Hello! I have several houseplants and I don't know what they are, but they are all doing well except this one. I think if I can figure out what kind of plant it is, maybe I can help it. My husband is in the army and we were in a hotel for 6 months while a friend watched my plants, and now I have it back and it's dying. Any help would be much appreciated! My grandma helped me pick it last time she visited so it's a special plant to me and I don't want it to die. Thank you! p.s. sorry the house is a mess... we're just moving in!
Thank you!! Do you think it's saveable? I trimmed it way back... it didn't have any sap in what I trimmed. I left it unpotted in the sun for a few hours today (it was pretty moist... I think my friend was over watering it) then repotted it with a bunch of stones in the bottom. I'm so glad I came across this forum. You guys are great!
no sap doesn't bode well. were the areas that you trimmed back still green outside or where they dead sections? stones in the bottom really aren't helpful. you're best bet it so get in in a container that has drainage holes and use cactus soil mixed with small pieces of stone or perlite - everything mixed together throughout. there's lots of green areas on a lot of the stems, so there's hope that it's not a goner. how were the roots? if the soil was moist, then there's possibility of some root rot...if you saw any dark/mushy spots, i hope you cut them off. if you didn't, i'd recommend unpotting it again and taking care of the bad roots. also, i hope you completely removed the overly moist soil before repotting it!
well.... I don't know much about plants.... except that they look nice in my house. lol. The soil was very moist but I shook quite a bit of it off before I put it in the pot... and I didn't water it in the new pot. (the pot does have a drainage hole in the bottom... it's glazed ceramic." I didn't even know to check the roots. I will see what I can find tomorrow as far as the soil is concerned and re pot it and check the roots. I didn't cut anything off the roots. The parts of the actual cactus that I cut off were dead or at least near dead. I tried to leave the green, soft parts alone. It used to be about double that size and had lots of new growth when I gave it to her. Oh well. Hopefully I'll get it to come back! Just out of curiosity... do I need to wear the gloves and stuff if I'm just repotting it and trimming roots? Thanks so much for your help!
You should probably worry about your eyes more than hands unless you know of your having a sensitivity to other euphorbias. I've read of REALLY bad thing happening when the sap get in your eyes. HTH Chris
you can wear gloves as precaution if you want. just remember to take the gloves off before touching ANYTHING. if you opt for no gloves, just remember to wash your hands before touching anything - especially your eyes, nose, mouth. the sap can be an irritant - if it gets on the skin, just wash immediately with soap/water and you should be fine. the roots should be whitish in color. anything that is brown/black and/or is mushy should be cut off. i'm not sure, as i've never had to trim back the roots, i don't think there's sap in the roots. i could be wrong about that though. if you use cactus soil with some added amendments to increase the drainage, it will be fine. perlite is easy to get and the stone gravel, i got mine at an aquarium store. if you go that route, just make sure to get something that is small in diameter and that has NOT been treated with any kind of coloring agent. just plain old natural stone.
Thanks everyone! You guys are great! I really appreciate your help. Hopefully my little cactus will pull through with your advice!
Chris - mine were substantially more robust than this poor thing, and quite a bit sappier. What Joclyn has said will probably help it recover; Euphorbs are pretty tough cookies in my experience. But they're not cacti - they're succulents.
