Brittany, Congratulations on your bloom. It is pretty cool that you got bloom from your small cutting. That is awesome. It sounds like you are doing great with whatever you are doing to see bloom, growth, and branching. Where are you in Bay Area? I am in San Jose. I don't have much experience and only have small seedling plants given to me by a member here and trying to start some cuttings. Toshi and Aileen on here locally in Santa Clara has some great plants. I have seen their multiple pants doing well and blooming so it gives me hope and they are the nicest people ever with their time and knowledge so you can try to look them up. I will make introduction when I can. Toshi also has cuttings for sale at very reasonable price and his cuttings are bigger than what you would normally see. What you are doing with regarding making sure plant is not affected by cold weather is perfect so you will need to figure out what you will do during winter during dormancy stage. Over watering has been my issue with desert rose and I am weary about my first winter too with my plumerias. So far I have learned that you barely need to water them if at all but closely monitor to make sure that they do not dry out but err on the dry side. I have seen growers have in-ground plumeria which gives me more hope but they had to really protect it during winter season. The in-ground plumeria I saw at Toshi is quite large next to brick was in front of his home. He said he protects it during winter/rain season but still has rotting issue with some branches.

I went on ahead today and snipped the still-soft and growing tops of the rosemary and put them in seed starter to try to grow them as cuttings again. I checked the roots of all my rosemary and all are brown and appear to have been burned by the fertilizer. They have all been indoors the whole time. I was not going to move them outside until the spring when I can harden them off and then keep them outside. When I planted the cuttings in January, I just put them in what appears to be a top-quality seed starting mix that one reviewer who compared seed starter mixes said had almost 100% germination when he used it. I read on the back of the bag that it can also be used for rooting cuttings, so I used it. The company is called Coast of Maine and the seed starter mix is their Sprout Island Organic Seed Starter, if you want to check them out. They use lobster shell, kelp, and other organic leavings from the seafood and marine industries in Maine in their seed starter and other products. They suggested keeping the rosemary cuttings inside plastic bags (I used ziplock bags) that are mostly closed, with a little bit open for air circulation, while they developed their roots, then transplant them to pots with potting soil. So, that is what I did with the cuttings, then transplanted them to individual terra cotta pots with Coast of Maine's Bar Harbor Premium Potting Soil in them. I would say 80-90% of my herb and vegetable seeds have germinated and they and all of my rosemary cuttings have grown like wildfire with this seed starter and potting soil, but this is my first time doing all of this.

Tomatoes are resilient. Unless you're rough and breaking roots, when exactly you pot up isn't going to make or break your season. As for potting medium, etc. it doesn't make a huge difference. I've used seed starter, I've used Miracle Gro given to me by a relative who had no use for a big bag of it, etc. As long as it's not soil but a mix for indoor/container plants, it should work. The big issue with non-seed-starter mixes is that they might have fungus gnats in them, which can wreak havoc on your seedlings by eating their roots and carrying pathogens that cause damping off and become a real annoyance in the home. I always have water with mosquito bits or mosquito dunks soaking in them to use to water all my indoor plants, and I have no fungus gnat problems and haven't had anything at all damp off since. Not even notorious seedlings like basil. Re: fertilizer--if they look like they need it, I fertilize. If not, I don't. I find that I don't really need to if I use something like Miracle Gro. If I use sterile seed starter, I usually end up fertilizing lightly when I pot up with a dilute water soluble fert. I start off my seeds in 1.5" x 1.5 "x 2" cells, then when they're about at the point where the second set of true leaves is starting to come in, I pot them up into SOLO cups and, weather permitting, start to harden them off. They grow really quickly during the hardening off process so that they're a totally decent size when I finally plant them out. Sometimes, if things in the garden aren't on schedule, they live outdoors in the SOLO cups for a little longer. But that's when things are going according to plan. When they're not, I've planted out 2" plants with one true leaf and I've planted out plants pushing a foot and a half, and they've all done fine. Tomatoes may be prima donnas when it comes to disease, but they're tough little plants otherwise and fairly forgiving.

Don't get to overwhelmed by trying to do it perfectly the first time. Gardening in general is one long learning experience. Take what you have now (or are going to have when your people are done), and enjoy the experience of learning what works and what doesn't. Try not to make it too complicated - getting into pH levels and irrigation and strict fertilizing schedules will make it more stressful than enjoyable - and you'll learn all of that stuff as you go along. Plants want to grow, and unless you're actively doing something that is counter to that want, most plants will do just fine without you becoming a soil scientist or a chemist. Especially tomatoes, they're pretty tough plants (and cherry tomatoes are practically fool proof, IMHO). I'm basically growing tomatoes in the desert in decomposed granite. Isn't New Jersey the garden state? Plop them in there, water when the soil is dry when you stick your finger in it or they look like they're thirsty, fertilize if they start looking a little worn midway through the growing season, and enjoy the growing and learning process. Ask questions if something comes up you're not sure about. My two cents, anyway, make it fun, not stressful.