What you have there is a plant trying to decide what kind of roots to grow in the enviroment their grown in. Your plant is having that trouble. Most plants grown commerically are grown hydroponicly. So when you bring them home they start to die because it's not getting that high oxygen. Then too the the lack of moisture every half hour drys out the roots too. The other thing you have to look at is how it gets nutrients. All these things mean dead roots. Those roots showing in your picture are ones that grow in stagnant water. I grew this one from seed.

Thanks a lot for the compliment Bananafan! I appreciate it! I definitely try to make the best of my climate. Luckily there is a lot of moisture year round by me so that does give me the opportunity to grow a lot of vegetation. Every year I get more and more species of plants, it's hard to keep up with them all after a while, but so far I've managed pretty well. Not sure what purple sedum you are referring to (is it the purple heat vine?), but that, the arborvitae and the passion vine are all cold hardy here so they are one of the easier plants for me to grow! Arborvitaes are a little bit overused here so I'd rather have something else in my yard other than them, but they look nice and are expensive (and just as expensive to dig up and replace) so I'll be probably be keeping them for many more years! The passion vine is probably my favorite bloom. Not only is it cold tolerant, but it's a fast grower too. I got it as a small plant for 2 dollars at a local nursery in July 2010. Now they cover a huge portion of my pool fence and there are seedlings popping up around my yard (they dont seem too invasive though). I know that the Pacific Northwest has some of the best gardening in the country and it is definitely cool year round so I would agree that cool climates are actually great for a lot of flowering plants! It gets pretty hot by me in the summer so that does limit the number of flowers I can grow a little bit.

First off it's not a palm and those are leaves not fronds. Beaucarnea recurvata is in the family Agavaceae (think Dracaena). You can cut it down to just about any height and it will grow new stalks just below that point. You usually get 2 new stalks at the cut. Keep in mind, however that this is a very slow growing plant. After you cut, feed it with a balanced fertilizer and lots of water. This will throw the plant into growth mode. Since summer is here you should take it outside and put it in full sun as well.

That's an interesting question - I'd answer with 'both'. They're as you've noted branches, and they're young enough (and not woody) to detach and grow them as pups and into separate plants, I'd guess. I've never done it but I think it can be done.