I've had this monstera for about 6 months I believe. When my bird died I didn't have any where to bury my little girl so l did research and buried her in this large potted plant. I moved from California to Colorado with her. The plant was thriving until yesterday when the weather dropped to 25 overnight. This morning it was limp and sad and I took it inside. I water it weekly and it gets a lot of sun. Will it survive?
What should I do?
by mentalmerism
12 Comments
Your bird is buried in the plant??
Cut back all the parts that froze. It doesn’t look like the stem is damaged. It should grow back.
The soil looks pretty dry. It also looks like it may have gone into shock from the sudden temp drop and/or got frostbite. In my experience, affected leaves from shock/temp changes do not recover but the plant itself will. Do the leaves feel mushy?
Prune it down, give it water but, not too much. Keep it warm. Give it time. It should recover
Something similar happened to me. Here is what I learned. Water it the same as usual or a little less. Don’t try to overcompensate by warming the plant, just let it slowly get back to normal temperature. Don’t prune it yet—give it a few days or even weeks to see what the extent of the damage is (it takes time for some leaves to fully show the damage) at which point you can heavily prune. It will look very naked and sad (and not need as much water as before due to the loss of leaves) but just be patient and as you care for it, it will begin to grow again. That will probably take months, though. I’m really sorry this happened. It sucks, but the silver lining is how proud you’ll feel when it starts growing new leaves again.
Cut the damage, bigger pot, more soil, more water, inside.
What if you stick your finger in the soil to see how dry it is, and all of a sudden you poke the rotting body of your cat 😟
I just gotta say I don’t know everything abt soil health or indoor plants but it actually seems fine to put a dead animal in soil. That’s basically what soil is alive things and broken down dead things. Honoring your bird by letting it be a part of new life seems really great. I hope your plant recovers, it definitely needs water.
I didnt see this answered… but did you leave it outside?
Needs water
This happened to me. Chop at the points where they start to feel mushy. The leaves cannot be saved. But the plant will regrow. This happened to my 10ft tall snow leopard diffenbachia in 2023. The tallest leaf now makes the plant over 6ft tall again. Patience and great care and attention to it after this is crucial.
You’ll almost definitely lose the leaves but the plant itself will probably survive. Be VERY cautious of overwatering from now on. It has way less area transpire from. Good luck 👍