I was given a few plants with no information as to the identity or care instructions. Please help me out before I kill them! The tree type plant is already doing poorly & another is starting to turn yellow towards the top.
Looks like: ? Beaucarnea guatemalensis or B. recurvata, Ponytail; Dracaena marginata, Madagascar Dragon Tree; Dracaena fragrans (Deremensis Group); Hedera sp., Ivy.
Whoever gave you these plants didn't do you any favours - most of them need some remedial work that is not really all that fair to a newby gardener, though maybe I misunderstand and you have some experience but just don't know the IDs of these. Myself, I would discard the geranium, as they are not expensive to replace in the spring (though I don't know what the story is in South Dakota). But you would want to take cuttings of that and start new plants. You could read up on that and try it. The Dracaena marginata I would discard. Again, you could cut off about four inches from the top, cut off the dead leaves leaving just the one green one, push it into soil and see if anything happens. And you could cut the rest off and leave four inches at the base and see if any new growth happens there. Keep it out of the sun until new growth starts. And while no leaves and no sun, it would not want a lot of water but would not want to get too dry either. If anything grows, then it will want fairly good sun. The other Dracaena looks like it did not get enough sunlight but otherwise, it doesn't look too bad. You could just move it gradually to a sunny spot. The Ponytails would want a pot of their own, as each of their bases would want to expand to fill the pot. Separating them could be tricky with the roots intertwined. Maybe try to remove one of the plants to a new pot and see how you do. For all of these, make sure their pots have drainage holes, and sit them in trays and be sure there is not water sitting in the trays. The ivy looks fine.
