Ornithogalum Dubium "Sun Star" Drooping :( Please

[BewilderedGreenyO.o]

I purchased a Ornithogalum Dubium Sun Star from Walmart about a week ago brought it home and put it in a bright location as the care tab said to and now it is drooping! Sad Sad thing really. Its such a gorgeous plant. It's strange though cuz the flowers are still blooming and pretty but the stock has drooped over...any suggestions?

[img]https://i618.photobucket.com/albums/tt261/NySnap/fac7c154.jpg[/img][/img]

[rainbowgardener]

It's not a plant I know anything about. But since you haven't gotten a reply, I will give you my suggestions.

Buying a plant like that from Wal-Mart, means it has been factory grown and forced into blooming profusely at a particular time. That tends to exhaust the plant and they often just die after that. Also it was hothouse grown and is now getting adapted to the real world.

I think it isn't uncommon for this kind of plant to die back after blooming anyway.

Your pot looks very small for that big a plant. I would repot it into a bigger container with good, well draining potting soil. Remove the flowers once they are spent. Don't worry if it dies back, but just keep taking care of it.

Understand that if it makes it, it will come back and bloom again (isn't it typically a winter bloomer?), but it will likely never look exactly like it did when you bought it, because that was forced with exact sequences of light, different fertilizer mixes at different times, very controlled circumstances.

hope this helps some.

[BewilderedGreenyO.o]

I want to thank you soooo much for replying Rainbow!

Since I hadn't gotten a quick reply I decided to take fast action myself since I knew if I were to wait for a reply that the plant would likely be dead by the time someone answered I ended up getting some nice gardening pots for my birthday and decided to transplant them in there. It was three plants stuffed into one tiny pot! No wonder it was wilting! So I promptly re-potted all three plants into their own separate pots, with good fresh soil and they seem to be doing much much better now... they are all doing 10x better then how they started in the first picture. I have one propped up with a stick since it was wilting so bad in order to allow it time to gain back some strength. Although it's not able to stand on it's own just yet I know that it will eventually

[img]https://i618.photobucket.com/albums/tt261/NySnap/72d57588.jpg[/img]

[cosmicglee]

I had to register for this (my first gardening forum) just to say thank you!!! I had bought the exact same sun star from Shop-rite, and it looked exactly like yours (down to the paper it was wrapped in)! I hastily potted them all on this morning after seeing your post (thanks for the pictures!), and am hoping they will be well on their way to recovery and look as beautiful as yours do soon.

Thanks again for the awesome advice... I'm incensed that the poor darlings were suffocated so; having had no prior experience with this species, I would not have known unless you had said so.

Happy gardening!

[Green Mantis]

Wal-Mart plants seem to have "one" thing in common, they are terribly rootbound.

So pretty much always need transplanting into bigger pots.

Also, as you discovered, they also stuff more than one plant in there. To make the plant look lovely.

Which they do, but....doesn't help the poor plants.

[rainbowgardener]

Yeah, I think they want them to be very attractive and tempting, but disposable, sort of like longer lasting cut flowers. That way you keep coming back and buying more.

Like the displays of gorgeous mums in full bloom that appear every fall. People buy them and pop them in the ground. Then winter comes and they die, because they didn't have time to put out roots before they got shut down by the freezes. So then you have to buy them again next year.

Planned obsolescence in the flower world.

[Green Mantis]

rainbowgardener.....You are totally right!

It's become a disposable society even in plants now.

I have gotten to the point that I will be buying a few "cut" flowers over the winter.

I find it's more expensive and frustrating trying to keep some of these plants going.

Not all, but too many for me, right now, anyway.

[nylon82]

ok, I don't know much about these plants but I just bought some of them from walmart also because they were pretty, I actually bought some that were half off because they looked as though they were dying. Some of them were all slimy and gooey so I took all that off and put them in a bigger pot with new soil. they have perked back up and seem to be doing better now. I think the roots are outgrowing the little starter pots they are in because then I took them out the roots were coiled up at the bottom of the pot with very little dirt around them. I hope this is useful information from my experience this past week with this very beautiful plant.

[nylon82]

For Ornithogalum dubium/Sun Star plant care

While blooming, keep soil moist and put in an area with bright indirect light.
Remove any spent flowers by gently pulling the spike from the main body of the plant. This may seem harmful, but once the plant has bloomed, it will die back on its own. But with proper care, it will come back into bloom each winter.
Prune off foliage only after it has turned yellow and is dead. Before this it is still gathering sunlight to use for the next year’s growth.
Once the blooming period has finished and the leaves die back, this plant requires a bit of a rest – it will need a cool, dry dormant period and you should limit watering. Some people say to not water until the plant begins growth again, which is fine – just don't let it dry out.
Once it begins to start growing again, you can begin to water and fertilize the plant and wait for those beautiful vibrant blooms. Check the soil every few days to make sure it is moist – water as needed.

[937dar937]

I bought one of these to. Not at Wal-Mart. But anyway mine is dropping as well. I couldn't find orange star on line.so I looked up OMITHOGALUM DUBLIUM. this plant is also know for another name start of Bethlehem it' comes from Africa but like Sandy soul and are for zones 7_to 11. They are suppose to droop. And known for lieing on ground. They shouldn't be water to much the bulb will rot and dug up in winter and stored in mesh bag . I can't remember everything It said. Bit if you look that name up you will find out more about this beautiful plant

[937dar937]

By the way the Orange star, star of Bethlehem, also known for snake is very very poisonous, very toxic. Be cautious around children and animals. And watch tools off with rubbing acohol. Once you cut spent flowers.

[windandvane]

This post definitely made me smile because I did the exact same thing last year, same store and everything. Got home and realized there were multiple huge plants all stuffed into this teeny tiny pot, when initially I thought it was just one plant. Separated them up and they turned out just fine.