Four months ago, I relocated within Central Florida. I uprooted some of my 10′-12′ tall Rhapis excelsa palms to take with me & potted them in 24″ wide pots, using Miracle Gro’s Moisture Control Potting Soil. I planted 12 plants, at a rate of 4 per pot. Unfortunately, they didn’t do well during the move & only 4(in 1 pot) seem to have survived. The others wilted & seem to be rotting from the top down, though 5′-7′ of each trunk from the ground up are still green. I cut off the dead fronds and there’s been no new growth from the tips, which are now rotted. What can I do to try to save them? Please, advise? Thanks!

Many plant questions don’t have a simple answer. Finding out what is wrong with your plant often takes detective work. You have to ask yourself questions. Did I forget to water my plant last week? Did that move out onto the porch for a day cause this problem? Or the recent power outage that dropped temperatures into the 40s. Did something, anything out of the ordinary happen that my be the cause of my houseplant problem? Did my crazy cat use the plant as a litter box? Haha but you never know. I have some wild stories about plants on interior landscape accounts, but will save for a later date!

It sounds like the person who wrote this email pulled plants out of her/his yard, planted them into pots, and then moved to a new home. May have root damage, transplant shock, could have been exposed to excess heat or cold during the move, or all of these. I don’t know any of these things, so this is a hard question to answer.

A photo of a Rhapis Palm is posted next, in case you may be wondering what a Rhapis excelsa palm is or looks like. Sometimes people use the common name of Lady Palm for Rhapis palm. Just so you know, you cannot just cut back the stalk of a palm plant like you would many other houseplants. That will stop all growth from that stem or stalk. It may or may not put out new shoots from the base of the plant. Anyway, Rhapis excelsa palm picture…

I have had Rhapis palms that were in similar condition that I was able to regrow into healthy, vigorous plants but since I don’t know much about how you plan to use the palms, what kind of light they are in, etc. I can only give a general answer to this. If the roots of your palms are still somewhat healthy, you should cut any stalks that have started to die back off just above soil level. This will help the plant direct energy to growing new healthy stalks. Given some time, the plant should put out new shoots and, if you give it proper light and watering, it should be a nice full plant, if somewhat shorter than you started with, given some time to regrow.

This was all I could really tell her about her plants. Care of Rhapis excelsa palm plants…

Indoor House Plants Care

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