Any chance of a picture? That would give us a much better idea (hard to say w/out it).

Often we advocate only repotting in Spring, but some plants are Winter growers or opportunistic (growing all year if circumstances are to its liking), so that can vary.

It mostly depends on the kinds of plants involved & what kind of mix they're in (also the level of experience of the grower).

Yes, as Karen said, please post a picture.

I occasionally re-pot "out of season," but only if I'm worried about the health of the plant.
If it's a life or death thing, I re-pot regardless of season...and then just expect the recovery
to take a bit longer.

Josh

Iam, I too do exactly what Josh say's.

In fact, I receive many plants bare rooted at this time in mail and pick up a few new ones in terrible mixes, and repot them. They survive, but recovery is a bit slower.

Later 'Spring' is the ideal time for most of my plants.

Mike

Hi & welcome to Gardenweb.

If they're standard low-light tropicals, there's probably no reason to repot or to NOT repot. By that I mean that repotting probably won't do any harm if needed, but if you put some holes in that plastic liner thing and remove it from the basket to water/drip dry, it would probably allow the plants to be happy for a few more months. Overcrowding usually makes up for lack of drainage at some point, for a brief period until havoc occurs, so it's unlikely there's both simultaneously. Without actually looking at the overall thing at least, but preferably the roots too, it's hard to say what I'd do with your particular plant. Is the plastic thing see-through? Maybe we could see the roots if you can get a pic w/o glare. Have you any way to know how long the arrangement has been in the existing soil?

It's possible you just have plants that are expected to lose an occasional leaf. Seeing the leaves and roots if that's something you feel like doing would help you get much better specific advice.

This is the best picture I could get of it. I know it doesn't really look like there are five plants in there, but there are. I don't know much about plants so I don't know the names of any of them. As far as how long they have been in there, I have had the arrangement since the beginning of November, and it came from a florist so I have no idea how long it was in the basket before I got it.

This post was edited by iammadeofdreams on Wed, Jan 2, 13 at 18:48

I would repot these as soon as convenient due to different light tolerances.

1 Dracaena sanderiana
2 Dieffenbachia or Aglaonema
3 Maranta
4 Syngonium (an extremely pretty one!)
5 probably Spathiphyllum, peace lily

The Drac and Maranta can take and would appreciate quite a bit of light, some direct morning or evening sun if outside, anything but the hottest middle hours.

The Dief/Ag, if any direct sun, only very early in the morning.

The Syngonium and PL won't appreciate sun beating directly on them - in most places. The farther north one goes, the less strength there is in direct rays, especially for the next 2-3 months.

The damage to the leaf tips on the Drac in particular can be a little more difficult to control than just providing fresh soil and a little room for roots to roam. If you keep seeing that, investigate an alternative water source than tap water, like catching some rain water, the reservoir of a dehumidifier, distilled.

Occasionally, you should water like a flood, so bad stuff that may have built up in the soil can flush out.

Drainage doesn't just mean a hole in the bottom of a pot. You also want a chunky soil that holds a lot of air between the particles, something that is not mostly peat. Do you need some reading material about that?

Dang, that's a spreadsheet of knowledge there, but delivered with unspreadsheetlike charm.

Yep, great info from Purple :-)

Josh

Thanks 2x :)

They are all really beautiful plants, I especially love the one that was numbered as 3. I have never seen one like that before.

I have been using distilled water on all of my plants ever since someone told me that my peace lilly was sensitive to chlorine in the water, and the tap water around here reeks of it. I also get free reverse osmosis water at work so I use that sometimes.

The only thing I have ever repotted before is an orchid so a little guidance on what to use for these would be great.

Purple....What a very kind thing for you to do!

I also benefitted from your post and learned a few names as well. Thank you:-)

Mike

Thanks for saying, Mike. I'd say your tutorial would be a helpful thing to help Iammade get started.

Iammade, distilled is a great plan.

