I've had this plant for about 10 years, it stays inside most of the time.
not sure it's tropical, can someone id?
it has gotten too tall and 'leggy'. Overall appearance is not good. Can I cut the top off and root it?
It gets these little flowers
I really love the foliage
I think its a type of dieffenbachia
Hello Linda.
I believe you have one of the Aglaonemas.
From Wikipedia: "Aglaonema is a genus of about 20 species of flowering plants in the family Araceae, native to the tropical swamps and rainforests of southeastern Asia from Bangladesh east to the Philippines and north to southern China. No common name is widely used, though they are sometimes called "Chinese evergreen".
Erick
I'll go with that!! lol Haven't thought about either plant in years....
Erick, thanks. Chinese Evergreen rings a bell, I've had it so long and bought it because they said it would live inside with very little light. It's been in a group of plants under a lamp, so I had not noticed how tall and lanky it was. I'll look in the files to see if I can find propagation information. It has a new baby coming up in the pot but I would like for it to be shorter and fuller.
Linda, a have a diff. variety but still a chinese evergreen. Mine was getting pretty leggy and losing leaves. When I moved it to a slightly brighter location, it improved. I also increased the water just a bit. Mine was parched, I was a bit neglectful with this plant. But I have mended my was and the plant is improving.
Mine is an indoor potted plant.
Linda, you are most welcome. I'm just pleased that I could actually identify something here!
Erick
I'm having this same problem with my 'Silver Queen'. It's tall and has leaves mostly at the top. I don't know how to make this plant bushier. What's worse is I think I'm asking this question much to late in the growing season to be able to do anything about it!!!!
I'm going to give it a try. What I found 'out there' says to stick cuttings in a pot of damp peat moss & pearlite, enclose the pot in a plastic bag and give medium light. In about 6-8 weeks there should be roots. Also says that it will root in water.
I think I'll cut my longest piece, make several cuttings from the bottom up and put the top in water. Maybe a new shoot will come from where I make my cut.
I saw a photo of Silver Queen, it's a beauty.
I think it got leggy cauce of the light it was under try growing it in a window Regards Paul
Yes, you can root tip cuttings with 6 or more inches of stem in a coarse rooting medium that drains well. I like a mix of sphagnum peat moss and coarse perlite with at least half of the total being perlite...1 peat to 2 perlite works good too, as well as many other types of mediums like very coarse sand, peat and sand, peat+perlite+vermiculite, etc. Here in Fla, the plastic bag isn't necessary, I root them easily in my open shadehouse, but I'd recommend it elsewhere. Be sure to leave the top open a bit, so some fresh air can enter. When you cut the canes from the potted plant, don't cut them too high above the soil line. Just leave 3" or so, which will force low new growth and produce a very bushy plant right from the soil line. You'll even have new plants breaking from buds on the cane below the soil line, and these plants will emerge from the soil around the old stem.
Now, if you've got a very long stem left over after having cut it from the base and taken the tip off to root, you can cut the cane into smaller lengths (I like 3" to 4" pieces) and lay them down sideways into that same rooting medium, with the top just barely showing, and most of the cutting down in the mix. Treat these the same as the tip cutting, in a plastic bag. The lowest part of these sideways canes will produce roots, and some of the buds that are between each 'section' on the stem will produce plants. At least 1 of the buds will break and produce a plant, sometimes 2 or 3.
So, now that youve cut those lanky stems off the base, it will produce many new plants from each of the old stems, and will be very bushy right from the soil line. If this plant is
very rootbound and you don't want to repot into a larger one, it's possible to unpot it and root-prune it, cut the roots back a bit toward the center, and repot with fresh mix back in the same pot. It won't delay new growth much at all. You can also take this opportunity
to divide the plant, if it's full of roots and old stems, and have 2 or 3 new smaller pots of
Aglaonemas to share with friends. Rather than describe this here, anyone can post me
privately and I'll help with this, or field any other questions you might have about Ags.
Russ
central Fla chammer@cfl.rr.com
HI SHANIKA!! Give me a shout!
By the way Linda, your plant looks to me like Aglaonema 'Maria', a hybrid. If you'll Google
this name, you'll find some pictures to compare.
Russ
Thanks Russ, I'll print out your information above and give it a try.