Thank you for the tip about which ivy it might be. And thanks for the good vibes; I think it's going to need it!

Sorry, but I think it's a goner (esp. the 2nd pic), I'd discard it & start over.

Before you buy another IVY, pls. know they are known to be bug magnets when grown indoors.

Sorry, but I think dousing them w/ Neem after seeing ONE mealy bug was a HUGE over reaction & likely killed it.

I can't imagine that Neem would do much damage to an ivy plant!! Even most common herbicides don't have an impact on English ivy, which is a noxious weed in my locale and always under some eradication attempts somewhere in the area. You have to purchase a special additive for even strong herbicides like triclopyr that break down the waxy cuticle on the ivy leaf and allow the chemicals to penetrate. Neem is far too mild to have that sort of effect.

But do reconsider ivy even for an indoor plant. Spider mites will be a foregone conclusion, even with the best of care.

Losing some leaves won't kill an Ivy. However, they seem to be difficult indoors pest-wise so perhaps you'll just have to be prepared to chalk this one up to experience.

I'd strip off the dry leaves, pinch the stems, feed it, then give it a nice place outside to recover. Only bring it inside if it is below 40 at night. It should produce back shoots after a little pinch. I don't think it's dead but it can benefit from all the light it can get.

@Mentha Thank you for the suggestions!

You mentioned a few things that I'm not entirely sure if I'm doing them right.

- For pinching stems, it seems like you literally pinch the stem near where the vine starts growing a new leaf to break it off. I tried but the stems either just fell off because they were so dry, or it seemed I was breaking the vine, so I just kind of pulled lightly at the parts with dry leaves and let the plant do the work for me. Is that okay?

- For feeding, do you mean fertilizer? I ended up using a MAXSEA seaweed fertilizer (http://www.maxsea-plant-food.com/products_all_purpose.html) that I had on hand.

- For light, I don't really have a place where I can put it outside (I'm in an apartment), but since you mentioned more light would help it, I moved it from the east-facing kitchen window to the south-facing living room window. The temperature in here usually never ranges further than between 60 to 75 degrees. (I ended up moving it back to the kitchen after a couple days.)

Here's a picture of it after removing the dried leaves and in its new location, plus an up-close one.

I realize its chances are slim, but most living things want to live, so I'm hoping it will work with me if it sees I'm trying to help.

Another q for anyone: In looking closer at the soil when removing the dead dried leaves, I saw what appears to be light webbing in the soil, which I'm guessing is the spider mites. There wasn't any webbing on the leaves, and when I overreacted with the Neem oil on the plant, I also sprayed the soil. Do you suppose if the ivy makes it, that the spider mites that were in the soil are likely still dead?

Tough to say. I've never had any luck with neem oil to combat sprider mites.

The only thing that's ever worked for me is Bayer 3 in 1. But that is NOT something you want to ever spray inside your house.

Keep an eye on it cause these are spider mite magnets.

Just a coupe of comments. Ivy can survive -30F outdoors (but will def look beat up!) so no worries about any need to bring it indoors at 40F. But if it drops well below freezing for several nights, it could freeze the container soil, which you want to avoid.

Neem is a registered miticide - one of the few common indoor (and outdoor) pesticides that is. I have found it to be very effective against spider mites.

English ivy is a very tough plant and very difficult to kill........except when one tries to grow it indoors :-) Not sure what exactly is up with this one but have serious doubts about it being due to the neem or that fast a decline from the mites. A bit of a mystery!!

Gardengal,

sounds like we have completely different experiences.

All I got from neem was a terrible smelling house, ha.

I was also using it on a ficus with well over 500 leaves. Much different then the plant in question here.

I'll be checking it more thoroughly tomorrow, but this morning I noticed a new little leaf bud at the end of one of the stems that seemed to have weathered the storm a bit better than the others. The plant as a whole looks sadder than the last pictures I posted, but one new leaf bud seems promising. Does anyone have advice on propagating an ivy? Like, if the plant as a whole won't make it, would it make sense to try and separate the stem or stems with new growth and start over?

So I've never tried actually propagating from an indoor ivy, but the stuff grows just about everywhere outside. You can pull up a few pieces, making sure you get some roots, and either stick it in water for a bit or plant directly in some moist soil (like you would seedlings). I did that for a few of my ivy plants.

But these plants are generally so cheap at big box nurseries (I think around $4) for a 3 or 4 inch pot, propagating, to me, is not really worth the wait.

They are lovely, but rather high-maintenance indoors. I had 7 ivies, but am now down to 4, after I let them get too wilty from underwatering. Once/if the remaining plants get attacked by mites, I'm switching them out with a more house-friendly vining plant.