In addition to the tutorial, for your particular plant, you might want to have another set of hands around at least when you first take that mass out of the pot, just in case something needs to be caught, and to generally help support the mass while upside-down. How many times have I dumped a plant upside down and smushed a bunch of it? I'm not saying. If one person can get hands on the soil (while upside down) while the other person lifts the pot from the mass, that's usually the safest way to go with something too big to support with one hand like this. Gently bang UP on the rim if the pot doesn't come off readily.

If it's too cold outside where you are, spread some newspaper, at least a few sheets thick, to make cleanup a breeze, as they would say in an ad. To separate the plants, start with the one that looks like it's mostly likely to let go easily, and gently tug it away from the mass by holding it just below where it emerges from the soil, using the other hand to attempt to untangle the roots. If some break, that's fine. Have some old scissors handy to trim the roots anyway. Anything so long it has to curl or bend to go in the new pot is too long. I would probably aim for pots 4-6" across (leaving the longest roots trimmed to just over 3-4".) If you're not sure, understandably, what size root ball accompanies each plant, maybe get several of both sizes and return what ends up being extra. Once separated, you're in the territory of Mike's pics. I especially like the soil pics, you can really see how airy and chunky what he uses is.

I finally got everything repotted last night. There was a little bit of what I assume was root rot starting on a few of them, but I trimmed away all of it that I could find. I must say, root trimming was one of the most unnerving things I have ever done. Hopefully the plants are happy. I know I would be happier not being crowded in like that.

Bravo for your bravery. Feel free to show some pics if you feel like it. (It will only take one at a time per post, but it's fine to make multiple posts if you take more than 1 pic.) Sending good vibes to your plants!

Purple, I swear...you should be a computer analyst. :)
How did you spot the Spath?
At first glance, I thought it was an Alocasia.

Iam. It's a good thing you repotted. If some roots were starting to rot, keeping plants in the basket could/would have been fatal.
Was there an odor? Toni

This one got more yellow leaves after the repotting, I'm guessing it is just the stress of a new home.

This split into two while I was cleaning it up so I put it into separate pots. One of them is doing nicely, but the other has a lot of browning leaves. The roots on both looked good though so I think it will be alright.

I'm a little baffled about the curling leaf on the Maranta there. It only has the tiniest bit of brown/yellow on it, it's mostly just all curled up. A light issue maybe? Or just stress or the repotting?

Ok, last picture. This is the one I am most proud of. The roots were a tangled rotting mess and there were a bunch of sad leaves on it when I started. It I've never cut the roots of a plant before and I think I did a pretty good job. I probably erred on the side of caution, because plants with sentimental value are irreplaceable. But it looks to be doing well.

It's normal to lose a few older leaves when repotting. Those same leaves (on that Drac.) are brown-tipped in the original pic. Once the plants stabilize and have grown a new leaf or two, remove the damaged leaves, but for now they're still contributing to the plant. Hopefully that distilled water will help it stop doing that.

Was that Maranta leaf opened before? The leaves on these plants go up and down but I don't think they're supposed to roll back up once they have unrolled. That leaf may not make it, but be careful about trimming it off too soon. The new leaf will come out of that leaf's petiole. You may be able to see it forming already. Once it gets settled into the new pot, it should start growing pretty fast.

The Syngonium (man, that's pretty!) and Maranta sitting together makes me wonder about the light in that spot. The Maranta can use a LOT more light than the Syn. One of them is probably in the wrong place.

Your soil looks nice!!

Iammade, looks like you did a good job with those plants, and you're off to a great start. Dish gardens are made in florist shops with an eye only to the attractiveness of the various foliages, not to water and light requirements. They're just a slightly longer-lived version of a flower arrangement.

You made a choice that too few people do, that of repotting all the plants separately. Mostly, if the gardens live at all, only 1 or 2 of the plants survive, based on the kind of light and water they get.

All your plants are tough customers and good for a newbie to start with, except for the maranta - it's a little more finicky. Keep your chin up even if you lose a couple of these - all of us have thrown out plenty of plants on the road to whatever knowledge about plants we now possess. Some of us still do (chuckles and snickers). So keep on asking questions, learning, and experimenting; above all, learn what the plants have to teach you. Bona Fortuna.

