Jess. your poor Dracaena! It's been through a lot. Tap water is fine. You don't need Spring or any other bottled water. Also, it's not sunburn. One thing you should have been doing the last 5-years is rotating your Dracaena 1/4 turn once a week. I think your Corn Plant has/d a 'Dehydration' problem. How long did it go without being watered? You didn't mention time spent away from home. You also stated the pot doesn't have drainage. Do you know the container size? Was it watered before you left? Let's say soil dried completely and was w/o water for a good amount of time. Then you returned and gave it heavy drink..Possibly too much?? Even though there are rocks on the bottom of pot, if you added too much water, the roots could have been sitting in water all this time. Do you check soil between waterings? Not only the top, but halfway or further down? Your container looks large, 'by the picture.' If the top soil dries, it doesnt' mean the bottom soil is dry too. It needs to be checked..A thin stake is sufficient. Insert the stake as deep as possible. If the stake comes out wet, the bottom soil is still wet. And visa versa. Lifting a pot is another way to check. Lift after watering. Wait a week, two, etc, and relift. If the pot is light, most likely the soil is either drying out or dry. Only you can determine its weight and use judgement whether or not it needs a drink. Why did you start watering twice a month instead of once? It's possible its roots aren't absorbing water, 'if it's beens sitting in muddy soil.' Short periods of drought won't cause much harm, but heavy periods can cause permanent damage, preventing the plant from breathing. This happens frequently. Soil dries too much, then the plant ends up over-watered. Especially if the pot is w/o drainage. If your plant was in a pot with drainage, the first thing that should have been done is, soaking in a bucket of water, until top of soil is moist. Soaking can take anywhere from 15-30 minutes. Possibly more depending on pot size and amount of soil. What type of soil was used when you last repotted? Have you repotted in the last 5-years? Do you fertilize? It's going to require some work, but you love your plant so it's well worth it. Unpot the plant. Toss out old soil. Add fresh, semi-well-draining soil. Although your pot is very pretty, instead of potting directly in the container, pot in a plastic pot w/drainage. Pot size should be determined by the root-ball. 1-3 sizes larger is fine. After your plant is potted, it can be placed in your pretty blue pot. BUT, it's important you place something inside the pot so when you water, roots don't sit in water. I use styrofoam sheets. Break a piece or two to fit inside ccontainer, 'depending on thickness,' in the blue pot, then set the plastic pot on top of the styrofoam. Water well...enough all parts of the rootball are moistened. Remove dead leaves, or trim brown edges of leaves. Is the air in your house dry? If so, start misting. Or, if your plant isn't too heavy, give it a shower. Rain water is the best medicine, but if it's cold or not raining, that's out. lol. Instead, spray each leaf. After your Dracanea settles in, renews growth, give it a half-dossage of an All Purpose Fertilizer. In the future, rotate, once a week, so the entire plant gets balanced light. an unobstructed, south window is usually harsh for Dracaneas, in summer, when sun is blazing, but since your Corn Plant has been in that window the last 5 yrs, it probably adapted. Sunburn would be obvious. I wish you luck..It's going to take some work, but you love your plant, so get to it. BTW, check its roots. Corn Plants are pretty forgiving. Toni

I think I figured out the problem - dust! The leaves were just covered, didn't notice how bad it was until I ran my fingers over the leaves. I cleaned it with a damp paper towel and ran the leaves under the faucet for good measure, hoping this will help and repotted it as well. Thanks to you both for your responses; Rhizo, as far as I could see when repotting, the original container was fine, sizewise, no sign of it being rootbound. Thanks again.

I'm not sure if that is the cause. I was just noting that the plant does not have any roots and the sunlight will make that worse. A healthy plant can probably take direct early morning sun with out any problem. I have African Violets in an east window which get an hour or so of morning sun (more in the winter). Dracaena are fairly resilent, so change the water every couple of days (more often if the water gets cloudy) You have city water? Leaving that stand over night (in watering can or such) should allow the chlorine to dissipate, other things such as fluoride don't evaporate out ( been a log time since chemistry class so I confuse all the ides and ines). Room temperature water is best for plants in general anyway. Hope this helps your plant! Fred

A few months ago I came home to find that my bf had transplanted my plant. I appreciated it (it was something on my to-do list). However, it was a plastic pot with no drainage. I'm a very busy grad student and have never kept plants really. I thought if I tried to transplant it that day it would go into shock or something and die, but I kept forgetting to do it and now I see that the stalks have turned brown and the bottom leaves are drying out/falling off. I read that usually in these cases it's usually too severe of a case of root rot to save the plant. Should I try to examine the roots, get the bleach and fungicide and save it or should i just toss it before my neighboring plants catch the fungus? Because of my schedule I am almost leaning towards just throwing it out... It's a shame because it was doing so well before :/