A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The House Plant Forum Natal Mahogany in drastic decline-- please help!

Hello, I am new to this forum and looking for help on how to save a plant. If you have knowledge of this plant or ideas of what I can do to turn around this plant I would very much appreciate hearing them!

So I recently had a friend looking after a Natal Mahogany that has done very well in our Washington, DC apartment. A couple of weeks ago I moved the plant to her office a few blocks away while I was away and I picked it up this past Tuesday. The plant looked great. I brought it home in the car on a three minute trip home and carried the plant outside for less than 5 minutes-- but it was extremely cold out that day. Starting Wednesday it started to look less great and by Thursday and Friday it had wilted a great deal. The decline has been very significant over the span of a few days and I'm worried the plant may die. Normally, it's not finicky and likes a lot of water-- I tried giving it more water and it was not help. I also have trimmed away some of the more dead leaves. My only guesses are that it either really 1) loved the spot it was at my friend's office and doesn't like being back in our apartment or 2) that brief exposure to the extreme cold has put the plant into shock.

Any suggestions on what might be going on and what to do would be greatly appreciated!

Just a guess.
It got froze..

Natal Mahogany can under certain circumstances need to be watered more than once a week. Then again, it all depends on the light levels and temperature. But I dont think the extra water would have hurt it.

Under lower light levels, that plant may drop some of their lower leaves. So it could be that 1) it liked the light it used to have , so try to place in a similar place, 2) Sounds as if some of the leaves/possible part of the plant got froze so I would just cut back the frozen parts & it should well branch back out. It would sure be worth a try.

Yes, I think the cold got it. 15 minutes in freezing weather will severely damage a tropical. But you had it in your apt happy and healthy for quite awhile, didn't you? I don't think different conditions in your friend's office would have affected it in 2 weeks - plants don't change acclimatization that quickly. I think there's a good chance it will recover. Just put it where you had it before, cut off the dead stuff, and take care of it as you were, though it may well use less water, so be sure to check the soil moisture between waterings. It should put out new growth in a few weeks. Let us know how it goes.