I wouldn't say that you are doing it wrong..they need to go into soil eventually, right? My guess is that they haven't been acclimated correctly..if they have been in a cloner with 100% humidity and they get thrown into your air, they get shocked..i would try putting them in potting mix, but making sure you had something over them to keep humidity in, so you can gradually get them used to less and less. are they shriveling up and dying, or are they turning black first? black is usually too much water, sometimes cold..green and dead, I would go back to guessing humidity, assuming that you watered them!! You got roots!! That is the hardest part..so keep playing with your methods, you'll be a pro in no time! Donna

To my understanding you only need two bud eyes to go below the soil level and two above. Hope that encourages.

Hi Kristy, Doesnt seem to be much traffic in this forum any more. Im no expert but from what I read, there are about 400 species of Ixora, but only a few are grown in cultivation, and those ones mostly form the basis for the cultivars which have resulted in so many different colours, and sizes, such as the dwarf forms. So I think the colour thing is more a genetic thing, with that part of the plant perhaps trying to revert to the colour of one of the plants which was a "parent" in the hybridising process. I dont believe the proximity of your Prince of Orange has anything to do with it as the flower colour would be determined by your own plant, and cross-pollination would only affect a prospective offspring - new plant - arising from seed. The appearance of 5 petals is a mystery tho, since all the pics of Ixoras including a few of the species, seem to indicate 4 petals as the norm. So you may be "on" to a natural "sport" or variation there. Remembering that new cultivars can be developed a few different ways, I would be preserving that shoot of your Ixora, certainly. I believe that any seeds it produces would be unlikely to grow "true" - even to the dwarf yellow, since its probably a cultivar any seedlings could turn out anyway. My limited understanding is that this variation would need to be reproduced vegitatively - by cuttings - and grown on into a new plant, and that process might need to be carried out several times to isolate whatever new"gene" you have, to ensure that this colouration or petal thing, is consistent and reliable. Much the same way people with a variegated leaved plant on a plain one, keep promoting the variegated one and cutting out the other. If you are interested (why not) then you may be able to get onto a nursery which would be interested in assisting you more. One of my searches brought up this website relating to Ixoras in thailand and as they originate in SE Asia I thought it might give you a bit more background on the species and some of the more common cultivars. Anyway, good luck!

I have only air layered mulberries, figs, and pomegranates, but I will offer an uneducated opinion on paw paw air layering potential. Since paw paw's new shoots have such super thin "skin", I won't even call it" bark". I think that to air layer a new shoot with the very fragile skin would just result in fungi/bacteria quickly eating up the skin and killing the shoot. On the other hand, older paw paw sticks that do not grow much and have grayish bark that is almost strong would be the only place that I might try air layering. However, instead of cutting out a complete ring of bark around the stick, I would probably follow the example of a guy who only uses a potato peeler to shave fig bark to a shallow depth when air layering figs rather than cutting out a complete bark ring. Just guessing.