Dracaena marginata

Dracaena marginata, often though to be a palm tree, is nonetheless a magnificent indoor plant.

Here is the advice on caring for your Dracaena marginata:

Key facts, a short summary:

Name: Dracaena marginata
Family: Agavoideae (formerly Agavaceae)
Type: indoor plant

Height: 3 to 6 ½ feet (1 to 2 meters)
Exposure: very well-lit, or even full sun
Soil: soil mix

Foliage: evergreen

Growing Dracaena marginata:

Potted dracaena marginata:

Dracaena marginata requires good soil mix that can be amended with ⅓ compost, if you’ve got any.

In order to enhance drainage, pour clay pebbles or small stones into the pot to form a layer at the bottom.
This will help ensure roots won’t wallow in water, which could be fatal to it.

• Set your Dracaena marginata up in a fair-sized pot filled with special indoor plant or green plant soil mix.
• Although it may be necessary to repot it in spring every 2 or 3 years, when not repotting then go for regular topdressing which should also perfectly answer the growth medium needs of the plant.

Outdoor dracaena marginata:

Growing dracaena marginata outdoors is only possible in warm climates because this plant can’t stand the cold.

• Generally speaking, dracaena marginata is intolerant to the cold and will only grow outside in places where the temperature never drops below 63 to 65°F (17 to 18°C), even in winter.

Just as is practiced for plants in pots, feel free to place a bed of gravel, small stones or clay pebbles to drain the water better.

• Atop this layer, you’ll be using a blend of soil mix, garden soil and sand.

Where to place a Dracaena marginata:

Under our climates, Dracaena marginata adapts well to living indoors in our apartments and homes.
It grows best when surrounding temperatures hold at around 70 to 72°F (20 to 22°C) and requires very good light, even direct sunlight.

• Select a place for it near a window facing to the South or West so that it would bathe in a good deal of both indirect light and sunlight.

If you live in a house that is quite dark, avoid purchasing dracaena because it won’t cope with the low luminosity.

Watering Dracaena marginata:

All year long, mist water on the leaves, preferably soft water.

Dracaena marginata in spring and summer:

This is usually the time of the year when Dracaena marginata grows most.
Water regularly while letting the soil mix dry in the surface before watering again.

Watering must be regular but limited, in order to not suffocate the plant’s roots.
You might say that watering every 4 or 5 days is largely sufficient.

More or less every two weeks, you can offer it some liquid fertilizer, taking great care to moisten the soil mix beforehand.

Dracaena marginata in fall and winter:

Start reducing the watering because plant’s water needs start decreasing.
Only when the soil is dry down to the first inch or so (a couple centimeters), water to moisten the entire soil mix clump again.

Again, one might contend that watering one or 2 times a month should suffice.
But this also depends on where your dracaena is placed: if it is in full sun, its needs will surely be higher.

• This season is also when to stop adding fertilizer, from October all the way to March and April.

Multiplying and propagating your Dracaena marginata with cuttings:

As time passes, your Dracaena marginata will grow tall and spindly. You can easily give it renewed youth and make it branch out. In the process, you’ll even be able to create a second specimen! All you have to do is:

• cut the leafy tip off the stem. Don’t cut too high: include at least one or two nodes in the dracaena marginata cutting.
• a node is the swollen bump that forms rings at regular intervals along the stem.
• place the cutting in a stout vase or glass of water. The nodes must be immersed.
• roots will sprout from the nodes within a few weeks (months if in winter).
• transplant your new dracaena marginata to a pot when the roots are about an inch (2.5 cm) long.

Keep the older specimen as is: it will start sprouting leaves at node that are located towards the tip, just like its waterbound counterpart will be sprouting roots!

Learn more about Dracaena marginata:

Although some varieties look very similar to them, dracaena isn’t a palm tree.

But the similarity is confusing and the care it needs is often close to that of a palm tree.

All in one aesthetic, resilient and very easy to grow, this is one of the most appreciated and purchased indoor plants the world over.

Its foliage is particularly elegant and unique, and its shape and bearing brings a touch of exotic life to a living room, dining area, or any other room of the house that is well-lit.

• The lifespan of a dracaena can be long, provided it isn’t infected with the diseases that sometimes impact these trees.

Dracaena marginata diseases & parasites:

Falling or withering leaves:

This is undoubtedly due to lack of light or excess water.

• Find a more exposed location for it and reduce watering to match our recommendations above.

Dracaena marginata loses its leaves:

This is what happens when the dracaena is too cold.

• Find a more appropriate location for it, it requires minimum temperatures of 65-66°F (18-19°C) and ideally 70 to 72°F (20 to 22°C).

Dracaena marginata leaves turn yellow:

If the plant continues to produce new leaves, this is part of your dracaena’s natural cycle. Trees, even evergreen trees, lose their leaves to renew them.

• However, if no new shoots appear and your dracaena looks a bit sad, it might have fallen victim to red spider mites due to an excessively dry atmosphere.
  If so, you must treat the plant with an insecticide.

White velvety spots appear, leaves turn pale and lose their colors:

This is surely due to an onslaught of scale insects.

• You can eliminate scale insects with a rag dipped in methylated spirits, carefully rinsing the leaves with water afterwards.
• Other strong spirits or alcohols also work, like vodka, gin or rhum.
• If there are only a few bugs, use a cotton bud to pinpoint the pests without dousing the whole plant.
• Read the tips you need to fight mealybugs

Read also:

• Did you know that plants cleanse indoor air from pollutants?

Credits for images shared to Nature & Garden (all edits by Gaspard Lorthiois):
Dark dracaena marginata in white pot shared by © Mike Marquez/Unsplash
Dracaena marginata leaves shared by Forest & Kim Starr under © CC4.0
Dracaena foliage green variegated shared by sandid under © CC0