Dellis said, "I believe a less developed plant allows it to adapt easier to my growing conditions as it grows." I didn't realize I felt this way, but I do too, now that you've said it. I must say, repotting these took about 2 minutes although I *might* not have bothered quite so soon, despite personal disdain for peat, if I had know how unnecessary it was. As far as a plant dying after I've brought it home... unless it was due to a bug problem that existed but wasn't apparent at the time of purchase, I take full responsibility for that. If I buy a healthy-looking plant, it's my fault (eliminating bugs from the picture) if it dies. It's not like cars where some are "a lemon." (OT LOCAL ALERT:) Moonfire, The one in Andalusia has a bigger garden section but for some reason I keep finding more plants I want to buy at the Geneva one, the smallest WM I've ever seen. It's much farther away but taking my friend who doesn't drive (and lives just south of Geneva) to the store every Friday night causes me to drive right by it. So, around 8:30 pm on Friday, you can often find me there... the only one in the plant department at that time. Stupid but it's starting to feel like they're stocking the rack just for me. The one in Andy... oh my they do an awful job taking care of plants there, which is a gross overstatement of what they do. I guess I'm saying they can't even put the trays in not-wrong places. So many sunburned, overheated, and frozen plants! The manager there is a nice lady but holy cow she's got way too much to do and about zero people to help. I used to have that store on my accounts when I was merchandising for a pool chemical company so that's why I've talked to her so much. Yes, her duties include plants, the bagged mulches/soil, lawn furniture, grills, garden chems, seeds, patio furniture, and whatever other stuff they stick over there is on her plan-o-grams and to-do list. I rarely find anything there that I want, they're either already dead from too much/little water, are so etiolated that I don't even want to make cuttings, or have bugs (Gynura.) Maybe I keep getting there right after you?! Hahaha! Now that I've bought the rest of the cheap mulch, I probably won't be back until spring. It doesn't look like they're getting more in for fall but I'm still trying to get used to when the seasons actually occur down here. What's really weird is that these stores seem to have completely different selections of plants, every time I visit. Like, there are no hanging baskets at the Geneva store, and more large expensive house plants, nowhere near the selection of shrubs, and hardly ever any kitschy items like lucky bamboo, scheff bonsai, cactus with plastic flowers glued to them, or tillandsias (?) in seashells. For some strange reason they were selling Eucalyptus trees a few months ago. I still don't know what to do with that. Andy - rarely any clearance plants, even if obviously dead (above-ground at...

Good point bboy, although I don't really agree that it is pointless to shave off 1 inch without addressing the older roots. It seems pretty clear that if there are issues in the container grown root system that are hidden from a previous container size and its now larger circling roots, then the tree is likely to be impacted some day in the future. As is the case with many tree planting practices there appears to be some conflicting information as to what to do when planting a container grown tree. The University of Florida page includes information published by Edward F. Gilman, who suggest that the 1 inch be removed (and backs it up with years of data and studies) but also suggest some correction of previous container defects at the time of planting. - copy and paste the links below http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/woody/circle-removing.shtml http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/woody/containers.shtml or Another individual James Urban who is a published author on this subject discusses this specific point in the youtube clip I had posted earlier in this thread. Here is a link to the point in video where shaving the root ball is discussed (this discussion ends at the 36 minute mark.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB_rlOYkXOQ&t=32m20s He acknowledges that in addition to removing at least 1 inch of soil from the circling roots prior to planting, many experts suggest that previous years issues be corrected. He makes a good point that doing so may very well guarantee the death of the tree and suggests that it not be done unless you want to greatly risk the initial survival of the tree. (Something to consider prior to deciding how to plant a container grown tree) Unfortunately there are few if any good solutions to dealing with container grown trees at this time since it seems as though the great majority of nurseries do not correctly root prune them when transferring to larger pots, or keep them in the wrong sized pots for too long. This is the result of uniformed consumers shopping where they can locate trees at the lowest price. Even if the root ball is one giant circling mess, the consumer will not realize this since the tree will not die immediately but instead will girdle/slowly die many years down the road or may in extreme cases fall over during a storm long after the 2-year warranty has expired. I wish Bare Root trees were available to consumers, but I have never been able to locate any that weren't between 1-3 feet in size and required shipping. Thank goodness for the internet, and its wealth of available information. Even if much of it is conflicting and inaccurate, there are still good sources to turn to for information that is backed up and supported by well funded universities and others in the nursery business who have actually studied these practices and statistically measured the success and failure rates of the various techniques they recommend. In my early days (a few years back), I used to just plant container trees per the recommendations on the Lowes/Home Depot tag which resulted in trees buried too deep, circling roots and planting holes that the wrong size and shape! Sorry for the long post :) Steve

Thanks for the help, mgleason. I don't see it listed, though, on Berkeley Horticultural Nursery's website. Mmmmm. Still looking, I guess! Maybe someone else has an idea? Thanks again! Judy

Hi Everyone, Thanks for the tips. Cactusmcharris, Sorry if that was confusing but if you saw the post where I had the pic, you would have seen what we are all talking about. I bought this and got it about 4 days ago now. It was bare rooted when it was sent to me to save on shipping. I in turn had to pot it back up and try to get it to re establish in a new pot. Hi Josh! Great to hear from ya! I have used rocks when I am rooting my plumeria cuttings and i thought about doing the same thing with the jade. I have not had it move since it fell out on the 2nd night. So far so good. I did water it all ready. I actually watered it in the first day. It was in a box for about 2-3 days and I have noticed some leaves shriveling up and dropping. I know it is normal but it made me want to water it more and Lorraine(fom K and L cactus.) I think I will put it out tomorrow and see how it does. I will slowly intoduce it to light. I want to keep it indoors since it looks so great right now but I know it can continue to color up even more and our nights are getting cooler. I know next week we are going to warm up again so maybe I will bring it back in again. Thanks everyone for the help. Andrew