Purple, you are just going cr-a-zy with that little pen of yours, aren't you. How cool. Is it something available on the site, or is it an app or something you've got. What is it, where can I get one?

Hey, FW, thanks. I think you're talking about writing on someone else's pic? I hope so, since that's what this explanation is about...

right-click on picture
choose save as
name it or let computer name it
open in paint (probably in download folder, if you need to look for it)
edit with text or circles or whatever
save file
add back to discussion

If you try it, I think you'll see it sounds more complicated than it is.

Purple, that's what I'm talking about, if that's what you've been doing. I've clipped it and copied it, I'll be trying it, don't know when, don't know where. Thanks so much.

You're welcome. There's a test forum if you want to play with it informally. Smiles!

The Maranta is looking worse, all of the leaves are curled up now. I really don't want to give up on it because it means a lot to me. With one exception (an aloe that was a gift from a coworker), all of the plants I own came from my dad's funeral. And my dad had the green thumb of the family, so in some weird way I feel like it would be important to him that someone take good care of the plants... Probably doesn't make sense to anyone but me...

Is it getting some sunshine? That's the main thing you can control at this point, along with making sure it's never soggy but never gets bone dry. The clay pot will help it cycle through water as fast as possible, which is good. Clay pots usually have a nice, big hole in the bottom too, where you finger will fit, to really see how moist it feels at the bottom.

How big was the root ball of this plant? How did its' roots look when you were repotting it?

I think you're taking great care of the plants, caring, doing what you know and giving them as much attention as you think they need. Can you take a new pic of it? It looked pretty good in the last one. When all else fails, I try to breathe often on a struggling plant, like giving an oxygen tank to a human.

This is what it looks like today. It is getting as much sun as possible with the bleak weather we have been having around here recently. I have one of those daylight lightbulbs I could set up near it to help make up for the fact that Mother Nature is being stingy with the sun right now.

The roots on it looked good as far as I could tell. There were several long, thick roots and some clusters of tiny fine ones. One of the clusters of fine roots was very tightly packed with the old soil and even with several attempts of soaking it in water and rinsing it I couldn't get it to untangle so I ended up leaving it that way. There didn't appear to be any rotting at all on it, but I did have to trim the long ones a little to get them to fit in the pot without curling.

I don't know if this counts as breathing on it, but I do talk to my plants. They are the only living things in my apartment other than myself so I talk to them about all sorts of things.

Hi imadeofdreams. I have been in and out of gardenweb since May. Your Maranta is scaring me. They are fussy plants that require the following things

. rich well drained soil
. plenty of water
. high humidity
. and medium to low light

* I hope it survives.
* All of the other plants look fine. Just trimm the dry leaf edges to your Dracaena Sanderiana(a varegated"lucky bamboo" in soil).

Sorry, but I disagree about using clay pots for houseplants, it will dry them out too fast, especially for things like the Maranta, which I doubt (being tropical) wish to dry out completely.

(Unglazed) Clay pots are porous, so they themselves absorb some of the water away from the soil & the plants, one of the reasons they're preferred for growing succulents.

Looking at the outside of the pot, it looks like moisture is seeping through, but that's hard to gauge from a pic. Sorry the sun isn't cooperating. I'm really not sure why it's so unhappy. Yes, talking counts as breathing. What are the white spots at the edge of the pot?

Hey, PG, I warned against drying out completely, but do you think it's better to be able to water more often?

I'm not sure which white spots you mean... If you mean the kind of blurry whitish bit on the back inside edge of the pot it is just some bits of the potting mix that were wet and stuck to the side.

I moved it back from the window a little and, maybe it's just wishful thinking, but I think it perked up a bit. I think my windows are a bit drafty. Perhaps that is the problem.

Ok, I thought so, about those spots, good.

Maybe laying a towel or something along the bottom of the window, on the sill, could help block the draft you're (and your plant is) feeling. Wishful thinking is the best kind! Sending good vibes.