The common name for this particular house plant is the Compact Dragon Tree. This plant is relatively slow growing and has a compact design. The Compact Dragon Tree was originally native to South East Africa, but somehow over the last hundred years found it's way into my living room. Well that may be a slight exaggeration of sorts.
My mother owned this plant for quite some time and eventually passed it along to my wife and I. It's a sentimental plant for me because she received it in an arrangement of other plants, when my brother passed away many years ago. So I feel that caring for this plant is less of an obligation and more of a meaningful memory preserving thing. Let's just say that I have more of a connection with this plant, than some others in the house.
The time has come for me to stop being so lazy, and plant the branch that had fallen off several weeks ago. In my defense, we got busy and Thanksgiving rolled around. It became harder and harder for me to find a time to take a piece of plant that fell on the floor, clean it up, and plant it in the same pot as the original. Mostly though there was some laziness involved. I saw the piece sitting on the floor and knew I should do something about it but I got busy doing other things and kept putting it off and putting it off.
I posted about it a month ago on November 4th. The title of the piece was Dracaena Compacta Camma Crasha Downa. In the post I explained how my wife told me a piece of the plant just suddenly fell off and scared our dog Molly half to death. I came home, saw the damage and knew right away that I was going to fix this. I didn’t realize that it was gonna take me so long to do it.
It took me about three weeks to get to the task and another week or so to decide to write this blog post about it. So far all out there reading it, my sincere apologies! The piece that fell off was no worse for wear and no worse off than it was the day it fell. It looked exactly the same. I can’t believe how hardy these plants are. It makes me sort of wonder how long it could’ve gone before completely drying up and dying. I’m glad I didn’t find out because I would’ve been mad at myself. But, for the sake of science, I think it would’ve been quite a long time.
I’ve delayed it long enough with my babbling. First a before picture. This is what the plant look like before any TLC was performed.
As you may be able to tell, the plant is a bit lopsided in weight and appearance. The chunk that fell off, fell off from the right hand side of the photograph and it was attached somewhere down near the base.
It was the weekend and my plan was simple, I was going to clean up part of the stock of this broken off piece, insert it into the pot near the base of the plant, and water it for good measure. That was the plan and for the most part I carried it out as described.
First I cleaned up the stalk by removing all the dead material and a few of the green leaves at the base. I wanted to leave myself enough of a stock to insert into the soil to allow for new root growth.
Then I found a piece of metal to make a hole in the soil.. The soil was pretty soft, so the tool pushed through the soil fairly well and without much effort at all.
Here is the metal rod and the cleaned up branch that I will be inserting into the new hole.
Here is my fancy tool! Well, okay, not so fancy. Just a nice strong piece of scrap metal that will get the job done!
One, Two, Three .. Hole is done being made! Then another One, two, three and the piece of Dragon plant is nicely tucked into the hole.
I pinched the soil around the newly inserted branch, and watered everything for good measure.
But then I realized that the plant looked off balance still. It did look fuller since inserting that piece to the far right, but there is now a large piece that is extending quite high on the left-hand side. The more I examined this piece I noticed that it also was forming these knobby root like appendages at the base where it had formed off a previously cut piece.
I knew what I had to do. I was going to cut this piece off and plant this as well. I may as well get the job done. It’s only a matter of time before this piece falls off and I’m at this again. So, while I have the tools out and the time I’m just going to get to it.
I sanitized a sharp knife with a bit of bleach and water, then made the cut. The woody stem was much harder than I thought it would be, but with a little elbow grease I was able to cut the branch off.
Now I had another piece to clean up. So like the other branch, I removed a decent amount of plant material both dead and living from the base. This exposed those little route like knobs.
In the picture below you can see those little knobs that are starting to push out at the very bottom. I believe that these will form new roots in time. The piece is ready to be put into the pot and I hope it creates a more balanced appearance as well.
I really think that it came out looking fantastic! I like the balanced look of the plant as well as having retain some of its core stem disability. The lanky look of the plant is actually one of its qualities in some respects. I like the multicolored pattern found on all the stems. I wouldn’t want to cover it all up and have just another green plant.
Molly and Pepper are quietly looking on and give their nod of approval. I suppose they sort of always are. hahaha. I needed the company, even if it is just a blanket. At least the blanket isn't telling me I am doing it all wrong. Not that that happens a lot around here, but it's nice to have the silent onlookers. FYI, Molly was having no parts of this process. She was long gone and out of sight.
Everything is back in its original place now. After all my TLC was completed, I move the plant back into its original location and a spot it was doing so well in. Why change a good thing. It still looks great and actually looks better in this location. With the plant pretty much cleaned up of its brown dead leaves and now having a more balanced look, the area just feels better.
Here are the Before and After shots. What a transformation! I am feeling so good about this Compact Dragon plant again. It looks like a whole new plant.
While I was cleaning things up and preparing to shove the stems down into the soil, I did notice another little shoot starting to emerge. I’ll have to see where this goes and hopefully this is a good sign and not a sign of stress. My plant may be getting a bit fuller then I originally expected. I’ll be considering this only as good news!
Even though Molly was not much of a help and actually ran and hid with her mommy, I still thought she deserved some sort of reward for being such a big girl and not shaking so much.
Any reason to give Molly a treat is a good reason! Yum Yum.
“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”
― Lao Tzu
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