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by Andrew S.
(West Henrietta, NY)

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I recently purchased this plant from a Lowes I think. I was excited because I haven’t had an ivy plant before… but now it’s unhappy and so am I.

It has been in a window that gets decent morning light. As you can see, the inner leaves have begun turning crispy and dark-green towards brown. I would think that it just needs more water, maybe to be misted more or something.

I also was slightly troubled because it looks like there is some kind of webbing on some of the leaves. It was a bit hard to get pictures of this, but I hope you can see it alright.

Thank you in advance as always!

You’ve given me all I need to know with your description of ‘some kind of webbing’ – this is typical of ivy that has been abused and grown in very dry conditions – these are the webs of spider mites. If you value your other plants, keep this one isolated, because if the air is dry, they will spread.

To get rid of them, spray with Safers insecticidal soap a few times, and then spray every day, very lightly misting with plain water. Spider mites need dry air, so raising the humidity will get rid of them.

Ivy is tough, so it most likely will recover. My advice? Don’t buy plants from box stores – the staff there are well meaning, but the conditions are not conducive to healthy plants.

Best of luck with your plant!