I am really sad right now. I have loved this indoor palm, possibly a Parlor Palm, for well over 9 years. My two year old basically destroyed it, shook it to pieces. For some reason I felt the need to take the top of one stem, which was not damaged, and place it in a long stemmed vase of water. The cutting is about 1 foot long and has nice young fronds that still look happy. I was never sure of the exact palm type but the stems grew around 4-6 feet and only seemed to have fronds on the tops of each. Is it possible that my surviving 1 foot cutting can survive? How can I make roots? or am I just prolonging the suffering of my oldest plant baby?
hey wow, I really didn't expact to hear from you guys so fast. I'll take a picture this evening and post. Thanks for the quick reply. Nice to see such an active group.
The way in which you've discribed your "palm", it would seem that it's likely something else ... perhaps Dracaena, Yucca ? Looking forward to your pic. Cheers, LPN.
additional info, I still have the original root ball in the pot. It has a piece of the stemm, about 8 inches long. I just don't know if I can do anything with either piece. <sad face>
Not a palm (as I suspected by your discription). It appears to be a Dracaena species which should root by cuttings. This can be done by placing a stem cutting in a moist sterile potting medium at about 75 - 80 degrees. I doubt any of the leafy top growth will survive but new shoots should appear in a month or so. Also, the original should send new growth too. Now you'll have two plants! Cheers, Barrie.
Good on you detective Barrie, you've done it again!! ; ) Barrie is right, Dracaena marginata Probably get new shoots when the weather warms up for you guys over there Good Luck Ed
ahhh so, Dracaena marginata, well you guys are awsome! Thank you so much! I assume by "moist sterile potting medium" you mean good potting soil. Well unless I hear differnt from this thread I'll consider this a success.
Just for confirmation... I went looking for pictures of "Dracaena marginata" and they all seem to show a rather thick trunk. My plant has never had a thick trunk although it was pretty tall. I was always amazed at the thinness of the trunk. There were as many as 4 stemms from the root ball at one point. Does this still sound like a Dracaena marginata to you? If so then i really have to do some research and see what I was doing wrong the last few years.
It is Dracena marginata, the thick stemmed one probably is ancient and has had the leaves cut off many times and re shot with new leaves from the woody trunk. These plants are really easy and you should have no trouble re growing yours. You may even get some root re growth from the broken stem in water or with the cut end on some damp cloth or tissue paper. These plants are pretty tropical so given loads of heat and humidity, feeding they are more likely to get impressive trunks like the beaut in your photo.
