I suspect the plant you have was not root pruned, but rather root "rotted", due to the poor soil. Peat based soil, which is so very common, is usually a death sentence for most any plant, especially jades. With that said, if you opt to use peat based soil as a base for your new soil, you are asking for trouble at some point, even if you amend it. Organic ingredients like peat moss decompose into smaller and smaller particles, eventually turning into silt, which will just fill in the space between the larger particles, clogging it up. So, all I can recommend on that is to make the effort to get your jade(s) into a gritty mix, because I won't point someone in the direction of an inferior soil, but if you choose to do it, just be aware of the possible consequences. As for pruning, without a picture it's hard to advise on what to cut, and each person has their own idea of what they want their jades to look like. I like to create trees out of mine, very much like bonsai. Be mindful of the tendency to be top heavy, and prune out any branches, or thin out the leaves, to prevent breaking of important stems or trunks. For support, I left a description of that in the other post that you asked me that, but in short, I use solid electrical wire to more or less tie it to the pot. Also, pay mind to the type of pot you use; I like to use pots that are heavy and wide based, to provide balance and tip over protection. Nothing is worse than coming home to find your jade(s) tipped over and the potting mix dumped out because of a wind gust. For cuttings, let the wound dry a bit and form a callus. I place the cutting into some gritty mix in a smaller pot, and support it with wires as I would a repotted jade. The wires typically stay for a year, or until solidly rooted. I have used little clear plastic containers, so I can see the root development. With the gritty mx, the worries of rot are very low, so you can water when the mix goes dry. Hopefully that addresses some of your questions, and guides you in the right direction. Joe

it would involve a trip to the store to buy a pot, and potting soil, which i suspect is longer than it takes to post on the forum unless you have internet via carrier pigeon.. but i hear ya. thanks. i'll try to get out to the store tomorrow.

Hi Treecop, I think instead of having them all in one big bag, I would separate them out some. Maybe put them in several flat boxes, and cover lightly with sawdust, peat moss, or even layers of newspaper. Rhizomes are quite tuff, and if you ever looked at those packaged at WM or other places, they are in a breathable plastic bags, with some shavings, and are usually quite dry. When the spring comes, if green growth doesn't come up in the planting area, I think you could just till again (if you want), plant, and Preen well. I'm told that Preen should be watered in or else existing seeds can germinate b4 the Preen is activated by rain. If the bed is not edged, I'd consider some kind of edging, to keep the many creeping things (crabgrass, etc) from creeping back in around the edges. Have you gotten rid of any of the iris? or do you have all that were dug out? If you kept all of them, I would think you would need to expand the existing area, to accommodate planting all of them, so they will not be overgrown in just a season or 2. I'm guessing the hundreds of varieties are now all mixed up, so if you don't plant them all, you may not have a start of each and every one of them...right? Sue

When rhizomes are planted late they have no chance to get roots down deep enough to hold them. I use hair pin markers, so I just place the hair pin over the rhizome and push down to anchor them till spring when they can get enough roots to hold them. As long as the rhizome is firm (not mushy) they should be fine. Some folks use a weight like a rock or brick.