Nevermind, I found out that for every 1 Inch you should leave it out for 1 Month.

The bugs spread just like any other pest. They hitch a ride on insects. When you touch one plant that is infected and then touch another plant without washing your hands, you can transfer it that way too. Same goes for your garden clippers. Some can get blown around by the wind. If plants are close to each other, they just crawl on over to visit their neighbor. If you have mealy bugs, just spraying them with the water hose may not get rid of them all. You should inspect the plant and rub off any that remain after spraying. They get down in the crevices of the leaves and hide. I'd be concerned about overwatering the succulents if you are using the hose on them every day to remove the pests. Do what meyermike says! On the days you aren't hosing them off, wipe them off with a q-tip dipped in rubbing alcohol. It sounds like you have two plants side-by-side with the same problem. Be sure to isolate them both, but not next to each other! After you think they are gone, wait a couple of weeks before returning them to the rest of your plants. I've been fighting mealy bugs on a potted olive tree. Looked clean for two weeks now...and just yesterday I took a look at it and there they were again, a few of those fuzzy white bugs. grrr

Hi...thats a nice looking DR you have found there, I wish I could get them here in the UK instead of having to grow them from seeds!! 1/You do not HAVE to raise them up when you re-pot...it's just that the caudex and roots can make some extraordinary shapes under the soil and this way you can (if you wish) expose them so they are visible. 2/Again, and only if you want to, you could carefully trim off those whispy roots (providing it has plenty of others down below) with a sharp knife/scalpel to keep the caudex clear. I have found the larger thicker underground roots will swell up a lot when exposed, but these thin ones don't and can detract from the overall appearance...in my opinion you understand. The cuts may 'bleed' white sap, it can be an irritant so keep away from eyes etc. It dries brown and looks unsightly, just use a childs paintbrush and water to swish the dried sap away...it foams up and then clears. A dry brush will also clear away the dried compost attached to the caudex brilliantly. 3/ All my 11 DR's are still in leaf, so they get watered a little and not too often as they are kept relatively warm during the winter days so have yet to go dormant and stop growing. They get watered early in the day and sit in a south facing windowcill above a radiator so are dry come nightfall when the room goes cold. It's the combination of cold AND wet that rots them. 5/Just like one of my DR's with a similar shape, yours appears to be heading rapidly skywards with no branches yet. If you want you could either..... a/ nip out the terminal bud forcing dormant buds in the nodes lower down to sprout, or b/ trim the leading shoot much lower down, say half way down the leafy part which again should make it branch out. The cut off portion could be left to dry for a day or so and potted up in some gritty mix to see if it will root and make clone of your original plant. Just some ideas that I find work for me given the conditions I can provide/already have and can't alter (i.e day length, sunshine hours etc) here in the UK. You just have to work out what will suit your conditions best. Hope some of it may be of use, if not now, even maybe later on. Keep us posted how your plant fares? Gill from the UK.

Thanks, everyone, for the replies. And I apologize for my untimely response. It would seem that I need to adjust a setting to let me know I've received responses. To update, I ended up not taking it back because I procrastinated and then became busy work-wise, so I felt too much time had passed. But I did buy another from Lowe's (the first one was from a well-respected nursery in Jupiter, FL), and the Lowe's plant seems to be doing very well. I'm sure the employees thought it a little strange as I reached half my hand down inside the plant's container before buying it ;-) I'm on the forum today researching repotting and pruning (I'm scared!!!). Gritty, coconut coir, etc., etc..... It's only the end of April and it feels like July, and water retention vs. PWT is my hangup with regard to media. Greenclaws, "aerating" the pot was just the best way I could think of to describe carefully adding some slices around the pot to better oxygenate/aerate the soil. Something I'd read somewhere. Just typing that sentence is feeling a bit embarrassing. I did not do that with the new one. Ray, that was a weird cold spell, if that was the last one! It had been so warm and then back in warm skivvies. But it did give me a chance to play with a belated Xmas present, a little greenhouse :-). And thanks for a referral, particularly one within the state. I will be checking out Out of Africa very soon as I've already been thinking I would love to grow some from seed. Hyn Patty and AJ, thanks for the vote as well to start some plants from seed. I've seen some blogs documenting the process, along with some experimentation, and it looks like something that would be really rewarding to do. Ray, living in Orlando, which can be hotter than down here (Palm Bch Co.), what kind of soil do you use? Do you go gritty? I have two of the three ingredients. My big ol' bag of #2 cherry stone came in yesterday. The PBF is a challenge for me. I bought a bag of a suggested mulch, and I purchased the reptile bark, and neither look like they would work out without me breaking it down by hand piece by piece, which I would do if I had the time, but that would take a LOT of time! Thank you all again for offering your help with my sad first DR. I'm off to see about my settings so I don't miss any responses in the future.