Laura..Everyone certainly has their gifts in plants and you are certainly no exception in the Desert Rose plants and with people!:-) You never cease to amaze me with not just your kindness, but you ability to grow many things that mant people can not, even with winter against you. Just wonderful and lovely! The one you gave me, the sis, she's still alive but bald at the moment!lol Beautiful looking plants and the roots, wow. Jojo, thanks so much! You know me. If it is not an unusual plant, I won't buy it. I have seen many Philodendrons. I think that Karen has a remarkable one too, Now, one like hers I would buy also! Look at you go with nw rootings. I hope they root well for you. The key is to keep changing out the water and to keep them warm. Hum, in Arizona, I see no problems..lol Good to see you again! Tropicbreeze, I hope to own one of them someday. I hear they are so nice in bloom:-) Tommy, I just found out the other day that there is such a thing as fragrant violets. Hummmm. Greybird, I hope they make it. I love that origonal C.C! Eahamel..That's wonderful! LauraR..How are the Gollum cuttings coming along? Do you use lots of light? Rina and Marg..You are just too nice, So nice to share. Rina, you know how I feel about the Black Princes plant? I always wanted one of those! Nice. Teengardner..I hope yours lal root just fine. Hope you have lots of room for them too:-) Gail..Nice. Mine are in the dark basement too. Doing good:-) Mike

Cuttings (leaf) Many plants can be propagated from leaf cuttings. The pivotal point is whether or not the propagule is capable of forming adventitious buds, which are buds that form on plant parts other than leaf axils. A leaf axil is the crotch formed by the leaf stem (petiole) and the branch/ trunk/ stem it is attached to. Some plants have groups of cells that descend directly from embryonic cells engaged in meristematic activity. These cell groups can differentiate into buds/shoots from foliar embryos that formed as the leaf was forming. More commonly though, wound-induced secondary meristems can form when existing tissues already acting as part of an organ dedifferentiate into NEW meristematic regions (de novo regeneration), then redifferentiate into new organs (buds). If you want to be fairly certain that you'll be successful in your cloning attempts, make sure you include a latent or actively growing axillary bud, which would be located just distal to (above) where the leaf is attached to the stem. The downside to propagating from stem cuttings with a singular leaf in water is that often the bud is destroyed by rot, and/or, the type of root tissue that forms in water is physiologically very different from root tissue that forms in a solid, well-aerated medium. This difference is made manifest in the water-formed roots being very poor at taking up water from a solid medium, along with the fact that water roots are very delicate, almost brittle. As such, they handle the transition from water to soil poorly. Many leaf cuttings will readily produce roots to form 'blind cuttings', which means they are incapable of forming the adventitious buds which are a prerequisite to shoot formation on any cutting that does not include a node and an axillary bud. It is not essential that a leaf be attached to the propagule, as axillary buds are located distal to (above) the leaf and the scar left behind where a leaf was once attached. I don't know if your plant is one such, but if it lives on and on w/o forming a stem, you'll at least know the reason. To reiterate, it's best to bring an existing node with an axillary bud along for the ride or be ready for a disappointment. Blind cuttings can live for years, but eventually they collapse for no conspicuous reason. Al

Steve, I wouldn't have taken the chance of going from water to perlite or soil since pothos and philodendrons can live indefinitely in water, plus it's the safest option for rooting. But I'm glad it's worked out okay and you're seeing new growth in soil mix, a very good sign it's going to be fine. I'd like to suggest that as soon as you have some growth of 6 inches or so, take a cutting. I would keep taking and rooting cuttings until you have at least 3 to 4 plants in separate pots. These backup plants will be good insurance against calamities such as you've had with your old plant which has such sentimental value. Some might think this is over-kill, but I've learned this strategy the hard way. Besides, a plant in several different rooms will be a constant reminder of good times and good memories. Keep us advised how it goes. Russ

To help you figure things out ...... if you're watering when you can still detect moisture in the soil with a finger, you can't be under-watering. If you can eliminate under-watering based on the above, it pretty much leaves you with over-watering or a high level of dissolved solids in the soil from the fertilizer you applied. What did you use for fertilizer, how much did you use, and how did you apply it? Was the plant dry at application time? I don't know if I mentioned this, but it's easy to monitor soil moisture levels with a 'tell'. A wood dowel (from any hardware or home improvement store) about 5/16" in diameter works best. They come 48" long. Cut it in half & sharpen all 4 ends in a pencil sharpener. Push it deep into the soil and don't water until the first day it comes out clean/dry. Did you read the thread I linked to upthread - the one that focuses on how to deal with unwanted water retention? The best advice I offered was to concentrate on making sure your plants are in a soil you can water to beyond the point of saturation w/o having to worry the soil remain soggy so long it limits root health/function. That means you either start with an appropriate soil of find ways to limit water retention, which brings us back around to the link that takes you to the thread about dealing with water retentive soils. It's hard to tell you precisely what to do w/o you having a basic understanding of what plants require to remain healthy. Particularly important and a prerequisite to a healthy plant is a healthy root system. All of the information you need to be an accomplished container grower fits together like a jigsaw puzzle under assembly. Each piece is connected to the other pieces - either directly or extraneously, but they ARE all connected. You probably remember that it’s easier to assemble a puzzle when you work toward getting the outer 'frame' together first. The outer frame is analogous to an understanding of the basic bits knowledge required for your success. Of the basic knowledge, most important is an understanding of how the soil/water relationship works & how the individual soil components interact relative to the whole. Basically we need to understand that a healthy root system is a requirement if the plant is to be healthy. Then, and easier to understand are a very few additional issues like the importance of light to your growing experience, how fertilizers work and what fertilizer is most appropriate ……. We also need at least a very basic understanding of how some of the other cultural conditions might affect plant growth/performance. Once this basic but essential understanding is part of your skill set, that is to say the framework of the growing puzzle completed, assembling the rest of the pieces will occur at a rate exponentially faster than the rate at which you progressed at the outset of your growing experience. Unless this basic framework is complete, you’re essentially relying on trial & error, which is probably never going to gain favor as a short cut to success. Al