 Hello everyone! Today we're going to be talking about the beautiful Dresina over here. I think since the last video that I've made about her, I've learned so much. So I thought that it would be a good chance to just update the video and give you more information on her. So yeah, let's get to it! So just so you know a little bit more about her, the Dresina Magneta is also commonly known as the Madagascar Dragon Tree. It is a beautiful plant. If you look at the leaves they're actually really thin and long and I love the colors of the leaves because they're green at the center and then they have this very contrasting red or dark pink if you will and it's super pretty. Sometimes they're grown as single house plants such as this one right here. Other times you can find them braided or in the form of a candelabra. But okay let me share with you what I've learned about this plant so you can keep yours very happy and healthy at your place. Having this plant for a long time I have confirmed that they like moderate temperatures. So keep yours in a room or a space that has a temperature between 21 to 28 degrees celsius and don't expose her to cold drafts so don't place her near a window that you're going to be opening and closing and windows going to be coming in and out because these plants won't be happy there. Another thing to remember about location is humidity. The Dresina Magneta will thrive in higher levels of humidity not too high maybe moderate levels so for example I have mine in a room that is between 50 to 60 percent humidity constantly and she seems to be thriving there. Now very important related to humidity don't place your plant close to a heating vent or AC because the air tends to be really dry around that space. If your Dresina is lacking humidity you will see that the tips will start to dry out. If you feel that the air is really dry around your Dresina you can place her on top of a humidity tray or in a room that has a humidifier. Light is very important for this plant and I can tell you that out of experience actually if you watched my video from before my plant was not getting so much sunlight and I got to learn that because the leaves were dropping down so if you see that the leaves are really droopy this may mean that your plant is not getting enough sunlight. Now we don't want to provide bright direct sunlight but bright indirect sunlight so keep her in a spot that is bright and has some light just avoid direct sunlight. When we talk about water the Dresina Magneta and pretty much any type of Dresina don't need lots of water. So what we want to do is to let the soil dry in between waterings and one tip that I can give you that has helped me so much is to always check the soil before I water my Dresina. This is going to help you prevent over watering your plant and that way you can keep the soil moist but not wet because she won't be happy with wet soil. Another way to know if your Dresina needs water is if you see that the leaves are drooping down. If you have your Dresina in a bright room so she's getting enough sunlight and the leaves are still dropping down check the soil and if it feels really dry that means that your Dresina is thirsty and you should just give her some water. I just water this one so this one is okay but I can show you another Dresina this is not the Magneta this is the Dresina Compacta and as you can see the leaves are a little bit folded down so and I check the soil and yes it is very dry so this is the time that I water this plant and as you can see it's not so bad it's just the leaves a little bit down and that's a good sign to know that they need water and of course I always use the bottom watering method. I love this method it's really easy all you have to do is to place your Dresina in a bucket or a box and then you can water from the top and let it drain down through the drainage holes. The water can cover the whole pot until the end and you can leave it there for about 15 to 20 minutes so the water is absorbed by the soil after that time you lift your pot up and the excess water will drain down through the drainage holes that way you make sure that the soil is moist but not super wet. Oh and very important the Dresinas are very sensitive to the chemicals and salts and minerals in the tap water so try to avoid using tap water what I do is I always filter the tap water before I use it for my plants you can also use rain water or the stilt water but if you don't have access to this and you have to use tap water what I would recommend is that you pour the water in a bucket and let it stand there for about 48 hours before you use it to water. During this time some of the chemicals will evaporate from the water and it will be a little less harsh on your plant a very telling sign that your plant is getting lots of minerals and harmful chemicals is on the leaves. If you see that the edges of the leaves are very brown or dry like this one here this may be a sign that the water is too harsh for your plant so again try to avoid tap water. For my Dresinas I'm currently using my homemade houseplant potting mix so I make it myself and the ingredients that I use are coconut for moisture retention, pumice for drainage and warm castings for nutrition. Now I can tell you that I love using warm castings in my potting mix because it's an excellent source of nutrition for my plant and with the Dresinas we don't want to use so much fertilizer because they don't need so much so there's the risk of over fertilizing our plant so if you're a little bit nervous about over fertilizing your plant a very good alternative is adding warm castings to the potting mix but of course if you want to fertilize your plant we can also talk about this. For this plant I would recommend a liquid organic fertilizer this is because organic fertilizers tend to be way more diluted and way less concentrated than synthetic fertilizers so this helps us prevent over fertilizing our plant and I like liquid fertilizers especially for plant beginners because we can stop in case we see that the plant is getting too much fertilizer so we can stop using it at any time. In case you're looking for a specific fertilizer I would recommend something like 10-10-10 or 20-20-20 so you have a well balanced organic fertilizer but again alternatively you can always add some warm castings to the soil and this will give your plant the nutrition that she needs. The Dresina Marginata is susceptible especially to thrips and milibox. In the case of thrips I can tell you I have experience with them not with the Dresina but with the Monstera and they are really hard to get rid of so I would strongly recommend preventing them first and the way to prevent them is to always check the leaves so I check my leaves every week when I water my Dresina I always check the leaves and really check because the thrips are really small so sometimes we cannot see them it will just look like this you really have to go and really look at the leaf and see if they're there. On top of that I strongly recommend that you clean the leaves every week I have my own solution and I made a video about it so you can also check it out but yeah I strongly recommend doing this it's a very calming process for us as well and it's great for our plants because they'll be clean healthy and will thrive. The Dresina Marginata is toxic for cats and dogs so make sure to keep it away from them so everyone is safe. And guys if you have any other tips for your Dresina make sure to comment below I can assure you that the whole community will appreciate it and as always I will see you in the next one. Okay ciao!