Question
Hi, I brought home a little over a week ago a big beautiful ivy that I received from my great grandmother's funeral.  I have never had any plants as I'm always afraid of killing them so I have no knowlege of how to handle them.  I've been told that this ivy just needs to be indoors, watered once a week at the most and does not need sunlight as they do better in darker areas of your house instead of direct sunlight.  So, I have it in my living room where there is some sunlight but not direct and i have watered it twice since I got it.  It's in it's original big pot.  It stands about 3.5 to 4 feet high as it's growing on a big round metal vine as it's growing in a round circle.  It's really important to me that this plant stay alive but I'm scared it's beginning to die because I keep seeing a few more yellowish brown leaves everyday so far. 95 percent of it is still pretty green but I want to make sure I am doing the right thing now.  Everytime I stick my finger in the soil it still feels wet so I do not water it.  What should I do differently?  What kind of dirt to I need to buy to repot it etc?  Anything specific?

Answer
Brooke,

Your ivy does not need sun but it does need bright light. The light should be bright enough for you to read a paperback book sitting where it is sitting without turning on additional lights. If not you need to open drapes or blinds or move it closer to the window. Does the pot it is in have a drainage hole in the bottom of it with a drain tray under it? What is the diameter of the pot? As long as the pot has a drainage hole I would not ever repot it. If you repot it you will put it in shoc and you will never get it to look the same. All you really need to do to this plant is to water it when it is dry, fertilize it once a month with a water soluable fertilizer such as Miracle Grow, and prune it as it grows out of shape. When you prune it you can use the clippings to start additional plants for family and friends. Remove the lower leaves frome the clippings, dip the end in rooting hormone that you can get at any garden center and insert several cuttings in a fresh pot of soil. For soil buy any bag of potting soil at a garden center and an extra bag of perlite, it looks like little styrofoam pellets but it is a volcanic product and adds more air to the soil which is healthy for the roots, mix 3 parts of soil with 1 part of perlite for starting your cuttings.

Now, as for watering, when you water, make sure you empty the drain tray an hour after you water your ivy. Since it is so large you can't easily dump it so you will need to get a turkey baster to suction the water out of the drain tray. Ivys can't stand to sit in a drain tray full of water for long periods of time, it is lie sitting in a swamp. If your plant is not drying out in a week you are giving it too much water, do not water it until it does get to where the top 2-3 inches of soil is totally dry, then only give it 1/2 of the amount of water you gave it the last time. Then if it does not dry out in a week,give it half of that until you get to an amount that the plant will use up in a week. If you let me know the diameter of the pot and if it has a drainage hole I will let you know how much water you should be giving it. More plants are killed with too much water than with too little water. If you have any more questions feel free to ask.

Darlene