Hi there I'm not a bonsai person or anything, but I did come across your post while searching for info on turning my jasmine cuttings (that are being rooted now) into a bonsai. While I don't have bonsai experience, I do have a lot of experience with Arabian and Winter Jasmine plants. I have some info that may be of some help to you. First, identification. Are you absolutely sure that is a jasmine specimen? The reason I ask is because only one Jasmine that I know of has rose-shaped double blooms and that is the Arabian Jasmine (Jasminum Sambac) - primarily the Grand Duke of Tuscany Arabian Jasmine. The blooms on the Arabians are shaped much differently from the ones you pictrued. The petals are much more compact and rounded. The blooms usually only reach an inch or two in diameter. Those flowers look much bigger. I'm pretty sure I know what your mom has, though, is a Gardenia. Google the plant and look at the images - see if it matches up to what your mom has. Next, lets talk about rooting. If you're trying to root a "hardwood" cutting, you'll need to change your method of rooting. Hardwoods don't usually root in water. They like soil to root. Also, you'll get best results if you use tip cuttings and a rooting hormone powder on the ends that you stick in the soil. Just yesterday I pruned my Grand Duke Arabian Jasmine plant and set 12 tip cuttings to root. A tip cutting is the end of a branch that has a leaf bud. You don't want to cut up by the bud, but go down a few inches (maybe 4 to 6 inches) and make your cut. Then strip all but top most two leaves and the bud. You'll want to have your rooting medium ready so you can just pop the cutting in the pot - you don't want to let too much time pass between cutting and potting. I use a peat moss and vermiculite mixture and a 4 inch pot. Don't pack the rooting mix, leave it loose. Then poke a hole in it a few inches deep. Take your prepared cutting and dip it about an inch or two into the rooting hormone powder. Tap off the excess and gently put it into the hole you made in the rooting medium. Water the daylights out of the pot until it is fully saturated. Then place the pot with the cutting on a tray with about an inch or more depth. For the next few weeks, just add water to the tray when it gets dry. If it truly is an Arabian Jasmine, you'll want to keep it in an area with a near constant temperature between 60 and 70 degrees for it to root. Lastly, your critter. That, my friend, looks like scale. You can google Scale Pest and see what you're dealing with. Most likely the critter came with the cutting. They're easy to miss as they are really well camouflaged. Once they attach to your plant, they're really hard to get rid of so eliminate it with extreme prejudice! See this Garden Web post about Scale insects http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/houseplt/msg0409431925853.html and you'll see what I mean. Whatever you do, do not let that little sucker survive. Check any plant that has come in contact with your cuttings to be sure that the critters didn't move on to them as well. (or worse yet, come from one of your other plants!) You might want to check your mom's plant to see if it has an infestation. If it does, the Scale insects could kill it. She may want to take action as it is a lovely plant. The questions relating to the bark, branches and fungus are probably because the cuttings are dying/dead and decaying as they weren't meant to be rooted in water. Try again with fresh cuttings using the info I suggested above. I found some really good videos that helped me get started propagating from cuttings on Youtube. Here is a link that might be useful: GardenWeb Forums - Can You Truly Get Rid of Scales?

I refrained from replying because, though the symptoms appear to be multiple, the root cause (no pun intended) is likely root damage due to extremely high root temperatures. High temperatures alone make it difficult for the plant to take up water & nutrients, which can cause localized necrosis in leaf tissues or entire leaves to die. It also severely weakens plants, making attack by disease and/or pests more likely and a more serious problem. Al

It looks like the conditon is moving upwards so if you trace backward you will find where it started. My guess is where the dying stem joins the main stem. This would indicate too much water. If these are the conditions,prune away the diseased stems and treat with a fungicide. Copper is usually effective.

Thanks in advance for your help. Here are photos. It is yellowing badly on the leaves. Some will go from this yellow to simply dead. I water weekly to try to keep them moist, the soil is very drainable as I've tilled the you-know-what out of my north Texas red-clay soil and added a lot to it. I planted the Jasmine in April. One of the plants I put in at that time completely died in about July from this same thing. The photos below show the an area of yellow next to an area that still appears healthy (for now). There is new growth on a couple of the areas but it is pretty rare and just recently started as if the vines have been dormant for a number of months.