I'd bet your potting mix has a fair amount of peat in it. When the peat dries out, the roots die. Then, when you water again, the plant rots because it is sitting in wet soil. If you eliminate the peat, the roots will not die and you can water safely because there will be roots to absorb the water. In the ground, the roots are alive and well. That's why it is healthy despite less water. Also, in a pot the roots heat up quickly and can cook. That doesn't happen in the ground. Try to find a spot where the pots are shaded. You can try lining up the pots right next to each other to block out sun, and place a brick along the south side to shade the exposed surfaces. Mesembs like cool soil conditions. In nature, they grow in cracks and under quartz where the soil is cooler than the air. Try using fine gravel, Turface, pumice and/ or perlite in high concentrations, mixed with a little garden soil or topsoil. Avoid peat and those pre-packaged cactus mixes in a bag.

I had success this year in starting new vines from cuttings. I followed the instructions at: http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~JN7H-OONM/contents/cuttings_e.html I've been advised here to keep them in my small pot till well rooted and then transplant in a gallon size container in the garden. When it is again well rooted, then I should be able to remove the pot and transplant to its permanent spot. I'm hoping for success but so far so good! Good luck.

FWIW, a couple of years ago I was transplanting a Hyacinthina and in the process one of the small shoots broke off with a small piece of crown attached. Shoot wouldn't have been more than about an inch, inch and a half tops. I just stuck into a nearby flower planter and by the end of the season it had developed a nice root system, thank you very much. Stranger though is what I discovered last night. Amongst a group of lilies I noticed a smallish, single, edge variegated leaf of what sure looks like a Hosta to me. I cannot for the life of me recall planting a Hosta in that location, but then again, I have been accused of forgetting things; my memory is fine, it's the recall that is sometimes lacking. This bed/planter has Hyacinthina, June, Dream Queen and So Sweet, none of which were allowed to set seed last year and judging from the circumference of the petiole my best guess is that it has grown from a root/crown rather than from seed. I'll take a picture of it over the next couple of days and post it, just for fun. It is not all inconceivable however that the root/crown it is growing from was mixed in with some mulch or recycled potting soil that I have been known to use as top dressing. What I do a lot of the time when dividing/transplanting is take whatever is left on the potting shelf in terms of growing medium and just mix it up with some compost and top dress an area with that. My hunch is that it may well be a Minute Man, since I divided one of them late last summer and that would be the only edge variegated one it could have come from. Hostas CAN be remarkably resilient, just don't leave their feet too wet. Lost a number of plants to crown rot this winter. They were all potted up ones in #1's and I guess the growing mix was just a little too heavy, didn't quite drain well enough and with the near record rains we had over the winter they became victims. For my transplants I tend to mix my own medium out of compost, peat moss or Pro Mix, sand and Perlite. Seems to me there may have been one batch where I'd run out of sand and probably went too light on the Perlite and while during an average winter that might not have been much of a problem, it sure was this last winter. I didn't just loose 6 or 7 Hostas, I also had a batch of Hyacinths and Daffodils potted up for our spring plant sale and they didn't do well either; the bulbs had gone very mushy, were not firm any longer and were tossed. Live and learn, especially for this ol' fart!

I received a response from the Plant Disease Diagnostician I contacted at U of Hawaii at Karyn's suggestion. "The outward growth is adventitious roots that are pushing its way out of the main limbs. This doesn't happen frequently but we have seen it on some occasions. Not sure what stimulates abnormal development of root tissues. Almost like if you took a cutting of the stem and placed it into the soil. The cut end of the cutting would begin to iniate promotion of root tissues. On Tomato plants, roots tend to initiate on the lower stem base when the plant is experiencing root stress. I would let it go for now unless it showing signs of decay in the area. From the images, it looks fine til now." This reply confirms both that there may be root stress as Tony mentioned above and also that we can leave it alone for now. So we are watching the flowers, leaves and branches. I will post again when the flowers are fully bloomed, because I don't know what variety it is and hope you can help me identify it. Thanks to you all, Denise