We Get Questions

Q: Hi...
I collect Pachypodiums and have gotten some wonderful succulents from your JUNGLE! I also just picked up my succulent wreaths and they are beautiful.

Anyway, I have a Pachypodium geayi and the TIPS of the leaves are turning brown and are dried out. I am apparently having problems with only this one out of my collection. My other geayis and lamerais are fine. I water all of them at the same time and have cut back my watering too to once every 10 days and have also moved them inside but close to a window so they get lots of indirect lighting.

Please advise. Am I watering too much or too little?

Thank you.
Marilyn

A: Marilyn,

It's natural for all Pachypodiums to occasionally lose leaves, especially as we get into winter, even indoors, so it may just be the individual plant going dormant for winter.

It does sound like you may be watering a bit much. We generally recommend every 2 weeks through the summer and every 3 weeks during the winter. If it gets really hot in the summer, then a little more water or misting the leaves helps keep them green.

To keep their leaves through the winter they generally want to be in full sun indoors, in a west or south facing window.

Peter