Here's the second plant:

Just a quick question about the smaller of the two. It seems to be sending out babies, but not in the way I'm used to. It has sent up two stalks with smaller plants at the top, as opposed to growing off the side. Are these babies or is something else going on here?

Here's the second stalk:

Those are offsets, from the roots. Your plant is not mature enough to flower and produce little aerial babies.

I didn't think it was doing well enough (or was mature enough), but I didn't know what else they could be. Thanks!

What was wrong with your spider plant? (I just re-planted mine in soil, pearlite, peat/sphagnum, because the straight soil mix was holding too much water and not letting the roots breathe.) There were almost no healthy roots left!

Well, I'm still not 100% sure what was wrong. It could have been one of several things. Or maybe all!

My first (incorrect) guess was sunburn as the white part of the leaves was going brown. This was wrong. That's the only thing I know for sure!

Several members suggested it was the tap water I was using to water it. This is plausible, although a second spider I have has done fine on tap water for quite some time. Regardless I switched to using only water from my fishtank (I set aside some water for my plants when I do water changes). Apparently setting water out overnight or using rainwater is also fine.

I also wondered about root rot. The first time I repotted the roots looked great, so I discarded that theory. I repotted again two weeks later out of desperation when the plant was all but dead. That time there were almost no healthy roots left!

The second time I repotted I used cactus soil. That's when the improvement started. I think the soil it came in and the regular potting soil I used to repot retained too much water. Now it seems to be doing much better in the drier soil.

So either the soil or the water. Or both! Hope that helps.