Help! Any plant experts here?

[Mom2Shaun]

I bought a large potted ivy plant and it was doing great until I forgot to water it during a heat wave. (Yeah, I know . . . dumb!) All the leaves at the top of the plant are dead, while the leaves at the end of the branches are still alive. But I'm going to eventually have to brush off all the dead leaves and then my poor ivy plant will be bald on top! Will leaves fill in the bald areas? Is there something I can do? Any advice will be appreciated!

TIA!

[galeane29]

Cut off the dead areas, and keep it watered and it should be fine. Ivy is a pretty hardy plant.

[cathych]

break off some of the longer stems and stick them into the bald spots, and the plant will fill out. Ivy plants tend to be leggy, but they recover well even if they have not been watered in a while. What type of ivy is it?

[Mom2Shaun]

Thanks, you guys! I took off the label, so I don't know what type of ivy it is, but I think it sounded something like Helvetica.

The weird thing is that it's the older parts of the branches (near where it comes out of the soil) that look dead. They can't be truly dead because the tips of the branches are alive. So I can't cut out the dead stuff without cutting out the live stuff too. But I guess I'll try cutting off the long branches and sticking them into the bald spots. Should I do anything special to make them root, or do I just stick them into the dirt?

TIA again!