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On Jun 11, 5:08 am, "JoeSpareBedroom" wrote:
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On Jun 10, 6:56 pm, Ann wrote:
expounded:

My wife and I have this lilly, at least she tells me it's a lilly,
that is in really bad shape. Every couple of weeks it gets a new
healthy looking green leaf. Within a few days, however, this new
leaf
starts to get a dark, limp area on one edge, that spreads over the
next couple of days until it is a withered mess.

The entire plant has only one reasonable leaf on it, and that one is
on its way out. What is wrong with this plant?

Thanks, Mike

Where are you located? Are there slimy lumps (for lack of a better
description) along the stem? Are there fingernail-red beetles
anywhere near the plant (they fall on the ground on their backs if
they sense you coming near - their bottomside is black, so they blend
into the ground). Look for red lily beetles and say goodby to your
lily unless you want to haul out the largely ineffective chemical guns
(or hand-pick the feces covered larvae and dispose of them, a very
tedious task if you've got lots of lilies).
--
Ann, gardening in Zone 6a
South of Boston, Massachusetts
e-mail address is not checked
******************************

None of that, thank goodness. This is a potted, indoor plant. It's
possible it's not getting enough sunlight.

Mike

More info needed. How big is its pot, in height and width? Does the pot
have
an attached saucer or one that can be removed? Is there a drainage hole
in
the bottom of the pot? How often do you water it, and how do or your wife
decide when watering is needed?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

It's in a small ceramic pot, 6" wide and 5" high, with a built in
saucer in the bottom.

About a year ago, it didn't get watered enough. My wife was out of
town and I was "taking care" of it. Mostly by ignoring it until all
the leaves were drooping down the side of the pot. (This is when it
still had more than one leaf.) One time I would have sworn it was
dead, but it came back ok.

Then I resolved to take better care of it, and I probably did start
watering it too much. For the last couple of months I've been
watering it thoroughly less than once a week, when the soil feels dry
deeper than half an inch.

My wife had also shaken a lot of fertilizer pellets into the pot,
thinking that was the problem. I read online that fertilizing a sick
plant is a bad idea, so I've since removed all the pellets. The plant
just won't get any better.

It's not that I'm particularly attached to this plant, but I feel like
there's something wrong with me if a 40 year old can't keep one potted
plant alive.

Mike


In other words, you're using a method known as guesswork, which is rarely
successful with plants. I'd suggest that any time you buy a plant, you keep
a record of all information on the plant tag, head to the library, and read
about the plant. The care info on the tags is always incomplete, and only
marginally accurate.