No wonder your cat has a bad attitude.
Judging from you bad experiences with fish as well as plants, maybe you
should get some erotic sculpture from a flea market instead and give up all
hope on the idea of trying to keep anything alive. Do they sell any erotic
sculpture at you local Walmart? Maybe a nekkid lady lamp with a clock in her
belly?

Mike wrote in message
om...
I have a fiscus(?) that I bought from Wal-Mart a few years ago (is
this the same as a rubber plant?). For awhile, all of the leaves were
dropping off like crazy, which was partially due to the fact that I
didn't know how to water it properly. Before long, I only had 14
leaves left on the whole thing!

All of last summer, I left the plant outside to see if the leaves
would grow back. It seemed to be doing great, with new leaves coming
in regularly and the stalks were growing, too.

When I brought the plant back in for the winter, I began watering it
myself based on what had been suggested here. I tried giving it a
little more than a cup a day, and was making sure that the soil was
staying moist (but not wet) about 4" beneath the surface of the soil.
The plant is directly in front of a south-facing window.

But since the day I brought it in, there hasn't been any new growth at
all. In fact, recently a few of the smaller leaves fell off.

Am I STILL watering it wrong? The plant is about 2-3' tall, 7 stalks,
and in a pot that's about 12" in diameter. I put a thin layer of
decorative gravel (crushed brick) on top of the soil over a year ago
to keep my cat from peeing in it. I'm watering it just above the soil,
a little more than a cup a day.

TIA,

Mike


PS, I also had a goldfish tank, and they all died pretty quickly due
to a high level of nitrates in my tap water (well water). Would this
have an impact on the plant?