Karen, I now see one difference between the Pep and Pilea..the Pilea has round leaves w/o a semi-pointed tip like the Pep.. How in the world do botonist decide which plants are in certain families? LOL T&C still sells nice plants, but like before, most are out of stock..I notice their prices increased..glad I ordered when I did, like the Vanilla orchid.. Thanks for the site..I'd never have seen a difference between the two..BTW, is the Jayde Pep similar to other peps, as far as care? Ostrich, good luck w/your new plant..it's really pretty, and looks healthy..I'd follow Karen's advice about rooting. How long are stems from soil line to leaf? Karen might know if you need to cut back the stem before rooting. When you do root, use a well-draining soil. Though soil shouldn't stay wet, Peps like humidity. So, perhaps covering w/plastic would help plus speed root growth. Cut a slit in plastic for ventilation. I've rooted Pep cuttings in a reptile house which is plastic and lid has slits for air..cost less than 2.00 but that was some time ago. They shouldn't cost much more than 6.00..you wouldn't need a big house, something small would do well. They're also great for African Violet leaf cuttings. Good luck, Os, I hope you figure out the problem and get leaves to root..Toni

Hello Greencurls: My S. japonica is from J&L and is now about 5 years old. Originally I tried to keep it in its plastic pot but it eventually got root rot after just a few months. Near death's door, but with a few leaves, I shifted it to a fresh pot and coarser medium and put it in a terrarium to boost humidity. I watered it very little through the pot, but I let one of the dangling long roots touch the bottom of the terrarium on which i made sure to keep a film of water - it was like drinking through a straw. When it looked like it was recuperated I took it out of the terrarium. I finally found that it perfers to be mounted which keeps it well drained. However, at the same time it wants never to dry out for too long. Finally, after observing other orchids and the way they were grown, I hit on this: mount the littel diva on a somewhat horizontal mount (mine is a wood piece that has a cup-like and channelled surface that drains quickly, then cover the roots very loosely with living moss (from my wood pile). The living moss does a couple of things - it covers and keeps the well drained roots from shriveling beyond the point of no return, lets the roots breath, and if the moss keeps living, it tells you that you are watering enough. A divine balance! Keep the mount dryer in winter but raise humdity and let it have strong light as if it is living in a deciduous tree. Keep it cool, and I mean cool - my tiny greenhouse falls to 45 degrees. I water with a dilute solution of seaweed extract, a little commercial fertilizer, and leftover coffee or tea. During summer when it goes outside (in partial shade), chicken manure is added to the mixture. (All my orchids get this treatment) Do not let her totally dry out when in spike or the spikes will blast! Right now the little diva has 5 spikes - oops I hope I didn't jinx it by mentioning that. Following the instructions on the New World page is a good method of growing both S. japonica and Neofinita. Once I got them out of the plastic pots, which seem to suffocate their roots, I had much better performance from them. You might Use a basket, or perhaps a clay pot which has numerous holes drilled into the sides. Good luck! Maryanne in WMass

No plant likes to be rootbound. What is necessary for plants to stay alive is for their roots to not rot, which can happen so easily in a pot with dense soils, like ground dirt, or bagged mixes of predominantly tiny particles of peat, (or to simply shrivel from simply never getting any water.) Having very little soil around the roots would make the soil dry more quickly, and for even the most dedicated plant-overwaterers to not rot the roots of their plants. This is not ideal, since most non-cactus plants are stressed by dry conditions, it's just a way of coping with soil that has little air in it when moist. Negative experiences in regard to potting-up, where an undisturbed root ball is placed into a bigger pot with more soil around it, vs. doing a repotting, as described below, can give rise to old wives' tales about plants not liking to be repotted/disturbed. Potting-up a root-bound plant that has roots surrounding the outside root ball often lead to this negative experience because those roots had adapted to accessing oxygen around the outside of the root ball and surrounding them with more dense, soggy-but-airless potting soil will likely lead to suffocation. The reason bonsai masters are able to keep potted entities alive for hundreds of years is because they care for the roots by trimming them and changing the soil. A plant grows from the roots-up, so if the roots are not healthy, gorgeous foliage will decline &/or no flowers can form. When you unpot a plant and find a pancake of roots at the bottom, chopping that off will give roots a chance to grow normally again for a while and will make removing the old soil easier. Roots need oxygen & moisture at the same time to function. Just air = shriveling. Just moisture = suffocation & rotting. Either will cause root death and dessicated foliage because the roots have been unable to deliver moisture. Having to let soil dry, as if ones' tropical jungle plant was a cactus, is an unnecessarily stressful coping mechanism for non-desert dwelling plants in soil without enough oxygen for the roots to stay healthy when it is moist and can lead to premature loss of older leaves and in extreme cases, dry shriveled roots/dead plant. The ability of roots to be able to function properly depends greatly on the soil structure/texture, which can change over time. Potting soil tends to be very dense, mostly peat, with very little air in it. Any kind of organic ingredients decompose into smaller bits over time, and roots fill air spaces over time as they grow through soil. Replacing soil periodically is usually necessary to keep plants healthy because of these reasons. A more porous, chunky, airy soil (like cactus/palm, if one is buying bagged,) can have more air in it even when it is moist because there is space between the particles. When there are tiny particles of any kind in a pot, such as peat, sand, silt, clay, they filter into all of the tiny spaces in a pot, eliminating the air. "Overwatering" is the label and manifestation when roots have suffocated and/or rotted, combo of both. Over time, organic bits decompose into smaller bits, so even the "best" soil, if it has organic components, will need to be replaced when this happens. The speed at which this happens depends on many variables, but on average, about 1-3 years. More details: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/1490818/good-growing-practices-an-overview-for-beginners?n=175

It is hard to tell without being there and seeing what you see. Indirect sun can sometimes be fine. Dappled sun is also fine. Shade full time, when it is dense shade, is not good from a flower production point of view. Being a japonica, their leaves do not like afternoon sun or evening sun in the Summer months. Plant it in the spot you are considering. Observe how it performs, See if the branches get leggy and stretch towards the sun much. If the shrub maintains its shape well then it is getting enough sun. Observe flower production too. If the shape of the shrub gets altered because it is stretching towards the light, transplant it elsewhere or grow it in a pot if that helps. By the way, you could leave it potted for one full growing season until you select a good, long term location. Pot it, leave the pot in the spot to evaluate the spot until Fall 2019 and, if ok, plant it then.