Hi there, I am one of those professional plant people, and I deal with dracaenas a lot. I had a long chat with the wholesale greenhouse lady where I buy my plants about dracaena marginatas recently. She told me that when they are grown in Florida, they grow them under very high light with lots of fertilizer, so that they grow fast. Time is money, the faster they get the plant to full size, the sooner they can sell it and use the space to grow another one. With all of this light and water, their leaves are very firm, to the point that they can give you an extremely painful poke in the eye, like being poked with a stick (don't ask me how I know this...) A plant will keep these stiff leaves for several months after being put into its office location. If the light is very bright, the leaves will stay stiff. If the light is dim, they will gradually start to droop over time. Once they droop, I don't think they can get stiff again, at least not those particular leaves. The droopy plants that you see the plant company caring for probably only need water every two to four weeks, especially if it is dark and/or cold. I do not recommend moving marginatas into cold. They do not like cold at all, and it will lead to the lower leaves turning a mushy yellow, along with all sort of possibilities for root and stem rot. Marginatas do like to be kept dry, especially if they are in a dim location. Not as dry as a cactus, but pretty darn dry. When in doubt, err on the side of not watering. The ones you see the plant company take care of with the stiff leaves? It is quite possible that they remove them and replace them with new ones periodically, and that is why the leaves appear to stay stiff. Hope that helped!

Well, it´s dead. But some plants in the same container seem to be doing OK, which have obviously had the same conditions. We can only really guess at the reason, could even be some obscure infection, or no real reason at all, but like other folks say, your soil does look a bit suspect. There are as many favourite soil mixes as there are growers, and I have now firmly settled on a well-draining gritty mix with a good proportion of limestone for my desert cacti, with just a little organic material. I totally avoid soggy peat, which means any commercial ´cactus mix´, as they are invariably full of peat or even worse - ´forest product´- read sawdust. A gritty mix in unglazed terra cotta pots will set you up. Err on the dry side rather than overwater - it is quite difficult to kill a cactus through underwatering. They are succulents - they will store water when it rains heavily, then be well able to survive drought conditions for weeks or even months.

hi thanks for response, its been an outside plant for quite a few years now. though I did bring it indoors for about a month during the coldest part of winter? You think that could have done it?

it turned up now.. because its that time of year .. imo... its probably extremely humid nights and mornings... that are conducive to mold..mildew.. and fungus growth... drought does not help.. but then its usually less humid if you go into extended deep drought.. but when the drought breaks.. they will come... you are hitting all the variables but not recognizing them... good work.. it will all come.. ken ps: as fall rolls in.. the dewey nights.. will show you all the spider webs all over the yard.. another free show of ma nature.. please dont go out there.. and broom them all out of the plants.. spiders are our friend.. outdoors anyway.. lol... thing is.. by fall .... they have all matured.. so the webs are large... so easy to notice... fall is also a good time for the late fall shroom season.... personally.. id ont eat any of those .. too many can be problematic... but thats a different show...