Question about cutting a plant back - February 1st, 2007 at 08:42 PM
Hello, please bare with me here I've got almost no experience with houseplants. To further complicate matters I have NO idea what sort of plant I have here and I'm hoping my question is general enough that I can get some kind of response. I aquired this plant through friends who had left it outside for a couple of nights in the fall when it was around the freezing mark. When I got it it didn't look the healthiest - the bottom of all the stems was quite brown and sickly looking but there were still healthy looking green shoots at the top. Since that time I've kept it watered and it continues to grow a few new healthy looking shoots with leaves but they fairly quickly die off, the entire bottom of the plant remains a brown dead looking colour without leaves. I've cut back some of the brown stalks but as I said the ENTIRE bottom of this plant is brown and dead looking even the parts with fresh green stalks growing out of them. Should I cut the dead stuff back more aggressively? At least the parts without fresh growth (most of it has no growth)? Also the pot the plant is in is probably too small for it, is it worth changing the pot? I've made this plant sort of a project now (I've had it several months) and I'd very much like to bring it back to health if I can. Any advice whatsoever is very much appreciated.