In article ,
"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote:

"Billy Rose" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote:

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.

Joe, why disparage the advice given, unless you have better advice for
here and now? Next time doesn't help Mike now. Your advice reminds me of
the story about the airliner that was flying into Seattle in the fog
when its navigational equipment failed.


Since nobody knows:

-The type of lilly
-The size of the pot
-How much water it was given
- How much of what type of fertilizer it was given...

....very little of the advice given so far is truly useful. One thing is
true, though: Society, in general, has lost track of books. That is so
wrong, especially for gardeners.
Joe,
In teaching, it's called modeling behavior. Show the student how to cope
with a situation and hopefully the next time, or the time after that,
they will mimic your approach and then they can do it on their own.

Your right. Every plant is a whole universe unto its' self. The thought
of having a garden is intimidating and very satisfying.

- Billy
Coloribus gustibus non disputatum (mostly)

Thanks, Kay, and to everyone else who offered advice. To those few

Seriously, if you can id the plant, we can give you a much better idea of
how to care for it properly. There are a whole lot of things with "lily"
in the common name, most of which are not true lilies, or even in the
lily family. Worse than that, they grow best under all sorts of different
conditions.

Here are some basic sorts of diagnostic questions to ask when dealing
with sick houseplants:

-- do I see bugs, tiny cobwebs, bumps or other oddities that didn't
used to be there? (id the critter or disease and cure or dispose of the
plant)

-- did any environmental condition change from when it used to look good
to when it started looking bad? (if so, try to change it back... amount of
light, distance from the window, room temperature, drafts, relative
humidity...)

-- are the tips of the leaves browning? (if so, check for white or brownish
crusts on the soil as the soil dries out -- too much fertilizer or too hard
water. repot in clean soil).

-- stick your finger in the soil. Is it moist at least an inch down?
Is it soggy? Does the soil smell bad? Is there a white or brownish crust
on the soil? (Houseplants are typically grown drought-and-drown fashion...
underwatered for awhile till someone notices they're drooping, and then
overwatered and left to sit in standing water. Not wonderful for most
plants. What happens in the drown phase is that the water fills up the
air spaces in the soil. Roots need oxygen. (YOUR GRADE SCHOOL TEACHER
WAS WRONG! PLANTS NEED OXYGEN, TOO! Especially the non-green parts!)
Roots start to rot as they die, and the soil microbe population really
explodes, producing a lot of acid because there's not enough oxygen for
them to do aerobic respiration either. Prevent by watering well, dump
standing water after an hour.)

-- has it been over a year since it was repotted in fresh soil? (might as
well go ahead and do it... soil organic matter disappears, the soil
structure collapses and the fertilizer (or lack of it) tends to get way
out of whack. Repotting is fast and easy.)

Anyhow, if you can give us some idea of what the plant is, we can be more
specific. Otherwise, try Ye Olde wash the soil off the roots and repot.
Works quite a bit of the time.

Kay