my Swedish Ivy isn't happy

Hi!
I've had this little Swedish Ivy plant for about a year, and it doesn't seem to be very happy. I thought I'd have a big bushy plant that I'd actually have to trim to keep cute - but it's been performing pretty poorly.

I took this picture the day before yesterday. It doesn't seem totally unhealthy - but it just doesn't seem to grow. It's looked like this for at least six months. It's only about 4" tall, leggy with a few decent looking leaves.

It's potted in regular potting mix, probably Miracle Grow or Jungle Growth. I added the bit of sphagum moss the other day on a whim. I haven't really added any fertilizer either. It drains really well and I water it about twice a week.

It's on the back porch of my house here in Central Florida - where our summers get pretty hot, and I don't live far from the beach, so there's a lot of salt in the air. The weather's cooled off a bit now. It gets probably 1-3 hours of direct-ish morning sun. By afternoon, the sun's moved enough that the sun-loving plants on the shelf above it block the harsher sun.

Any suggestions to get this plant going?

Thanks!

There's quite a glare on your photo, is your plant's foliage really as light green as it appears or is that just from the glare? I'd grow this plant in bright shade but no direct sunlight.

My eyes aren't the greatest, but it looks to me like the plant might need a bit larger pot. You can remove it from it's current container and take a look at the roots, maybe pot up one size larger. I think it might need less water also. With our high humidity here in Florida I don't think it should be drying out so quickly that it would require twice weekly watering.

Here's the link to Plant Files for "Swedish Ivy", Plectranthus verticillatus: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/1354/

I'm almost certain we can get your plant back on track, but first tell us if you've checked carefully for insect infestations? Check carefully for scale, mealybug and particularly spider mites. I see you have the pot the plant is actually IN, in a cache pot; do you water over the sink and flush the soil thoroughly when you water, then wait for the pot to stop draining before returning it to the cache pot, or do you leave it in the cache pot and water in small sips?

You cannot depend on your chosen medium to supply the nutrients a plant needs. As the grower, you need to shoulder the responsibility for ensuring the plant gets the nutrients required for normal growth in the right ratio and concentration. Unfortunately, even if you were fertilizing regularly, improper watering and slow (draining) soils that promote the build-up of soluble salts impair your ability to fertilize properly. That can be fixed.

I'll keep watch for your reply.

Al

That glare in the photo is horrible, isn't it?! I had to have taken that with my useless cameraphone. Fortunately, the Swedish Ivy is happier, and I have a better picture. :)

I had only been watering in sips, and I had a pretty fast draining medium. Whatever I had used was probably a mixture of potting mix with extra coconut coir, sphagum moss, or vermiculite. So I couldn't have been giving it as much water as it needed. Also, when I took it out of the plastic pot, it looked like there were loads of spidery roots and not much medium left! *shameful* So I repotted it directly into a larger ceramic pot. I used some Jungle Growth Flower and Veggie mix, and added some vermiculite. The diameter of the top of the new pot in the pic is only a little bit larger than the original cache pot, but it's a bit deeper for more roots.

I't probably hard to really get a good idea of how much better the plant actually looks due to the poor quality original pic, but it's already noticeably greener and bushier. I'm looking forward to having to repot it again!

Thanks!

The changes you made must have worked ... your plant looks great!