I think that's a fantastic looking plant! PG's idea of gently wedging a rock against the base would probably be all it needs to be upright. I probably wouldn't take many cuttings from that now since hopefully it will make some flower buds soon. Since it's not yet, I wonder if it's in a room where you have bright lights on after sunset? "...prefer to be root bound." No plant prefers that. What is happening is root rot in pots of stuff that has no air pockets in it, and takes forever to dry out. As long as one has a chunky, porous, airy mix, and doesn't constantly pour water in there (or allow it to sit in a drip saucer,) the pot size is irrelevant. It can take some doing to figure out what kind of soil goes well with the kind of plant person you are. It sounds like you love to water them often? "Do I need rooting hormone?" I agree with J, no hormone needed. In the case of wanting a more full pot like this, I would stick any cuttings in the pot with the mama plant, aimed in the other direction slightly. Just use a knife to make a slit & slip the end that was attached to the mama plant in there, doesn't seem to matter how far, as long as at least most of the lowest section is under the surface. "Perhaps last time I used too much water." Probably. A *succulent* cutting with no roots can't absorb water, it can only rot. When taking the cuttings, let them sit in the air overnight for the cut part to heal/seal. This should prevent fungus/bacteria from being able to 'get in,' prevents further loss of moisture, and definitely notifies that piece of plant that it needs to grow some roots "in search of moisture, not because it is adjacently present." When placed within the roots of an already-growing plant, I have much better luck with propagating (outside of the realm of the glass of water you mentioned, which does work well for many non-succulent, leafy plants.) The mama plant prevents the soil from staying too moist around the cutting even while watering as usual. This is the only way I've had luck with Begonia cuttings in particular. I can't NOT hover over a pot with nothing but cuttings either. That usually results in loving them to death as you described. I successfully forget about those tucked under mama plants and haven't had any TC cuttings fail this way, in pots with other TC's and completely different plants that 'need' something leaning out at the bottom in my strange plan to make every pot a mini tropical jungle. Knowing whether cuttings require drying (callousing) and which should go immediately in water/moist soil is the 1st step to success, glad you asked. The one pot of TC cuttings I tried without any existing-roots plants in the pot was this one. Having seen pics of people doing them this way, and knowing how I hover over a pot of cuttings, I chose to lay them mostly flat on the surface. This worked well & is a blooming plant around here somewhere. I lost track of which was...

in my z5 ... as soon as the ground is thawed .. and workable ... including drainage ...you can move trees... conifers .. and shrubs ... picea pungens is a conifer.. if it matters to you ... and there is a forum about such.. should you be interested ... you move all said stuff .. as early in spring as possible.. and as long a time as possible BEFORE the heat of summer ... which.. all said.. sounds like right now .... the only issue to be careful about .. might be watering this early in spring.. though the transplant needs water at planting .. with the coolness .. and dampness of spring... it might not need more water until june .. insert finger and do not water again.. after the initial watering ... UNLESS the soil has dried ... the key here is PROPER TIMING ... and we move conifers.. when they are dormant .... which is now.. or in fall .... GO FOR IT !!!! good luck ken

If you do decide to do it, wait as late as possible (I know it's hard to know in WI) before the ground freezes (late Oct-Nov?), to be sure they're dormant, then the stress will be far less on them, but only cut roots to separate from other trees if necessary and hopefully the younger feeder ones will be closer to the trunk and not all coming off the ends of the longer, woody roots. Take a relatively large rootball with each one if you can, and just wrap in burlap, or in bags of straw, and have holes dug ahead of time to plop them into immediately, but never deeper than they sit now. Water well, but stop as soon as the ground does freeze of course. You might want to mulch well around them too for this year.

i dont know why you buried this is some 6 year old post.. feel free to start new posts ... [newbie learning curve i see now] i NEVER fert conifers.. ever... never .. ever ... that said.. hollytone is about as benign as you can get.. isnt it something like 1-1-1 ... whether that or something else killed the failures is left to the mysteries of mother earth ... unless you care to give us more facts about the whole process ... in my cheap butt world.. the hollytone is just a waste of money ... but hey.. if you got it.. use it at will ... and i have no clue what you mean by layering it in ... it should be top dressed after the planting ... see link for a good planting guide... in regard to soil type.. water management, including drainage .... mulching.. etc ... welcome to GW ... we need more friends ... come back often.. with your own posts... look at your post above.. next to your name.. it says NONE... if you go to your members page.. and can change that to zone nd maybe a state.. like i did ... it will help us... ken ps: by my calender.. its still 2014... lol ... did i miss a year??? ... lol ... Here is a link that might be useful: link