I just got three Dracanea plants recently from my mother-in-law. I live up in Zone 6 and 7. I know it needs humidity and takes a long time to grow. They need repotting and one I chopped down to experiment if any parts of the plant grows. The other two I have to trim down so I can bring them into my house for the fall, winter and spring. I've never worked with these plants. I was wondering if anybody knows how to trim down the leaves without wrecking the plant. How can I get it back to shorter leaves? How do you shorten the root?
the leaves will be whatever length is normal for the variety - some are thin, some thick, some short and some long. leaves shouldn't be removed or trimmed unless they are dead/dieing and you want to remove brown parts. otherwise, leave them as is. if you top them off, you can plant the top piece to start a new plant and continue growing the original piece - it'll put out new growth at the spot where it was cut. i wouldn't do anything to the roots unless there is rot that needs to be removed. now is not the best time to repot - that should be done in spring whenever possible. pitman, nj? or somewhere else?
Joclyn, What do you mean as in Top Piece? What does it look like? I wanted to bring these plants into my house which is not much space. These are full grown plants.
after you cut it, the top piece (part) can be rooted and the bottom piece (part) will continue to grow. you can cut at any point along the trunk - either right below where the leaves are or leave a bit of trunk below the leaves. can you post some pics?? full grown has many different meanings, lol!! i'll assume, in this case, you mean that the plant is over 6 feet tall at the moment...these plants will actuallly get double that size out in the wild (so, not full grown at all, really :) ) i see you changed your profile to nj. good idea as those from other countries (or even the west coast of ours) wouldn't be familiar the city name - and city names can be used more than once in a state as well as other states...the more specific info just helps when people are trying to give advice about plant care - saves time if you know the basic location because then you know their hardiness zone.
Joclyn, Here are the Dracaneas. One is in with a weed vine and the other one is in with a geranium and Vinca. I do have to repot plant to give one better looking pot back to my mother-in-law. And there is sandy dirt in the pot instead of regular potting soil. It does need to breathe.
use a mix of cactus soil (which is peat, bark pieces & perlite) and add in some additional perlite, aquarium soil (ceramic bits), bark bits (sold as orchid bark) or orchid mix (charcoal, lava bits, bark bits) for extra drainage. sand it's appropriate for this plant - retains too much moisture. unglazed clay pots with drainage holes are best because they allow the soil to dry out well. i put the clay pots into nicer ceramic pieces to hide the orange (i'm not a fan of orange) as well as to provide a 'drip dish'. you can use plastic - just make sure the drainage holes are sufficient. i would not put these directly into glazed ceramic - even if drainage holes are present. i'd do plastic and then insert it into the pretty ceramic. what you have are the top pieces that were cut off trunks and planted. they should be well rooted by now if your mom has had them most of the summer. here are some google images of dracaena trees so you can see what your plants will eventually look like. it takes years for trunks to develop from cuttings as this species is not the fastest grower.
She had them from last years summer and left them in a lighted unused hallway. Thank you for the help joclyn.
