Whether or not the plants are 'choking' each other would be a function of how congested the roots are in the entire soil mass. Root congestion restricts growth because the soil becomes packed with 'conductive' roots, roots the primary function of which is to move water and nutrients, rather than to gather them. This leaves a reduced volume of soil to support the fine hair roots that do all the real work. The 'center' you refer to would be called the 'crown'. If the roots have filled the pot and are restricting growth, you should consider repotting/root pruning or separating and repotting the plants in the future, but winter is a poor time to consider work as major as that. Instead, wait until early summer when the plant(s) have gained some energy and they are better able to tolerate the stress. If the smaller plant is an offset from the larger, you can simply cut them apart with a longitudinal cut so each has a healthy portion of the root system. Dust the cut with powdered sulfur if you want, to help thwart any rot organisms that might want to wreck your day. If the plants are individuals, tease or cut the root mass apart to separate the plants & repot. Don't be afraid to cut the plants back and prune roots. This type of treatment forces growth from cells closer to the root systems, which are ontogenetically younger (juvenile) and more vigorous, which is where the term rejuvenation pruning comes from. Al

Hi I just wanted some help , we have a wrens nest on our eves and there are 4 little babies which they have been feeding, but the nest was disturbed by the gardener, and we popped the nest into a bird box,and put it back to where her nest was, she has been in to see the babies but i don't know if she will feed them, i dont know if there anything else that we can do ,Thanks Jo

Awwww..so sorry to hear of this. That storm came through my yard too, and took one of my Bradford Pears down. It landed across my driveway, and luckily did not hit the house or our basketball goal. Gosh, it came through really fast. If you are not seeing them back at the house at all, then they have abandoned the nest. You don't need to wait the 2 weeks to remove the nest. Give it a few days, and when you are sure that they have abandoned, go ahead and remove the nest. Maybe they will build there again. There is still plenty of time.~~Angie

Well, the (possibly) bad news is that it isn't an asplenium. If you look at the stems and compare against asplenium pics, you'll see a totally different leaf shape. Probably someone jammed in a tag that was lying on a shelf without regard to what the plant actually was. The (hopefully) good news is that it looks like a peace lily (spathiphyllum), which are better at coming back from extreme heat than aspleniums. It sounds like you've done everything right so far. In fact, if you wanted to submerge the pot in a sink full of lukewarm water for an hour, that might accelerate its recovery. You'll probably lose some more leaves due to shock, but that's normal. Peace lilies are semi-aquatic and very difficult to over-water. You'll notice the leaves unfurl from the various stems in the general clump, rather than each new leaf growing out of the center of an asplenium's roseate. Avoid placing in direct sunlight. Leaves turn yellow with too much light. Don't fertilize for at least a few weeks -- that would be too much shock for the roots. Once it's healthy again, you can fertilize to make it bloom.