your link.

Pic 1 - Variegated Schefflera with ?
Pic 2 - palm of some sort?
3 - Yucca?
4 - that's the Schefflera
5-7 ?

Considering your description, these plants look pretty good. It looks like there are smaller pots within the large pots?

Thank you. I googled Variegated Schefflera and I do think that's one of the plants. Although most pictures show it as a bushy plant and this one has a super thin and tall stalk.

I don't think the other one is a yucca. The yucca I know are more of a cactus. This is perhaps a palm that lost all of it's lower leaves?

Yes some of the plants are in smaller pots inside the big pot. They are also full of the round lava rocks. One the dead ones I pulled out also had some very old, partially disintegrated styrofoam mixed in among the rocks. It looked like the stuff you use for flower arrangements.

I take back what I said about yucca. I only knew the kind out in the desert, I looked at house plant pictures and maybe it is a yucca?

I wouldn't repot them in soil, because they developed water roots. The change might kill them if they can't grow soil roots quick enough.
Yet they seem to need bigger pots. So simply get a one size bigger and transplant them. While doing this, rinse those balls in the big pots very well. You will need fertilizer (liquid) for hydroponics. I use Dutch pro grow A+B but there may be better ones.

Here is a link that might be useful: Houseplants in hydro

I'm still not sure if there is 'dirt' in the smaller pots, or it's all 'rocks?'

It's all rocks with a bit of old foam, even in the smaller pots.

MsGreenFinger thank you for the link. Now I know the "lava" rocks are actually expanded clay pebbles. I'll talk to the people at the garden store and see if I can find a good hydro fertilizer. I've never handled plants like that, but if they've survived so many years with only an occasional watering, they must be used to it.

As for a bigger pot, do you mean the small individual pots inside the bigger one or the huge white pot holding all the plants? It's already about 80 cm in diameter.

5-7 looks like a rubber tree (Ficus elastica)

Just change the small inner ones if necessary - you need to check the roots anyway. Repotting is easy with these clay balls, not as messy as with soil. Oh and get rid of that styrofoam.
Is the white line on that pot you mentioned as a marker for water level? That seems a reasonable amount of water and if you can install a water level indicator, it makes your life easier. Flush the pots every now and then to wash off the salt buildup.
The plants are a bit leggy because the lack of light and probably fertilizer. First add only half strength and keep them out of direct sun. Once they get stronger, you can try to trim them for a bushier look.

Fascinating! The more anecdotes I read about this stuff, the more interesting it gets. Pics of great, older plants like these are compelling.

@raweseus yes the rubber tree does look similar, but oh my gosh those get big! That will eventually take over my apartment if that's really a rubber tree.

@MsGreenFinger thank you that seems very clear. The set of plants with the yucca, palm and schefflera has a water indicator. The rubber tree one doesn't. Perhaps it did at one time, but I don't know what happened to it. I'll see about getting a new one for it. Thanks for the tips about flushing them , the fertilizer and light. I have some hope of making them feel welcome in their new home.

@purpleinopp I'm also fascinated. I always thought hydroponics involved complicated water delivery systems. They also have hung in there beautifully. I've been in the office 3 years and no one other than the cleaning lady has ever done anything with them and she just gave them water. The office was originally started about 10 years ago so it's possible they withstood a decade of neglect.

Hi folks,

#2 might be a Ficus Allii (sp?).

#5 MAY be a Rubber Plant (Ficus Elastica), but something in the leaves in one of the shots says Croton (a Euphorbia called Codaeum) to me, maybe one which lost its color.

I'd ask if that last plant bleeds white sap, but if I recall some Ficus do that & many Euphorbias do too. Maybe a closer pic if possible of the one in #5-7?

I grow some plants in those clay balls, mine are called Leca stones. One could use a liquid houseplant fertilizer, just dilute it to maybe 1/4 strength (I mix mine up from a powder). I do that sometimes.

Hiya Purp, thanks much for the link, helpful.

Maybe a ficus alii! Or something similar.

#5-7 does indeed have white sap.

Here's a close up of #5-7's "trunk"

And here's some of its leaves. The mature leaves are between 12 and 15 cm long and between 4-7 cm wide.

A lot of the websites about rubber trees mentioned air roots. This plant doesn't seem to have them, but perhaps that's due to the bad growing conditions?

And here's the underside of the leaves.

Thx for the additional pix, I don't think this is a F. elastica at all. Maybe not a Croton either.

Maybe some other Ficus I don't know?

Hopefully Al (Tapla, our resident ficus maven) will see this & chime in.

Something about the area where those leaves come together (or start out together, don't know the term), doesn't look like either of the guessed at IDs so far. Reminds me more of a Magnolia (yes, I said that & am thinking what????)

the "yucca" is a Dracaena of some sort.

Now that I know how to post pictures. Here's a close up of number 3's stalk and where the leaves attach. The leaves are about 22 cm long and 2.5 - 3 cm wide. It's hard to tell because none of them are in good shape.

This post was edited by gamblingbear on Fri, Jun 20, 14 at 13:52

And number 2's "the palm"

"The palm's" leaves vary from 12-22 cm and are about 1 cm wide.

I haven't found a picture of a dracaena that looks like this one yet, but there seem to be so many different types, that I wouldn't rule it out yet as the correct id for "the yucca"

I have my doubts that 5-7 is a magnolia tree, although I do see similarities to that giant monster magnolia my parents had in front of their house when I was a child.

I did say I don't know what #5-7 is, just that it made me think of that. I'm getting more sure it's NOT a F elastic. But partly reminds me of F. lyrata, tho' the leaves are wrong shape for that. Maybe it IS another type Ficus which I also suggested it could be.

Doubtful that #2 is a palm, have you seen palms? They don't look anything like that (I grew up in the tropics, w/ some palms in neighbors front yard).

I'd much sooner go w/ Ficus alli (for #2), have you checked out some of its pix?

the last sev pics it's def Ficus maclellandii, common names Narrow-leaf Fig/Banana Leaf Ficus/willow leaf ficus. 'Alii' and 'Amstel King' are dif cultivars. i think it's alii too.
you substrate looks similar to lechuza stuff - it's a special clay aggregate for sub-irrigation. it's german and is widely used in europe. go to their site - and you can read about how it's done. they sell special planters, but the aggregate can be used just by itself too in self-watering system by itself or with soil on top.

the 5-7: that's def not a rubber tree. it does look similar to ficus leaves, but i think it's smth else.
can we get another pic of the underside of leaves - they have interesting bumps, that should be the give-away.

This post was edited by petrushka on Fri, Jun 20, 14 at 20:21

Thanks. I agree I think Ficus alii seems right for #2. All the pictures I found had white grayish "trunks" and mine is reddish brown and not smooth, but looking for ficus maclelandii, I found some pictures like that.

Here's another picture of the underside of 5-7's leaves.

that looks like the top side judging by veining. but i can see those bumps (interveining) much better. it reminds me of smth, but i can't place it. are leaves meaty, like a succulent?
i looked at a lot of pics of exotic ficuses and found no smooth brown bark like you have.
also the cane on that 'dracaena' doesn't look like dracaena cane at all, it does look like yucca cane ..almost, but leaves not yucca but very like dracaena. quite a mystery.