ilikewinter: I'm not an expert on strawberries but since I empathize with you because of the care you've given your container plants, I'm going to hazard a GUESS. Strawberries do not like sun and heat. Both strawberries and spinach like coolish weather rather than blazing sun. These are the very same two plants of yours that suffered in the heat which tends to corroborate that sun and/or heat may be the problem. Spinach is known to bolt to seed when the weather heats up. It is considered to be a cool weather crop. The fact that the damage happened during high 80s temperatures also tends to corroborate heat as the problem. If your weather cools down and the strawberry plants come back, this would also tend to corroborate heat as the culprit. Also, your south facing balcony gets the hottest sun of all - the blazing afternoon shake and bake without the shake. I'm in the L.A. area in Southern California. About 50 miles north of here the coastal communities of Oxnard and Camarillo are prime strawberry growing areas. Miles of strawberry fields. The reason is that the weather never gets too much above 85 F because the Pacific Ocean moderates the climate. Most of the spring time temperatures, which is the time of year when strawberries are grown there, are in the 60s and 70s. Fog and overcasty type weather fosters the strawberries. Other coastal areas that get hotter don't have the large strawberry operations. Oxnard and Camarillo are unique in this respect. So some kind of simple shading device might help. 30% shade cloth simply fastened to and draped over your balcony railing would be simple and economic. You don't need much material. Old window screening (double layer) or muslin scraps might also work. You just want to tone down the direct sunlight. On overcast or rainy days, you could just flip the half of the, say, shade cloth that covers the pot over to the other side (the outside) of the railing. Also, from the wide shot picture, the direct sunlight hits the pots. This heats the pots and, in turn, the soil inside them which can burn the roots. There's a big difference between roots in the ground and roots in a container. Some of my black nursery pots got so hot in the summer that I could not touch them. Terra cotta color will heat up whether it is terra cotta clay or plastic. After I discovered this the hard way, I spray painted my pots white. I used a spray can paint formulated for plastic from Home Depot. Haven't lost a plant since. In lieu of painting the pots, you could just put skirts around the sides which receive direct sun rays in order to totally shade the pot itself. I mention again that the foregoing is a guess. Tony

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...

You have a Euphorbia trigona. Looking at the pot and soil, I'm guessing that only the top inch or two dry out in a reasonable amount of time. The rest of the soil is too dense and saturated to support healthy roots. In order to stand upright, it needs to grow some deep roots, so I'd say a repot is in order. If it were mine, I'd use a much more porous soil (something more like the one pictured here), and possibly a smaller pot. You might have to stake or tie it until it roots well. You could also simply chop off the top heavy portions and reroot them. They need to dry thoroughly before planting, but should root well in a proper soil. Also, the pot should at least occasionally be watered heavily and allowed to drain in order to flush out accumulated minerals from tap water and fertilizer. Do not allow the pot to sit in water. Good luck with it whatever you decide to do.

the condition is called etoliation, or reaching for light. These plants require bright light. Your pot looks too big for the plant and the soil looks too moisture retentive. I would recommend a good cactus mix and a healthy dose of sifted perlite (say 40-50%) instead of what you have there. If you have lots of plants you could look up gritty mix (you have to build it yourself which is too much trouble for a few plants) The plant needs more light. You can stake him up right which should look better than your ties. Oh, and it is usually a good idea to give the plant a 1/4 turn each week so it will grow symmetrically.