A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The House Plant Forum New to houseplants, is my Yucca OK? (Pictures)

Hi everyone, I'm in need of a houseplant expert here to give me some pointers!

I've recently moved into a flat/apartment and decided that some plants were needed right away. I'm in Glasgow, UK, to give you an idea of the climate.

I bought a beautiful spineless yucca from Ikea, and have some questions about it.

1. Ikea said to "water moderately". What does "moderately" mean precisely? Once a month? Once every few weeks?

2. For as long as I've owned it, there has been some scary-looking parts, see pictures below. I read that this is a sign of over-watering? Could anyone advise on what this is and what I should do?



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3. One last question... this other plant was a gift and I don't know what kind it is, and accordingly, how to care for it. Can anyone identify it?



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Thanks for all your help! :)

Welcome, Lyris. I am not absolutely sure that your plant is a yucca. But the care would be similar even if not. And similar care for the unknown one which does resemble a yucca to me. Both look like dracaenas to me.
"Moderately" generally means every 7-10 days. But even that is variable depending on climate. These plants should probably be allowed to get fairly dry between watering. How quickly they dry may depend on how your local weather is at any given time.
I hope that cures your leaf issue. Good luck.

Thanks, Tina. Should I be removing these leaves? It's not some sort of issue that will spread if I don't remove them, or something like that?

You do not need to remove the leaves unless they appear more diseased than not. Or if you cannot handle looking at them. The green portions are still collecting energy from the light and converting it to food/energy for them

hi lyris - I'm pretty sure you have a variegated dracaena.

Here is a link to a google search of images.


http://www.google.com/search?um=1&hl=en&safe=strict&client=ms-palm-webOS&channel=iss&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=variegated+dracaena&btnG=Search

Sorry I couldn't make the link work on this touchpad - I am still figuring out how to work things out.

Lynne's Link

Thanks Bill!

Thanks for the replies! You're right, I checked a picture of the "label" the plant had at the shop, and it states that it's a Dracaena Massangeana. I'll try watering it every 10 days or so, hopefully it likes that! I've read that I should leave tap water for at least 24 hours before watering the plant with it (for the chemicals), maybe I should start collecting rain-water instead (we get more than enough of that in this part of the world!)

Question: should I also spray the leaves with water? Daily? Or every 7-10 days like the watering?

As for the other plant, my friend told me that the lady at the shop said it should always have some spare water in the bottom of the pot... I'd hate for something to happen to either of these! Does anyone else have any idea what kind this is?

The last picture looks like another dracaena to me. I found this on their care:




This is the site where that statement came from:
dracaenas