Hi all, Kind thanks for all your replies. Here's my very late update: All my cuttings rooted in water after a week or so but I only potted them a couple of weeks after the fact (got busy with other things). Potted them in left over 50% MG (bad I know) 50% perlite. I found it very difficult arranging the vines after they had been growing this way and that over the past several months --had to cut some vines up so they would fit. I also tried NOT to bury a lot of stem deep in the potting medium out of fear for future rot, but found it difficult to keep some of the vines stabilized otherwise. Hope I didn't mess that up too badly. In the end, I was left with one medium sized "plant", one small, one tiny, and a handful of leftover vines to give away to friends. After potting, I watered, and then wrapped them up in those big dry cleaner bags and set aside. None wilted! Hurrah! Two leaves turned yellow but I suppose that's acceptable collateral damage. Overall they seem to be doing well --some new leaves have unfurled at the tips. I've only watered once or twice since they were potted, when the soil feels dry. I hope by next spring I'll see the same level of growth as the mother plant had this year.

Oh wow, I've seen wonbyherwits post but didn't know her garden. It's a beautiful garden and I will use some of her ideas especially the garden going right through the fence. As you can tell by my front yard pic I'm new to cottage style gardens. I'm getting one going in the back but it's not ready for pics yet. Basically the Vitex is that way because at first we didn't know the name of it and thought it was supposed to be tree. It was here in 1995 when we bought the house and that was before there was so much info on the internet. How on earth do you keep yours pruned, Rock.. I asked DH, the expert, and he trims it once in the fall when the growth turns brown. He goes around it at the same height. I'll try to find a winter picture. We have less rain and a lot more heat than Atlanta so the Vitex puts out a spurt of growth in the spring, blooms once and then doesn't grow in the heat of the summer.

Well it is normal to a degree for the plants to begin to die off from the bottom up - oldest leaves and branches first. So as long as there are no disease symptoms on the healthy leaves I wouldn't worry about it. Don't know your location - important info to include - but all that dry cardboard could be trapping heat and stressing the roots. If uncovered it needs to be wet at least. Dave

My Paul Robeson plant was producing fruit and seemed fine until it started looking wilted last week- I assumed it just needed water at first, but it never perked back up. Now the leaves on one side but not the other have died. Looking up one sided wilting suggests fusarium wilt- however, I never noticed any yellowing or anything on the leaves (there's some white residue from spraying Daconil and speckling from spider mites in the pictures, but all my plants have that). Bacterial wilt looks more like it but sounds like it would move more quickly than this? What could this be? Should I worry about it spreading to the other plants? Maybe relevant- purchased as a transplant, planted in fabric bags in (more or less) 5-1-1 mix, weather has been all over the place with a hot and dry stretch last week (things probably did dry out too much at some point)