By Plant

Monstera, pothos, snake plant, orchid — problems specific to each.

22 articles

• A Pothos That Stopped Growing: Light, Season, or a Pot Full of Roots

  This is the plant sold as unkillable, so a stalled one is confusing. The three usual reasons are easy to tell apart.

• Fiddle Leaf Fig: The Two Things It Cannot Forgive

  They are not fussy about much. They are extremely fussy about being moved and about wet roots, and both are avoidable.

• Aloe Turning Brown or Red: Sunburn, Stress Colour, or Rot

  Red aloe leaves alarm people and usually mean the plant is fine but working hard. Brown mushy ones mean something else entirely.

• Black on a Monstera Is Almost Always the Roots, Not the Leaf

  By the time a monstera leaf goes black, the problem has usually been underway in the pot for weeks.

• A Yellow Succulent Is Usually Translucent Before It Is Yellow

  Look at the leaf against the light before deciding. A leaf that has gone translucent is telling you something specific.

• A Browning Orchid Spike Is Usually the Flower Cycle Ending

  Which part is browning decides whether this is the plant finishing a normal cycle or losing its growing point.

• An Aloe Turning Red Is Usually Working Hard, Not Dying

  Red aloe alarms people. It is the plant protecting itself, and the tissue underneath is usually perfectly healthy.

• A Flowering Succulent Is Not Always Good News

  For most species a flower means the plant is thriving. For a handful it means the opposite, and the difference is worth knowing before you admire it.

• Monstera Brown Spots: Edge, Centre, or Halo — Each Means Something Else

  The colour is not the clue. Where the brown starts, and whether it is dry or soft, separates a watering problem from an infection.

• A Dying Snake Plant Is Almost Always the Same Fault

  This is the plant people kill by looking after it. The symptom list is short because nearly everything leads back to the same place.