My friend is not at all green fingered and he's struggling with his salvia plants. They arrived about four weeks ago in the post. At first new leaves were growing and the plants were in ok condition with a little browning at the edges of leaves. After two weeks and some good new leaf growth my friend decided to repot the plant on the left into a 30cm wide pot as shown. This pot was filled in the bottom with vermiculite and then the rest with multi purpose compost which was mixed into the vermiculite (so there was a gradated concentration of vermiculite with it being most concentrated at the bottom of the pot). He removed the plant from its previous small pot and shook off the soil and tried to tease the roots off (I think that may be his first mistake as he should have probably kept the soil intact). He added some plant food and watered the plant well.

Over the next week the repotted plant didn't do much, so he decided to try and address the browning leaves and moved the plant to another room with similar light conditions and misted the plant once. The next day he discovered the plant had lost one of its four leaves. He moved the plant back to the kitchen where it had been before, and after two days he decided to try and increase the humidity by enclosing it in a plastic bag. This was a bad move - overnight it has shed two more leaves leaving just a stalk with one leaf left!

Meanwhile the other plant looks ok, but although there are a lot of new tiny leaves growing, it does not seem to be growing as fast as it did three weeks ago, plus the existing large leaves are all browning at the edges. He has been careful not to overwater the plants and have kept them away from direct sunlight but about 2-3 metres from a window which gets sunlight in the morning (although it is often overcast as it is autumn).

On one hand my friend has read that you should get the conditions right for the plants, on the other hand he read they are very hardy and should be only gradually introduced to new conditions. Has the plant with only one leaf had it? Is the pot on the right big enough for him to get enough growth to take a cutting at some point in the future? He is too nervous to repot in case he loses the second plant. These plants are quite hard to source and order!

Any advice would be much appreciated

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Majapanix

I'm a newbie at growing plants (of any kind) myself, so take my advice as you will. I think you've just been messing with them too much. Leave them be for a while, give adequate water, and see what happens. I'm not sure about the vermiculite, as I just use normal potting soil for mine. I never mist them at all.

Guess I'm not much help Give them some time and maybe they'll come around.

Hopefully gibran will chime in here

Salvia will adapt to many environments, but the adjustment takes time. Every time you do something – anything – to your plant, its growth will slow for a week or two while it re-adjusts to the change. This is why I leave my plants alone!

Once my cuttings root, I transplant them into a pot large enough to accommodate a mature plant, I put them on my windowsill where I know they’ll get good light, and then I leave them alone. Less is more!

The plant that lost all of its leaves may survive. Notice the small leaves at each node. These will form new branches if conditions are good. (I deliberately remove all of the large primary leaves prior to rooting a cutting.)

Browning on leaf edges is nothing to worry about, but it looks like the base of the stem of the plant in the smaller pot might be rotting? Keep the soil moist but not saturated. The small pot is too small. You’ll eventually have to transplant, but wait until the plant has adjusted and you get some new, healthy growth.

No misting! No humidity tents! I don’t know where this idea started, but humidity tents and misting encourage rot, mold, etc.

Good luck.

(Here’s a shot of some of my current plants. The largest was an unrooted cutting in mid-July, and will be harvested in mid-November.)

Also, your plants will probably take longer to adjust since it's now autumn - my plants have been thriving all summer (one has grown to over 4 feet tall! ) but have recently shed a few leaves and are not looking quite so chirpy - growth slows down a lot in over the autumn/winter period, but as long as the roots are still healthy then they will burst back into action in April/May (if you're in the UK).

I would take a look at the stem of the smaller plant though, cos you may have some rot there.

Also, when you re-pot your plants I would recommend using some perlite in the mix, since Salvias like quite a bit of air round their roots. When re-potting just gently shake any loose soil off; the roots are very fine, and although Salvias can be happily root-trimmed if they are pot bound, it's best not to disturb the main body of the root ball too much.

Hope this helps and good luck with your gardening!

Thanks for all of your help. Much appreciated. The base of the smaller plant is brown and woody for about the first 1-1.5 inches above the soil (and pretty much has been like this since the plant arrived). Is this a sure sign of root rot?

No – not at all. If the stem was black and getting soft – that’s rot. A woody stem is much less likely to rot.

It's just woody rather than black/mushy so should be ok. Today the last leaf fell off the other plant. It looks most forlorn now, just a stalk sticking out of that big pot. Thank goodness the other one is hanging on in there! Thanks again for your help