to judge its weight and gauge the need for water. Fingers stuck an inch or two into the soil work ok for shallow pots, but not for deep pots. Deep pots might have 3 or more inches of soil that feels totally dry, while the lower several inches of the soil is 100% saturated. Obviously, the lack of oxygen in the root zone situation can wreak havoc with root health and cause the loss of a very notable measure of your plant's potential. Inexpensive watering meters don't even measure moisture levels, they measure electrical conductivity. Clean the tip and insert it into a cup of distilled water and witness the fact it reads 'DRY'. One of the most reliable methods of checking a planting's need for water is using a 'tell'. You can use a bamboo skewer in a pinch, but a wooden dowel rod of about 5/16” (75-85mm) would work better. They usually come 48” (120cm) long and can usually be cut in half and serve as a pair. Sharpen all 4 ends in a pencil sharpener and slightly blunt the tip so it's about the diameter of the head on a straight pin. Push the wooden tell deep into the soil. Don't worry, it won't harm the root system. If the plant is quite root-bound, you might need to try several places until you find one where you can push it all the way to the pot's bottom. Leave it a few seconds, then withdraw it and inspect the tip for moisture. For most plantings, withhold water until the tell comes out dry or nearly so. If you see signs of wilting, adjust the interval between waterings so drought stress isn't a recurring issue. Al