Is this houseplant dying?

My daughter has had this plant for two years, starting out from when it was barely 4 inches high. She's a new Mom, with another on the way, so she doesn't have a lot of time to devote to the few plants she has, but she has hardy ones for that reason. This plant has grown well over the past two years, but all of a sudden it seems to be dying. There have been no changes to its environment, she's pretty consistent about watering the plants, so we don't have a clue what might have changed.

Here's the plant in question. And that's my daughter's boy, my grandson River who is about to give the plant a kiss because I told him it had an owie.

Any suggestions?

 

WEll Ronni, I would get River to stop kissing that plant like now. I may not be right but I think it's a Dieffenbachia type. It's not worth the chance.....They are poisonous. If it is one. I am sure others will chime in here.

I would clean out all the dead things and repot it. Size the pot for the size of the roots. They may be small or large, wait and see. Then water it till is drains out the bottom and then let it dry completely out before watering again until it begins to recover.

Until someone finds me wrong....no kisses...go call your daughter.....

 

Thanks for the warning waretrop, I very much appreciate your concern. I didn't let him get close enough to actually kiss it because I wasn't sure if it was OK. He kissed the air about 4 inches from it, and was satisfied with that. And Paige has been keeping it on top of her armoire, well out of River's reach. I put it on the dining room table just long enough to take a picture of it.

I think I'll bring it to my house, and see what I can do to doctor it, based on your suggestions. I have one too, very leggy and spindly now, compared to how bushy it was when I first got it several years back. But it seems to be healthy regardless, so I just keep putting stakes in the pot to support it, and watering it and pulling off the dead leaves, and it just keeps growing.

Here's mine:

 

OH yes that looks good. Why don't you just swap with her till you get hers growing pretty....Then she'll have a plant....

 

Now why didn't *I* think of that. Great idea!

 

I have one of those, and it looked pretty sad when I "stole" it from my mom. We live together again so she kind of has it back, but Im the one who cares for it haha
What I do is put it outside all summer in a nice shady spot on the porch. I only water it when theres no rain in the forecast for the week and its gonna be a hot one. Otherwise I left Mother Nature do her thing. I did clip off some of the longer canes that were hanging down over the edge.

Heres what I got from Wikipedia: With a minimum temperature of 5 °C (41 °F), dieffenbachia must be grown indoors in temperate areas. They need light, but filtered sunlight through a window is usually sufficient. They also need moderately moist soil, which should be regularly fertilized with a proprietary houseplant fertilizer. Leaves will periodically roll up and fall off to make way for new leaves. Yellowing of the leaves is generally a sign of problematic conditions, such as a nutrient deficiency in the soil. Dieffenbachia respond well to hot temperatures and dry climates.

So you may need to change out the potting soil for fresh.

Heres what it looked like when I stole it back in 2010 (I think, may have been 09)

( photo / image / picture from TheBip's Garden )


Here it is today

( photo / image / picture from TheBip's Garden )

 

Wow, many thanks Bip for that very informative post! I probably need to change out the soil in both mine and my daughter's plants. Both have been potted in the same mix for two or more years now, and though hers is faring worse than mine, I think it's time to do the two of them.