This weekend we were visiting family and my brother-in-law, an orchid grower and all-around green thumb, gave me a pile of potted cuttings from his household plants. Now, part of me wants to muddle through and learn as I go, but I decided I would be ever so grateful for a little direction from y'all experts. So if anyone could be so kind...help!?

OK, first is the jade (no identification needed, LOL!)

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He gave me four terra cotta pots with 1-2 cuttings in each. He cut them off the huge, overgrown mother plant and placed them straight into this interesting mix that looks like small orchid bark, large perlite, and something fine like peat. He watered them in.

* In his mix, should I keep it damp (since the bark will probably be hydrophobic if it dries out) or let it dry until there's top growth?

* If I want to try my own (well, Al's) gritty mix as well, should I just move a couple cuttings into new pots with my mix, or should I take cuttings from the last couple inches of the cuttings, let them callus, and pot those?

Next is the Christmas cactus. I *really* want this to do well! It's somewhat sentimental. He gave me really long sort of flaccid cuttings (all his plants from the same mother are droopy, but I've seen them in bloom and they're lovely!)

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Same questions, basically. It's in the same mix as the jade, maybe a little more peat. What do I do with the pot he gave me, and can I cut a piece and root it in a different mix? If so, should I take one segment or a few? From the end or from the middle of a branch?

While I'm here, this is another CC in my possession:

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I got it half-price at the garden center because it was a mostly-unrooted cutting. I took it out of the heavy peat it was in and into this homemade (Al's 5-1-1) bark-based mix. It put on some top growth but then some segments broke off (the ones in the pot with it).

* This is the Thanksgiving species, right?

* Any tips on growing it? Specifically, the potting mix has stayed really damp lately, and after putting on those few new segments it suspended new growth. I am worried about the roots -- but there are signs of new growth again now. Should I just wait and see?

Then these two pots I'd love it if someone could ID them:

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Thank you, thank you for any information, especially if you muddled through all this!!