I bought this plant at the grocery store about 7 or 8 months ago. It has a care sign in it but doesn't say any where what kind of plant it actually is. I have some questions about it...can anyone help? I have pictures of it to help. Thanks!

1. What kind of plant is it? I assume some kind of ivy, but what kind?

2. It's starting to hang too long and I wanted to trim it because where I have it sitting, my son can grab it and yank it down now. Is it safe to trim it shorter without hurting the plant?

3. There is some white, fuzzy "mold" growing on top of the dirt (see pic 3). (It's not on the plant itself.) I was told this was from dust mites, and then I also read on the Internet that it might be spider mites??? Is this harmful to the plant and what can I do to get rid of it/prevent it?

I think it is a Hedera helix (ivy) but I'm not aure what variety. Here's a list of varieties:

http://www.eleventowns.co.uk/ivy2.html

You can trim it without hurting the plant.

English Ivy, right? That's what I was thinking but I looked up some pictures of English ivy on the web and that kind of ivy looked greener and shinier. The kind I have is more dull in color and not shiny at all. Maybe just another variety of it, then?

I bought the same kind of ivy. Dull and not shiny. I was told it was English Ivy. I loved it, until I noticed little mites or somthing alive and fuzzy on the leaves. I tried to get rid of it by wiping it down, but the poor plant died. My other house plants never had any kind of problems like that. :(
Good luck on you'r plant.
Alene :)

It's not on the plant-just the soil. I noticed it about a month ago and the plant is still thriving. I wonder if it dies when I water the plant and then grows back. . .

I don't have a green thumb, so pardon me if this is a dumb suggestion ...

Have you tried simply transplanting the ivy to a new clean pot with fresh soil? If its in the roots of the plant, it may come back, but sometimes its actually a problem with the pot itself hosting gross stuff.

Well, I live in an apartment and I don't have any way of storing soil somewhere and I don't really have a place I could do it at....I guess I could just do it on the kitchen floor if I really had to.

BTW, I have absolutely no green thumb either, so don't feel bad. . . I feel stupid for even posting about this. I didn't even know if I could trim the ivy without it dying. :dizzy:

OH, and another thing....I have two of these exact same plants in the same kind of pot (I bought two from the store.) I have them on either end of my window sill. One has the "mold" and the other one is fine. They're both still growing the same and they both look fine, though.

Huh? Get a fungicide for mold, an appropriate insecticide for "mites" if that is what you have.

You could try simply scraping off the "mold" and if necessary adding somenew soil or preferably home-made compost.