Hello~ Just cooked a ham dinner and am pooped! lol. Cena~ Great plant and pictures! Shallow pots are hard to find here too! Maybe because Arizona isn't too great for bulbs. Frustrating though, I like shallow for cactus! Purple~ I love growing Basil too , just to have it around the garden to smell! As you say, if you barely brush up against it, oh the smell is heaven! I just brought in a lemon basil and stuck it in my pot with my Elephant Ear to see how it will grow indoors this winter. Have some mint I want to try inside too . :-) Toni~ I love growing herbs, just not in the micro climate I mentioned because of dirty run off from the roof. But have them all over the yard! I've heard lemon scented plants are good to ward off mosquitoes, so I have it around for that reason too. As far as what to add it too, that is just a matter of taste. I use it fresh in scrambled eggs, on spaghetti, and many other ways. In salads, it's endless. Key to remember, if cooking with fresh herbs, add them last so they don't overcook and become bitter. You got a Jade! LOL! Like you don't have enough plants? ;-) I'm sorry your a little disapointed with it at the moment, but I think there's a few reasons it's different, and in time it will change in color and form, I think the leaves have some curl to them and will change in time. It looks a little under watered maybe, but it is time to start cutting back a little. I got mine a year and a half ago. Even though I am only a few miles from Arid Lands, we still will have different growing results. Mine may get more sun, or less, diff. temps then what it was at the greenhouse. You bought yours towards the end of the growing season too. Mine was outside till just a few weeks ago, so it was getting quite a bit of sun, and we all know how sun colors up a Jade. At Arid lands, they grow under a shade cloth. So may not be in their best color there . :-) I will link what mine looked like when I first got it. It was a lot diff. then what it is now. I think in time, yours will change to look more like mine. Probably come spring when it is growing strong again, and the sun will be brighter. Right now Jades like cool nights, and warm days. Mine is inside due to almost losing it. It would normally be out right now and only protected from frost. Right now I would think a bright window, in a cool room. Mine is in a east window, and the room only has heat that filters in from the rest of house. This will be my first time having a Jade in for the winter, so I'm not real sure what to tell you as far as whats best. Maybe Josh, or Mike. :-) I usually winter all my plants out in a little greenhouse, we are mild compared to most, so that's always been enough, but almost losing this one this summer, I brought it in. I pick my plants just at random usually. :-) Just what looks neat or different at the time. I am looking for a good winter growing one right now. Oh.. I get lost so easy! LOL! I've changed a lot since March and have had to do things by myself I normally would have not done and driven to so many new places, I truly amaze myself, and am happy with how much I've grown! Planning a trip soon to Starr Nursery with my mom! Hope I find it! LOL!!! I dont get why people shoot our beautiful cactus either. But they are protected, so it's a major crime here! Yes, we got a box turtle last week. Our neighbor didnt want theirs anymore. So the asked me to take it. I love turtles! It's a small type and full grown, at 6". Yes, we play with it. :-) Not named yet, but thinking along the lines of the Daughter of Mahamid Ali. (Leila) It eats bugs so we have our work cut out for us! LOL! Gonna start raising fishing worms for her. :-) JoJo Here is a link that might be useful: Jade when I got it. (May 2011)

I water all my DR's from the top, never from the bottom. Regarding the ingredients in the soil... Personally I would omit the play sand...far too small particle size, sand compacts, forces air out of the mix and stays too wet. In cooler temps if wet, it will also be cold as well. I would also steer clear of the cardboard component...also will stay wet for too long so no need for that in a mix that you are esentially trying to make very fast draining. The other ingredients sound OK as long as there is not too much cactus mix, especially if it is peaty. Hope this helps, just my thoughts. Gill UK

one of my best largest healthiest variegated blooming violets collapsed with crown rot when i was away. it was on wick in original soil (not enough perlite). i uppotted it into a pot with a perlite all around to keep it drier back in summer. and it survived like that in 75F for 2 weeks. so i did not think to worry about it.. but now the temps are cooler and it rotted :(. i cut off 6 still healthy leaves and put them in water with some peroxide to disinfect. but after 2 days i see browning of the stem at the tip...i cut off 1/2 inch more and now have only 1/2" stubs left. i finally put them in perlite and dipped in rooting hormone to hopefully stop the rot. i actually never put the leaves in water like that before. so my question is : does the stem naturally brown at the tip when put in water?

The seeds are finally starting to germinate. They were fresh, so that would seem to be on the long side for a P. edulis. The germination conditions were a bit odd, though. At about the time they were planted, the sun shifted so that it shines directly in that window most of the days. These guys are in a high humidity environment, so they got steamed--very hot and very humid. I suppose it didn't hurt in the end. I think the best assumption at this point would be that these are in fact P. edulis. I was in communication with one individual (I would like to give credit but this was a private email) who suggested a way to tell whether it is a hybrid or not. The petiole glands of P. edulis lie right at the base of the leaf; those of P. vitifolia at the other end of the petiole. If it's a hybrid, they will presumably no longer lie at the postion of the P. edulis ones. If they have moved (say to an intermediate position) that would be clear evidence that a hybrid was made. And apparently the petiole glands can even be visualized on the first seed leaves. No need to wait for the flowers, hopefully. I will update this when I can.