D. godseffiana Florida Beauty is an entirely different plant in appearance and is much more suitable for room decoration; leaves are smaller and much more numerous and the plant has an overall golden appearance. The improved type is considerably more attractive than D. godseftiana, which has dull green leaves faintly speckled with white.

Not easy to grow (many of my professional colleagues consider them difficult), we have found that by planting from six to nine of these in earthenware saucers some 3 ft. in diameter and 6 in. in depth they grow extremely well. In the larger area plants have a much better root run and respond by growing to a height of or 4 ft., which is unusually tall for this variety. Plants placed in offices in such containers also give much better results than those growing in more conventional pots. Temperature and general conditions should be similar to that recommended for the first two dracaenas.

D. marginata has red-margined spiky green leaves and attains a height of some 15 to 20 ft. when growing in a pot. However, it is a slow attains a maximum height of some 7 ft., but may produce a rather grand flowering stern at the top before it reaches its maximum height. The emergence of the flower spike is usually an indication that the plant should be cut down and used for propagating a few fresh plants, as it loses much of its appearance when producing flowers. Cuttings of stems that would seem too old for this purpose root with little difficulty.

In common with almost all greenhouse plants which have tightly matted, twining stems mealy bug can be troublesome when it gets in among the branches and is difficult to contact effectively when spraying. A regular inspection of plants should be made and necessary precautions taken at the first sign of trouble.

Growth is upright and leaves are white and light grey in colour, making the plants very useful for incorporating in mixed arrangements where there is a backing of green plants, as is so often the case.

Losing the lower leaves in this way is a characteristic of dracaenas of this type, and does not detract too much from their appearance as the stems in themselves are not unattractive. In order to encourage plants of more interesting shape the growing tops can be removed when they are about 3 ft. in height; with luck several stems should result. Of the two D. bausei is the more colourful, having a distinctive white-centred leafy but alas, it is also a little more difficult to care for`. taller growing plants must have a’ substantial root system if they are to remain anchored to the ground, so they Will need potting on into slightly larger containers in the spring of each year, using a fairly heavy compost which will keep them going for the twelve months.

Tags: a, b, c, culture, e, education, f, free, gardening, guides, h, hobbies, home & family, house, i, information, l, Landscaping, leisure, life, n, news, o, plants, r, reference, t, tips, u

Print This Post

Rate this post:

Related Posts:

• No related posts

This entry was posted on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 7:50 pm and is filed under backyard, gardening. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.