I love this. I have some cactus cuttings Im rooting - this would be a fun idea for them.

It is a miniature pink rose :) There are quite a few name varieties out there so exactly which one it is would be impossible to say. Remy

Until last year, I used to garden for my mother-in-law when I visited (2-3 times a year) and you could go to a pick-up place in one of the county parks (?) and take all the compost you wanted for free. I think you were supposed to be a resident, but no one was there to check. While I wasn't a resident, she was, so I felt ok about it. Over the years, I did it many times. I never had a truck, just my m-i-l's very fancy car, but I just saved the bags from when I bought other amendments or potting soil for her, and reused those and other assorted containers. Anyhow, I am not suggesting that you go to a different county to scam free compost, but that you look at other sources if you aren't happy with the compost from WF. BTW, compost from yard waste is perfectly fine to use. It heats to a much, much higher temp than home-made compost and is very, very unlikely to contain any weed seeds or pathogens. Aphids won't survive even home composting. Heck, they won't survive a blast of water from the hose. You can compost them yourself quite safely. "Some kind of mulch" is a whole 'nother story. Whatever that is, could, indeed, have brought in oak root fungus or some other disease. This would be especially true if the mulch was un-composted oak bark chips or something like that. But oak root fungus is so widespread in your region, your friend could have gotten in any number of ways. It often is dormant for many years before it starts showing symtoms, so it would be impossible to say it was "brought" in by any one item. If you can't get compost in your county for free, go to the nearest nursery or Home Depot and buy it. I would bet you nearly anything it would be cheaper than WF.

Thank you for the replies! They were already outside so that's why I didn't keep them indoors. Perhaps they are going through transplant shock, it's been almost two weeks since we dug them up and replanted them. The top part of the ground is dry but deeper down it's quite cool and moist, the clay-like soil seems to hold quite a bit of moisture. It was cloudy all day yesterday so I didn't water last night (when the pictures were taken) but it's sunny again today so I'll water tonight. I believe those are old leaves on 2 and 3, only #1 had new leaves (which are now turning yellow...eep!). I can take some more close-up pictures either tonight or during the weekend, I assume by canes you mean the stems? *L* I'm sort of a novice...can you tell? No fertilizing...I will avoid the fertilizing! I wasn't going to fertilize anyway (wasn't aware that you should) but just out of curiosity and so I know for the future, why shouldn't I fertilize? And should I be picking all the dead stuff off of them to encourage new growth?