Hi there, I am one of those professional plant people, and I deal with dracaenas a lot. I had a long chat with the wholesale greenhouse lady where I buy my plants about dracaena marginatas recently. She told me that when they are grown in Florida, they grow them under very high light with lots of fertilizer, so that they grow fast. Time is money, the faster they get the plant to full size, the sooner they can sell it and use the space to grow another one. With all of this light and water, their leaves are very firm, to the point that they can give you an extremely painful poke in the eye, like being poked with a stick (don't ask me how I know this...) A plant will keep these stiff leaves for several months after being put into its office location. If the light is very bright, the leaves will stay stiff. If the light is dim, they will gradually start to droop over time. Once they droop, I don't think they can get stiff again, at least not those particular leaves. The droopy plants that you see the plant company caring for probably only need water every two to four weeks, especially if it is dark and/or cold. I do not recommend moving marginatas into cold. They do not like cold at all, and it will lead to the lower leaves turning a mushy yellow, along with all sort of possibilities for root and stem rot. Marginatas do like to be kept dry, especially if they are in a dim location. Not as dry as a cactus, but pretty darn dry. When in doubt, err on the side of not watering. The ones you see the plant company take care of with the stiff leaves? It is quite possible that they remove them and replace them with new ones periodically, and that is why the leaves appear to stay stiff. Hope that helped!

This is spreading around my yard and I would like to stop/kill it with out hurting too much of the grass. Any suggestions? The big leafy hairy plant in the pics

I’m starting to think there might be an insect issue however. One of my other cuttings has an inflo on it and has begun dropping buds like crazy all of a sudden :( They go from healthy looking to turning black and falling off within what seems like hours. I’ve lost 3 already this morning.

Rae Anna, I do have the issue of thrips in certain roses, and have battled them for years. The worst affected roses in my garden are Evelyn, The Prince, Augusta Luise (a little), and occasionally a couple of other roses. Here are some things I've found out over the years: by the time you have thrips infection symptoms, it's too late. The tiny insects are inside the buds and blooms. They use rasping mouthparts to suck juices from the rose, and leave the ugly brown areas behind as the result. Spraying on surface acting insecticides, whether organic (like Spinosad) or non-organic, doesn't work. You have to use a systemic that gets inside the rose before the buds are made by the plant. What works for me is Bonide Granular Systemic Insecticide (on Amazon, and Walmart carries it, too). It has the ingredient: imidacloprid. This is a synthetic insecticide, but it works. I apply the suggested amount around only the susceptible roses and scratch and water it in. I do this at least 30 days before buds are formed (early spring). I had just a tiny bit of thrips in maybe three of the seven or so roses I treated. I don't think any so called organic treatment can get rid of thrips. It's a choice I've made, and I certainly have many beneficial insects and pollinators each year that are not affected. Often thrips will come around a second time later in the season. Prepare for this by doing the early spring routine. Good luck. I hope CeresMer reads this--I don't want to write it out again--ha. Diane