Thanks purpleinopp for providing your link "here" to Garden Web Houseplants section on soils et al.... Lots of things I could use to think about what I'm doing and improve upon it. I always thought the soil that came with the plants was the "right" soil and reluctantly repotting when the plant became root bound i.e. seeing roots come out of holes or blocking holes at bottom or lack of new green growth have all been signs I've use to determine when to repot the plant (with bare to roots new soil and cutting off encirling roots at bottom). If these are not the methods I see you recommending let me know. I have other dracaena species (not always identified correctly--- newest one came with label in soil so its a Warneckii Dracaena)... so I read these posting with interest and responded here, hope it was right place. I also used something called "Black Magic" that was sold in 80s I guess, I have a bag left for knowing what it is in case I ever find something like it..... lots of my plants have it still in them unless I needed to repot them for various reasons and lost the soil then... I just always thought the light and airy soil was best so now I see the downsides to that as your link showed me about perched water and too wet at the bottom what it does to plants.... The only one I can think is suffering is my tall braided weeping Ficus tree, but unfortunately its reached the size where I need someone else to help me repot it (other sites say and agree you don't need to go to a larger size pot they are happy root bound, but soil is old), so there it stands (I tried scooping out some soil out of the pot and replacing it with more soil does that help when the pot is too big and plant too tall (over 6 feet) to repot easily?) Lots of little quesitons here, if not clear let me know and I'll repost it, just wanted to respond while the topic was being viewed and current. Thanks! Forest_of_Houseplants

Cliss - please don't be mislead by specific instructions about what pot sizes are best for what plants. The fact of the matter is, appropriate pot size is determined by the size of the plant material and the drainage/aeration characteristics of the soil you are using. Heavy (water-retentive) soils REQUIRE smaller soil volumes so the plant can use the water from the soil quickly, which hastens the return of appropriate volumes of air to the soil. If you are using a well-aerated soil that drains freely, pot size and concern about over-potting disappear with an increase in the the size of particles soils are made of. Soils that hold no, or little perched water actually have no upper limit as far as pot size is concerned. I also wouldn't try rooting your cuttings in water. Though roots form readily and often seemingly faster on many plants propagated in water, the roots produced are quite different from those produced in a soil-like, highly aerated medium (perlite - fine gravel - Turface - seed starting mix, e.g.). Physiologically, you will find these roots to be much more brittle than normal roots due to a much higher percentage of aerenchyma (a tissue with a greater percentage of inter-cellular air spaces than normal parenchyma). If you wish to eventually plant your rooted cuttings in soil, it is probably best not to root them in water because of the frequent difficulty in transplanting them to soil. The "water-formed" roots often break during transplant & those that don't break are very poor at water absorption and often die. The effect is equivalent to beginning the cutting process over again with a cutting in which vitality has likely been reduced. If you do a side by side comparison of cuttings rooted in water & cuttings rooted in soil, the cuttings in soil will always (for an extremely high percentage of plants) have a leg up in development on those moved from water to a soil medium for the reasons outlined above. I would also skip the misting. It's far more likely to cause problems than provide anything in the way of benefit. The most effective way to keep your foliage attractive is to employ a asoil that allows you to water copiously eveery time you water w/o risking root rot. This keeps soluble salt levels from building up in the soil solution and makes it easiest for plants to take up water. Al

Marginata is relatively easy to grow but does not like to stay wet. It only likes a little water. I believe overly wet soil may be your problem. Normally, you can just stick pieces of a lanky stalk into soil and they will all root and bud into new plants. Take the cutting out of the wet soil and put it in dry soil. The cutting is probably water-logged. Do not water it. Because it has no roots, you will see it wilt, lose some of its leaves, then begin to come back to life. I hope that will be the case with this remaining piece of your beloved plant. I happen to have some Marginata (dark green w/red edge variety) that I pruned a month ago and set aside. My plant had 7 stalks in the pot and got lanky, with lots of foliage just at the top. I wanted to balance it out with foliage at the bottom, so I pulled 3 plants out and cut them into 3 pieces each (top, bare center, bare rooted). I placed the tops and the bare center twigs into soil. They have all come back to life and budded. I still have the 4 rooted pieces that I pulled out of the soil. They have not yet budded, but I checked them and they are still alive - there's green under the bark. I had them clumped together in a small pot with minimum soil but have been watering them. I think that's why they haven't done anything, so I just added a little soil and cut off their callosed tops. I'm certain they will bud now. If you'd like any of these, I'd be happy to send them to you. I really don't need them. Once they grow, you can cut them down and stick them in the soil at different heights for a fuller plant. The entire stem can root. You just have to make sure you keep track which side is up and which side goes into the soil. I place them right in the soil as I cut so they don't go in upside down. They won't root that way. Let me know if you're interested.

Hi! These are not terribly picky plants, things should go well, assuming both are in a pot with a hole in the bottom, and not inappropriately dense/soggy/muddy soil. :+) The one picky aspect of Dracaenas is being sensitive to tap water chemicals. Whenever possible, give that rain water, distilled, or condensate from a dehumidifier or A/C. Sounds like it might be too big to move for watering. A turkey baster will help you remove excess water from a drip saucer. First, the fun. Both of these plants have a "strange people" article. If you like to find the humor in things, plants have some too: http://plantsarethestrangestpeople.blogspot.com/2009/11/fall-guy-dracaena-marginata.html http://plantsarethestrangestpeople.blogspot.com/2008/07/stoner-zamioculcas-zamiifolia.html "should I have removed all of the old soil from the roots?" Yes, that's repotting. What you described doing is merely potting up. Repotting is preferred because variation in soil type/texture makes it difficult for moisture to move from one to the other. "should I have placed some pebbles or perlite or something in the bottom" No, that doesn't help with drainage/aeration, it's just an old wives' tale. Many previous discussions about this if you feel like searching/reading more. I'm also a huge fan of the great info here: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/1490818/good-growing-practices-an-overview-for If you are able to share a pic of your plants, please do. Everyone loves plant porn!