What is this plant? How can we help it?

January 4, 2019 8:20 AM

Help us identify and nurse a sentimental plant back to health.

Picture of the plant: http://imgur.com/qfffQWN

This plant has sentimental value and we would like to nurse it back to health, if possible. Our questions:

1) What kind of plant is it?
2) What does it need in terms of light, water, nutrients, etc.? Does it need pruning?
3) Is the algae in the water a problem?

Thanks.

posted by moonroof to Home & Garden (5 answers total)

Looks like some variety of variegated schefflera plant. I would guess it's not too happy to be standing in pools of water. Here's a link to how to care for it.
posted by XtineHutch at 8:35 AM on January 4, 2019 [1 favorite]

Yep that’s a schefflera and it’s being killed by root rot. It might not be too late to save it. You need to immediately gently repot it into something with good drainage. It should only be watered when very dry, never have any standing water anywhere, and be given copious bright indirect light. After repotting, a light pruning will stimulate new leaf growth, just snip an inch or so off the tips of the twigs with no leaves. If you cut and see dead brown crunchy ‘wood’, cut more until you get to live material.
posted by SaltySalticid at 8:46 AM on January 4, 2019 [3 favorites]

Seconding shefflera. Repot into a pot with good drainage ASAP with good quality well draining potting mix. Let it dry out between watering do not let it sit in water. In my experience these plants hate overwatering & wet "feet". They like bright light but not direct sun. Water the plant until the soil is damp/moist have excess drain away by having the pot elevated with a dish underneath to catch run off then let it dry completely out between waterings.

This might well be too far gone & rotted, but getting it out of sitting in all that water is a big step one. If it survives the repotting, which stresses plants these plants don't usually need fertilizing. If you decide to do so do it at half strength maybe once a year when it's actively growing.
posted by wwax at 8:50 AM on January 4, 2019 [2 favorites]

I would maybe even just cut off the one branch with leaves, and put that in water, let it root and start over. But others should back me up on that plan before you do it- I haven't had the world's best luck with schefflerae.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 11:05 AM on January 4, 2019

I haven't tried either method very often, and both were a long time ago, but I've gotten a Schefflera cutting to root in damp vermiculite once, and in water never.

I wouldn't recommend trying to take a cutting in this particular case, for what it's worth. It's already having a rough time; I'd think severing the one photosynthesizing leaf from whatever roots have survived would only stress both even more. (Taking a cutting as insurance against losing the whole plant is a good idea eventually, but I'd wait until the plant has been doing well and producing new growth for a decent amount of time, like maybe a year or more.)
posted by Spathe Cadet at 6:06 AM on January 5, 2019