Hi Patty, I got the pics to open..Guess I mistyped the first time. Sorry about that..Yep, both are dracaenas. You asked if misting once a wk was sufficient..I try to mist at least once a day, especially if the house is dry. And w/the heat on the house is getting dry..I not only mist but use humidifers and 2 indoor foutains. I like for the humidity at least 50%. At the minimum. Wow the plant is 6' tall and the pot only 8" tall? Do you know the diameter? (measure across on top/this tells diameter) The pot definatly sounds too small for this tall tree. Unless you find yourself watering every other day, there's no need to repot just yet..But as soon as daylight lenghtens, I'd definatly repot..Use your judgement on pot size. The reddish twig-like things are roots..as long as you can see them emerging from the drainage holes, you know the roots are full. Black pots are fine, unless you want a decorative pot..I use very few decorative pots..mostly plastic or clay depending on plant..Some of my dracaeans are in the black plastic pots. They're not beaty's, but work fine. And if you want something nicer, you can always buy a larger container and set something on the bottom of the pot like styrofoam sheets so plant won't sit in water. Don't get me wrong, Patty, I like pretty containers, but care more about the plants health. BTW, of what I can see of your plants, they look really nice..Are those your plants or from a website? I can see you can't hose these plants in the sink, but if you have the energy, you can always bring to the shower. Let water run over plants a while. This really helps perk plants up. I mix my own soils, Patty..For dracaenas I use 1/3 black soil, 1/3 peat and 1/3 sand or Perlite. Been using this mix for many years. Oh I wanted to mention, you said, you heard these plants can take very low light..I disagree..they take at least medium light. Too low light and they become spindly and lose color. Which directions are the windows? Toni

Thanks for the ideas and info. It sounds like my HOA won't allow any structure on my property but if I can make something that will stay below the fence line (which is actually a wall so you can't see through) I can probably get away with it. So really almost 6' tall. I can deal with that. So it sounds like Dracena will do ok in summer, may have problem in winter, and Cymbidium may be the opposite. Sheesh. Honestly the Dracena I could place in the house, the cymbidiums are too big so just need to keep them cool in hottest part of summer. Well, April - Sept maybe! :) But, they will be done blooming so could live in a small greenhouse or just with that shade stuff maybe. =) Sounds like I can make it work.

Hello! This is my first gardenweb post! I live in Toronto, Canada and bought my Song of India abotu 1 and a half years ago. It was about twice as tall as in the picture before some of the top leaves started to brown and drop, while the bottom leaves looked perfectly fine. I think I was overwatering it or it was getting too much sun or something, so I re-potted it, put it further away from my window for a while, and later on I took the plunge and chopped off the top part (i generally don't like cutting my plants although I know it's necessary), completely stopped watering it and basically left it on its own, for I think close to 3 months. To my surprise the remaining leaves neither grew nor dried up, basically dormant. And then a few weeks ago I finally saw some indication of new growth, and slowly started to water it again. As you can see here this new growth is doing quite well. I love this plant and I think it's gorgeous looking. Well, that's my story for now. I also own a myrtle topiary, ponytail palm, a bunch of jades that I propogated with leaves, and a very tall and singular avocado plant I grew from a seed. Hope to hear more about the Song if India here! Cheers.

Agreed. They really don't look all that bad, per se. They were completely coddled and went to hospital whenever they got a minor cold in their old place. For you, open the blinds, let the bright light shine in. Eastern light is great, although they'll tolerate far less. One of mine sees eastern light. One sees western light indirectly, but has a plant light on it any time I turn on the light switch in my office. Zap the moss, as Matt suggested. There's no evidence of cold burning from moving them, and that would have shown up long since. So no worries there. Distilled water will certainly help stop the browning at the tips (you can cut the browning away or leave it if you want, dealer's choice). I just use tap water and a scissors when necessary. :-) Browning can show from any salt, not just fluorine and chlorine compounds (although those are two of the worst offenders), so when feeding, do so lightly. Dracaena aren't heavy feeders. Some suggest feeding only once or twice a year. I feed almost every time I water in spring and summer, but in extremely tiny amounts. These plants simply don't grow that quickly. Mine are actually in a fairly low humidity Pennsylvania home and do just fine. They adjust over time to their environment, those are simply used to being babied every step of the way. :-) While a humidifier wouldn't be taken amiss for you or the plants, and 35% humidity would certainly be healthy for all concerned, if that's too tough, don't worry about it too much. They'll bear up.