Odds are that it's too wet, though yellow-and-brown could mean a lot of things.

You'll want to give your plant bright indirect light and water well when dry.

Billy Rae

Thx. will put nearer window, and water well. Think it has had a bit of disruption when being delivered also.
C

Just an update that I have put my plant near a window, free of drafts and in indirect light. I have given it a good watering, and the leaves are still turning yellow, but now mainly brown. this plant is only 4 days in the house, and started going yellow/brown, as soon as it was given to me. can you tell me how I can recover it, apart from what I am doing? Do I clip the brown leaves off, or just leave it to settle first? I don't want to lose it.
C

cathyandjim, when the plant was in the nursery it was being given ultimate care....in the environment there.
You removed it to your home, to your dry air home where the plant now has to get used to its new environment.
Plants react to changes in their usual conditions and your home is probably very dry because the furnace is on.
Plants like their air to be more cooler than the usual home air temperatures.

Do your plant a favour by giving it nighttime temperatures of 60 - 65º F. High temperatures during nighttimes causes exactly what your plant is suffering from...yellowing leaves.
Watering it may cause the leaves to go brown due to overwatering. The nursery would have given the plant sufficient water during its stay there.
Let the plant dry down somewhat between waterings and remember, its winter , the sun is very low and giving very poor light at this time. So it wont be requiring much water....the plant is not growing.
Until the sun values return in mid February, don't do much watering, and definitely no fertilizer should be given.

When you water, water always to drainage. You should see the draining in the saucer under the plant. Let the plant be fully drained then dump the excess. NEVER let the plant sit in that drainage for more than 10 or so minutes.

Light at this time is low in intensity. Dracaena likes a bright light...but not a direct light. At this time, due to the lower values the plant can be put closer to the window...and drawn back somewhat as the sun returns.
Only when it begins to grow should you fertilize with a 20/20/20 and do so at a reduced rate as the plant grows.

The leaves may continue to brown as the conditions change for the better. Keep them clean and in good shape by cutting the brown with scissors.
The brown will not turn back green so its best to keep the plant in its best looking.

i just found out that when the plant was being delivered to my sons address (he gave us the plant as a present bought from houseofplants.co.uk) the driver allowed the packaged plant to be toppled over by the wind. Could this have damaged the plants roots? If so is there any way back?

Could this have damaged the plants roots?

I'd be really surprised if it had.

No, just toppling a plant in the wind wont du much harm if the plant is in any general form of good health.
But....that wind, if the plant is allowed to stay outside for any length of time, that wind can dry out the plant in no time at all.
There is nothing....absolutely, nothing drier than a winter wind.
Put driving winter snow into the equation....and its still the driest thing on Earth.

I think Mr. Subjunctive's answer is appropriate because it kind of plays the odds that the plant wouldn't be set back much; but, I think the absolute "NO" offered by the subsequent poster is inappropriate.

Toppling a plant may not have much impact if the roots stay intact and remain in the pot, but we can't know the extent of the trauma, so we can't offer an emphatic "NO" w/o that knowledge.

Of course it CAN/COULD damage roots. If the plant was jarred loose from it's pot and some of the soil was knocked loose, the delivery person likely stuffed it roughly back into the container as best he could. When there is trauma to roots, it impacts the ability of the plant to move water to distal parts (leaves). This in turn causes a drought response and one of the first symptoms would be a yellowing of the leaves as the plant prepares to shed them to conserve moisture.

Additionally, the entire plant's metabolism is altered and the plant sends a complex set of hormonal/chemical messengers to the other plant organs. In essence, the roots become a much stronger energy sink (they attract the plants energy reserves as well as the current production of energy) until the damage has been repaired. Since this causes the plant to have less energy to expend on other physiological functions, root damage assuredly CAN impact growth and appearance.

BTW - another 'absolute' statement above is also incorrect. There actually IS something drier than the winter wind. The air inside a zone 5 home in winter. The average relative humidity of the Sahara Desert is 25 percent; Death Valley is 23 percent. In the winter months, the average heated home can have a relative humidity as low as 10 Â 15%, unless humidity levels are artificially supplemented.

Al

thanks for the info, very interesting. the plant apparently never left it's pot, some topsoil was knocked out of the pot but no roots were exposed. the plant was well packaged and only outside for a minute as my son was there for the delivery - so i guess a resounding no!! thanks

I didn't think anybody would take my "dry" inference to heart....It was meant as rhetorical.....no answer was expected.

Al, of course there's things in this world drier than a winter wind.....and I suggest you continue the search and let us all into what examples you come across. We're all ears....and eyes...

"There is nothing....absolutely, nothing drier than a winter wind. Put driving winter snow into the equation....and its still the driest thing on Earth."

Of course it raises eyebrows whenever anyone offers unsupportable assertions wrapped in language rife with certainty, but this particular illustration is actually secondary to the point that advice should not be expected to pass uncommented on when it is formulated around illogical leaps and misstatements.

Any poster can be as wrong as they want as often as they want, and I won't waste the time or energy to disagree - as long as the advice, if taken, doesn't have the potential to lead to a negative affect on someone else's growing experience, or the potential to compromise accurate understanding of that experience.

Al