A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 Help with my Dish Garden

I received a dish garden from my grandfathers funeral back in December. Most of the plants are starting to rapidly die. Should I repot what is left in separate planters now or should I keep them all together?

Lxygurl,
Hi!!!
Do you you know what kind of plants are in
the dish garden???
Weezie

Thanks to Will for telling me what they are a few months back this is what I have:

Dracaena marginata
Dracaena sanderiana
Alocasia
Maranta
Dieffenbachia
Philodendron
and I think a Dracaena Compacta? (That one he could not see in the picture)

lxygurl, most florist's dish gardens have NO drainage. which means that they suffer root rot quickly.

if you want to salvage the plants that are still alive, pot them up either seperately or together (but i would go seperate till they are all identified) as soon as possible. use pots that are comparable to the plants' sizes. good rule of thumb is "will it tip this over?" if not, then the next rule is "will it look 'dwarfed' in this pot?" if the answer is no to both questions, and the pot has good drainage, it has to be better than where it is.

Thanx lxygurl!!!
That helps the gardeners when they come thru.

Weezie

By the way, I love your AVATAR!!
Nice choice!!

Can you describe the symptoms that leads you to say that they are starting to die? Or can you post or e-mail me a photo?

It may be that the soil is staying too moist or getting too dry or it may be that the light is not right for them. Or maybe they are simply going through there normal adaptation to a new environment.

Separating them is a tricky process unless you are experienced.

Every couple of days I am pulling off another dead stem from any one of the plants. One plant is completely gone at this point and that only took a few days to happen. I just figured that I would have been better off repotting them to try to salvage some of them if any.

lxygurl,
i stand by my original postition. if you repot them, either together or seperately, you do have a better chance. having grown up in a florist, not to mention receiving lots of dish gardens from the funerals of both my parents, all grand parents and grand parents-in-laws, i have to say that your best bet is to go for the repotting. i still have a couple of plants from my mother's funeral 13 years ago. they were in dishgardens, and i repotted them due to the same reason you stated, they were starting to die, one by one.

But as Will said it's tricky. Won't I end up killing them while trying to separate roots?

There is no right or wrong here. Certainly, they can be successfully separated and individually potted. However, it is important to have small pots, the right potting mix, and to keep the soil properly moist. There are some risks involved, but that is not necessarily a reason not to do it, particularly if your are adventuresome and willing to learn from experience.

I have successfully kept dish gardens alive for many years, but the watering can be tricky because dish gardens don't usually have drainage holes. So this approach has its risk, as well.

Go with what you feel comfortable with.

ok what IF I decided to repot each, is there anything in particular I should do or know before hand. In other words, how different would this situation be as opposed to just repotting any plant. I haven't decided yet if I will even attempt this but I figured I should find out what kind of mess I would be getting into. THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP!!!!!

the difference is that you don't have the advanced knolege of the exact size of each root ball. other than that, you need a good work space (i use newspapers on the kitchen table or counter) an assortment of pots, and potting soil. a clean sharp knife to cut any tangled or damaged (rotted) roots. also a small watering can or a spray bottle would help.

carefully dump the container of plants out on their side. then gently with your fingers seperate them into individual plants. don't dislodge any more soil than you have to unless you see root rot. in the case of root rot (the roots are mushy and brown/black/moldy-green) rinse the roots in clear water gently to remove the mush. then plant each plant in new soil in a pot just slightly (about an inch) larger than the root ball. if in doubt, use a pot close to the same diameter as the middle leaf spread. good luck and keep us posted.

Oh boy I just might take my chances with it the way it is. With my luck I'll damage all the roots when trying to separate them. I'll let you know if I do play with fire. Thanks for the help and advise!!

i had a thought. can you get a pot roughly the same size as the dish garden with drainage holes? if you just transferred the whole thing to a container with proper drainage, you would probably be ok. but separating the plants isn't as hard as it sounds.