I purchased this plant at the start of summer and its leaves looked normal. Since about halfway through summer, the leaves have been curled under. At first I thought it was new growth and that they would eventually flatten out, but they have not. It was sitting next to another plant that grew to the point of creating more shade for the senecio, so I thought perhaps it needed more sun. I moved it away from that plant to a sunnier location. I also repotted it into a larger pot about 2-3 weeks ago since the roots were beginning to wrap around quite a bit at the bottom of the soil in the container. The roots otherwise look healthy. I found some scale on it today, but not too many. There is some stickiness inside the crevices of some of the stems. It is on a west facing balcony in zone 7b. My only last thought is that perhaps the afternoon sun it's getting is still not enough? I do plan to bring it in for the winter and place it under a full spectrum soltech grow light. I had hoped one of my fixes would work, but I'm running out of ideas! I would appreciate any help in identifying the problem.

@MangoWangoKing to the NGA!

I am tagging @dnrevel looks like she has this plant.


@BlueOddish too


They may be able to help.

I have 2 of those outside in a clay container this summer also. Mine start to look like that when they don't get enough water. I planned on just hand watering it whenever it needed since everything said it likes to stay on the dry side, but I ended up adding a dripper to it so it gets watered daily and that stopped the curling leaves.

[quote="GigiAdeniumPlumeria"] @MangoWangoKing to the NGA!

Thank you so much for the welcome @GigiAdeniumPlumeria And thank you for the help!

Murky said: I have 2 of those outside in a clay container this summer also. Mine start to look like that when they don't get enough water. I planned on just hand watering it whenever it needed since everything said it likes to stay on the dry side, but I ended up adding a dripper to it so it gets watered daily and that stopped the curling leaves.

Thank you so much @Murky That is really helpful. Yes, I saw other posts related to this plant that had problems with overwatering and that most information says to be careful about that! But I am going to try to water a bit more in the next week or 2 and see if that helps! It has been a very hot summer here, and most of my plants on the balcony needed water every day. I maybe gave this one water every week or two and it's in fast draining succulent/cactus soil, so maybe it needs more!

Yes I have grown this pretty, interesting Senecio several times. It seems to do better with a morning sun location, and not being blasted by hot afternoon sun. Yes, it needs regular watering, but not too much or that can be problematic too.

I've overwintered it in my 6a climate.

dnrevel said: Yes I have grown this pretty, interesting Senecio several times. It seems to do better with a morning sun location, and not being blasted by hot afternoon sun. Yes, it needs regular watering, but not too much or that can be problematic too.

I've overwintered it in my 6a climate.

Thank you! Unfortunately, I don't have a choice of morning sun! but we'll see if giving it a bit more water will help!