Hi & welcome to Gardenweb! Sorry your plant is ailing. From what you said, these are the important clues. "my window sill is right above the heat vents." This sounds like it's getting directly blasted with hot, dry air occasionally. Plants don't like that, intermittently, in a generally cold room. "The soil was slightly moist at the base after weeks of not watering." This sounds like the roots have rotted and are unable to deliver moisture to the plant. So the foliage wilts. Adding more water won't help that, just exacerbate it. This is what overwatering means but it's not your fault. It's the soil holding too much moisture, so the problem is really underdrying. If there are no tiny particles in a pot, it will dry soooo much faster. People who lose plants because they forget to water would have a hard time with this, but if you're the more common 'overwatering' type, which it sounds like you are from reading about your Aralia, this can mean the difference between plants that stay alive vs. those that die. I used to kill plants by 'overwatering' too until learning how to fix things through the great info here at GW. I might recommend an alternative source of water other than tap water, such as rain, melted snow, condensate from dehumidifier or A/C, distilled. It makes a huge difference if tap water is making one visibly ill (which it usually does over time.) Due to genetic reasons, these Aralias have been renamed Schefflera. Your plant's correct name (for today anyway,) is probably Schefflera elegantissima 'Cultivar name here.' That gives us more clues about its' preferences. Mainly, that the roots can't survive sitting in soggy, dense, airless soil (if we didn't already know that when it was Aralia.) To fix that, we need to give them something much more chunky, porous, airy. Most plants can survive getting too dry once in a while. OTOH, getting soppy wet too often and taking forever to dry out is fatal to most. More light sounds like a good idea. I have several cultivars of S. elegantissima that grow outside, with the sun hitting them for a few hours in the afternoon. Another pot that is an east windowsill, so direct sun for a few hours in the morning. I would encourage you to paste what you've written into a post on the house plant forum, to gather all of the excellent advice possible there. This informative post there will make it an easy trip via a click. (At the top of the post will be a link to the house plant forum page.) If you can add a pic, you'll get even more specific advice. Sending good vibes!

Hi kthycer, I live in N Phoenix with several plumeria cuttings growing on my apt balcony. You should be safe to fertilize now that you have a handful of leaves, just go easy on it as the root system is still quite small. Because it is in a standard potting soil, you still may have issues with rotting. Plumies really need a very well draining mix, especially when rooting a cutting. As soon as the plant is able to handle it(at least a few months away) I would re-pot it in a more porous mix. With a more porous mix you will be able to give it a proper thorough watering. It's better to let the water flow out the bottom of the pot as this helps to keep salts and fertilizer from building up in the soil. I have been using terracotta pots as an extra precaution against rot because of their 'breath-ability' and to keep them from blowing over. In regards to fertilizers, I have just started using Jobe's Oganic Knockout Rose Food (granular). It's a 3-4-3 and loaded with all kinds of beneficial bacteria and fungus that makes the soil 'alive' which is supposed to help the roots in nutrient uptake. A much more natural environment for the roots than what a chemical fertilizer can provide and no risk of 'burning' from the fertilizer. I hope these suggestions help. Tom

Hi Beth, Welcome to RMG. Glad Steve steered you in our direction. I second everything Cnetter said. The upright sedums definitely stay in one place. The plant will just get a little bit bigger each yearÂbut right in the spot where you planted it. The groundcover sedums are mostly pretty safe too. They spread like a good groundcover should, but they spread by fairly shallow roots, so you can easily keep them pulled out around the edges if theyÂre getting bigger than you want. There are a few of the groundcover ones, though, that come pretty close to being invasive. The worst one I know of is Sedum album. If youÂre carrying a pot of it across the yard and even the tiniest little piece falls off, itÂll root whereverÂand I do mean whereverÂit lands. You just need to be really careful when youÂre carrying pots or pieces of it around, and itÂs no worse than the others in terms of just pulling out whatever you donÂt want. I have a thing about the groundcover sedums, but I have a very small yard, so I need to keep them contained. HereÂs a picture of 3 of them that have been in for over two years, and you can see IÂve been able toÂquite easilyÂkeep them where I want them. One thing that helps quite a bit with the groundcover sedums is to mulch thickly around them. Since the stems will root wherever theyÂre laying directly on top of soil, if theyÂre not on soil, they donÂt root, so all you need to do is cut them off. They will still continue to spread out some from the center of the plant, but, again, all you need to do is to keep pulling out what you donÂt want around the edges. IÂd have a thing for the upright ones too if I had somewhere to put them all! So donÂt be scared off by the sedumsÂand if youÂre wondering about any one in particular, just come ask. Somebody around here is bound to know about it! Hope to see more of you around here, Skybird P.S. Please excuse the ugly stepping stone in that picture! It's been replaced by a halfway decent looking piece of flagstone!

I found this thread when I googled tomato plant wilting at top. One of my plants was severely wilted this morning. Fearing something that might spread to the others, I pulled the plant and prepared to take it in to the county extension office. Then I realized it is Friday, and they don't accept samples on Fridays, since they would not be able to get them to VA Tech in good shape, if the local office can't diagnose the problem. My problem sounds exactly like the ones described here. The only other clue I have, which may be unrelated, is that this particular plant had some damage three weeks agonwhich looked exactly like hornworm damage, but I was unable to find any pest. Following suggestions on this thread, I cut off the top of the wilted stem and placed it in water. No cloudiness came out, and six hours later, the piece in water has recovered from the wilt, and looks great. I cut the main stem at several points, and it looked normal. I then slit the stem for about eight inches. Again, nothing out of the ordinary. I will dig up the rest of the rootball for any further clues. It is clear the top of the plant was not getting water, but I don't know why.