They came from Green Thumb Intl. that is a really good nursery here. I'll grant you I kept them both really well hydrated and I did have to tear out this area where they would go AND I took a non performing rose that was in that hole out. I pretty much dug the whole area out, heavily amended the area, got the fine root hairs out too so I don't know if it's the "not supposed to put a new rose in an old hole' thing or it's just taking longer to come around. I will say I did sneak and left 2 little leaflets on the bare root (for an experiment) and took off all the rest, the ones that were drooping, so I just said 'okay, I'll let it put all it's energy into root production etc." I figured I could remove the 2 I left on if they drooped, which they didn't. They still green, still sticking out like they should etc. I'm learning fast, but now that I started to get into this, I'm surprised all the other bare roots I've planted in my life made it! Maybe I'm just paranoid since I really want both to go well and the other one is thriving. The other one does get a little more sun that the one in question so who knows why. Should I just wait it out? It doesn't look like it's dying but it could be better. Do all bare roots, when you do the 45 degree angle cut for shape, yourself, have this happen to the canes? I probably shouldn't have done that. Thx, Jeri!!

Thank you stonesriver and everyone else for the kind welcome. Yes, I think I may have been a bit bitten by the "gardening" germ. Granted, I am nowhere close to where most people on this forum probably are. I am mainly a "decorator" who feels that a house without any indoor plants is sad, dry and too much of a sign of our rushed times. So I decided I HAVE TO get some reasonably elegant indoors plants established. The only thing close to caring for a plant I've done before were some geraniums. They did OK, I managed not to kill them and they bloomed quite a bit over the winter even if they did get leggy. Oh, well. Now I took them outside and I decided that they will go in the basemenent for wintering when times comes. I will no longer keep them in the house because they are not really elegant, gracious plants. I like their bright colors outside in the summer but that's that for now. So I decided it was time for something finer and elegant to go with our classic/traditional living room as well as my busy schedule. I also knew this was going to be harder than a geranium which are quite hard to kill anyway. So off I went to Pikes and I grabbed some plants I had heard were not hard to care for and would do well on our Eastern bay window. A Peace Lily, four AV-s and two yellow begonias. (I did kill a begonia last year but later, after more reading, I realized I was making mistakes with it). A real gardener I will never be - not with a full-time academic career and two small children; but By God, these few plants must stay alive, do well, and even bloom nicely - this is all I hope for. I don't plan to do any complicated wick watering (at least it sounds complicated to me) or much propagation or anything - I just want to keep my living room looking as pretty as it is now, with lots of healthy blooms, if this is not too much to ask. Since I've heard so much about how important the soil is, I think I am going to change the soil the plants came in pretty soon; at least for the AV-s, I don't know whether I should do the same thing for the begonias, but probably should. Having a month between waterings sounds like a lot to me. These are small pots (4" I believe) and I think all moisture would evaporate altogether from such a small pot well before the 1 month mark; especially if I change the soil to something more airy. I did fertilize the AV-s when I watered them the first time - with some 5-7 drops of liquid fertilizer from MIracle-Gro, as indicated on the package. I am a super novice so I just did the novice thing. I guess changing the soil will also change the present routine. Some of the flowers on my AV-s are starting to fade now- they are starting to have little burnt patches on the petals, but I assume this is the natural cycle of the flower - as I bought them with quite a few blooms from the nursery and it might just be their time to go. I am just hoping they will continue to bloom for a while. Thank you again for the kind welcome, I wil certainly be around because I have been clearly "bitten". :-)

When you repotted, was the potting mix dry and, if so, did you mechanically mix water into it before using it? As someone above mentioned, absolutely dry peat moss repels water. Water usually needs to be mechanically mixed into dry peat moss, so it is uniformly moist, before it is used. Small talk: Many years ago, I had two flower boxes on the garage that were filled with peat- lite mix. During the winter, the mix dried out. My mother would habitually use these flower boxes as ash trays to extinguish her cigarettes. One day there was a smoldering fire in one of the boxes that made a big stink. I flooded it with water from a garden hose, but that didn't extinguish the fire. I had to dump out the contents and stir water into the peat-lite to put out the fire.

Let's use your second picture, the closeup, for this discussion. The larger branch that sticks up from the dominant trunk has to go, so cut it off flush with the trunk with a fine saw, then paint the wound carefully with waterproof wood glue. The glue seals the wood, prevents it from drying, prevents a large scar that takes a long time to heal, and helps the callus tissue that forms at the edge of the wound to roll over the wound without resistance. As you follow the trunk line up, you come to another branch that sticks up, then has a branch that moves off to the right. That stays, but the little stub that sticks up gets the same treatment I described for the first upright branch off the trunk. The branch underneath the higher branch that moves to the right and looks like a continuation of the main trunk line and appears parallel to the upper branch should be removed. Your trunk will move to the right, then move upward a short distance, then continue to the right. That little 'crook in the trunk line adds interest. The reason the lower branch should be moved is, it competes with your eye as the apex. Even though the trunk line your keeping is higher than the branch, it still confuses your eye. All the branches on the subordinate trunk should move to the right, but no branch should be directly above another. The lowest branch should move right and toward you. The next should move right and be in line with the trunk, the third branch should move right and toward the back. There should be no branches on the dominant trunk that move to the right. Coming off the dominant trunk, you should have 3-4 branches arranged alternately that move to the left. These should be longer branches to offer visual balance (so the tree doesn't look like it's going to fall over to the right). There is a branch that is growing off the really short stub that sticks up where the dominant trunk line makes a jog. It appears to be growing to the left. That is a key branch. Train it so it grows toward the front and moves left. No branches should grow directly toward the front of the composition, so they look like they want to poke you in the eye. Did you get all that? FWIW, I'm a bonsai judge, and 30 years of practice at bonsai allows me to see the tree in the tree. It also allows me to see problems and offer plans that allow the grower to work around the problems or in some cases turn them into a feature. Comments? Al