First time poster here;

[likerain]

Hello, gardening community. :) My name is Ta, and I am hoping for a little help in identifying what's wrong with one of my plants?

Other than quite a few stalks of Dracaena that I have owned over the years, which of course thrives effortlessly, I am very new to gardening of any sort. I have never felt that I have much of a green thumb whatsoever, but I do absolutely love plant life of all kinds and several months ago finally purchased myself a few potted plants to keep around the apartment that my boyfriend & I share. (We currently live near Vancouver in southern British Columbia, Canada; I've no idea what zone that would classify as, but I keep mainly indoor houseplants right now.) Because of my near complete ignorance where plants are concerned, I spoke at length with the woman at the nursery where I purchased mine, wanting to be sure that they are the kind that are somewhat easily cared for and not in any danger in the hands of an amateur. Despite this, I still felt and do feel quite lost with their care, and it's been a little bit of a touch and go experience.

In any case, we recently had a stretch of a few nice rainy days here, and I decided to set three of my plants out on the steps leading up to our back porch, thinking that they'd enjoy the air and the rainwater. I wound up leaving them out there for a couple of cooler nights, not really thinking it would hurt them in any way. However, when I went outside to finally bring them back inside I noticed that my little potted palm looked almost bleached on one side;

01; click on any of these for a larger version.


02;


03;


04;


05 & 06; the soil it's currently in.



07; the side that remains vivid and healthy.


I immediately brought it in and have been keeping an eye on it ever since, hoping for an improvement. It hasn't gotten any worse other than to turn a little brown around the "bleached" areas (pictured), but it hasn't gotten any better, either. I have no idea what may have caused it, and I am really hoping that someone here might recognize what's wrong & be able to tell me what I can do to nurse it back to health? And of course, since all I've really known to do since acquiring it is to water it when it needs watering, a little advice on how to better care for it would be hugely appreciated as well. It's one of my favourites of the five plants I currently own, and I would absolutely hate to lose it!

Thank you so much in advance. :)

Comments

[spiritdancer]

Looks like it got "sunburned". When you have an inside plant that gets put outside, it can happen - too much light too soon. Unfortunately, plants don't heal a sunburn the way we do - you end up just pruning off the "burned" parts.

To help avoid this problem in the future, try just setting the plant out for a couple of hours per day, gradually increasing the time out over couple of weeks. Try to make sure it stays a shady area for a while before moving it into a sunnier area.