I always put holes in the true bottom of a hanging basket and remove the plastic divider at the bottom and add more soil. Those pots are plant killers because the hole that is there is usually recessed about 1/2" above the bottom of the pot. That's 1/2" of standing water, which will kill plants. The added soil is a much more healthy way to have a longer interval between waterings. They are also probably growing in peat, which has particles that are small enough to fit closely together, filling all spaces in the pot, leaving no tiny air pockets. This is also not good for roots, which need to breathe. Peat holds onto moisture for an excessively long time until suddenly it's so dry that it's hydrophobic. For this reason, I usually repot the plants, but gave up buying ready-made baskets a long time ago unless that's the only way to get a certain plant. It's easier to make my own with "good" soil and no worries about having to repot them mid-summer so they don't die.

I'm not sure about that jade plant, but it does look different than my others who have purple around the edges of their leaves. Are there many different breeds of jade? I'm excited about my 2 new additions = a baby prickly pear and a baby blue myrtillocactus! :) my echevaria seems to be doing OK in this big pot, so I plan to leave her there. I hope this isn't a deadly decision. Jamie (thesquintysquid)

Thanks grumpy, I think the oil was added to this recipe for insects...like scale and such. Sometimes I add it and sometimes I don't. I can't tell a difference either way. I do use ivory liquid dish detergent (not the bar soap). Someone told me that Dawn dish liquid was too strong and would kill my plants. So I bought the Ivory. But now I've read other people who say they only use Dawn. So I'm not sure which is best. I've been spraying and nothing seems to be getting worse. I didn't have this problem last year. And this year we are in the middle of a drought. I can't remember the last time we had rain...months and months ago. I don't know if there's any correlation? Keeping my fingers crossed, here. I may get blooms despite it all!

Hi nosoccermom, The very first picture I posted shows the colours most true. The lowers are called midnight blue, they are a dark blue, but definitely blue. Part of the problem is with all the stuff in the middle of the kitchen it is hard to get good pictures. Hopefully the ones I take at the end of the day show the colours more clearly!