I received my order of UV-resistant green sandbags produced by DeWitt. I thought that it would be the same polypropylene fabric that they use as a weed barrier; but I now doubt it. In other words, I expected a small hole (for water drainage) at each cross weave (the "thread" is about 1/8 to 1/12 wide, flat, and thin). Water drains quite well through the stitching at the bottom of the bag. In contrast, drainage from the fabric wall is slow. Water leakage through the fabric is best observed if a jet of water from the hose is aimed at the wall; otherwise, leakage from the wall only by gravity is slow and rare. I can't tell if the fabric has a thin film laminated coating. The surface of the fabric is smoother than I expected if there was no lamination, but more water drains out than I expected if there was a laminated coating. In no way is any possible laminated coating present on the DeWitt bag similar to that pictured for the long lasting sandbags offered by Dayton Bag Company. Making pots out of these sandbags would involve folding the bottom, and securing such folds with a few dabs hot melted glue. These would be loose folds to form a more cylindrical bottom, just strong enough to make it easier to fill the bags with dirt. UV-resistant hot glue sticks are available (I don't know where), but since these will be in the bottom of the bag, shielded from UV by dirt, sticks from the Craft section of Wal-Mart should be fine. Since such pots would be too tall given their diameter, the tops could be rolled inside out, to reduce the height. I'll go ahead and make some pots out of a few of these, since I got them anyway. But I can't really recommend them at this point: First, I doubt that any pinholes in the fabric are large enough to cause roots to branch. Second, I don't think that the oxygen diffusion rate through the bag would be that much better than a solid plastic pot. I previously suspected the first, but I was really hoping for a much improved oxygen situation. If you are currently a user of pots made from black plastic film (these have holes in the bottom, otherwise they are similar to normal plastic bags, except that they are sold as nursery pots); these DeWitt sandbags may be competitive. It is possible that if I subjected these sandbags to a small amount of wear and tear (as a transport bag), the fabric will loosen up and become more porous for oxygen. In which case, I would post an update. Here is a link that might be useful: DeWitt Sandbags

What an amazing thread to read, I found it after it was linked to another thread over on the Adenium Forum....which is where I actually belong, lol! Why not have a look over there? Yes, it is in fact an Adenium, aka Desert Rose, maybe it's the commonest form of Adenium, the Ad. obesum but there's nothing wrong in that. They often have pink flowers but hybrids can have most colours. I hope it goes onto thrive and grow over the rock just as you want. Great results from Al's invaluable info as usual. It may start to go dormant come the colder months, if so be very careful with the water, it will need very, very little when leafless. Gill UK

The single larger lump just above the second branch from the bottom may be the precursor of an adventitious root, which are often referred to as air roots, aerial roots, prop roots or sometimes stilt roots. Adventitious roots, by definition, are roots that form in unusual places, and as such shouldn't be taken as an indication your plant has rooted. As I look at your cutting, I see it has a lot of leaf surface from which water is being lost. The cutting may very well be losing water faster than it can take it up. When plants are in this predicament they usually recognize it as a drought situation, and their drought response is to shed foliage. This is very true of scheffleras. While adding more water to the soil won't be helpful, reducing the leaf surface area of the cutting would be. Schefflera's leaves are called 'compound' because each leaf is made up of a number of leaflets. I would snip off all but 2 leaflets from each compound leaf to give the cutting a better chance at striking. Alternately, you could remove half of the compound leaves by cutting through the petiole (long leaf stem) half-way between the leaf and the trunk/branch, or, you could cut all the leaflets in half across the veins. This isn't a schefflera, of course, but note how I prepared the cutting for insertion into a rooting medium: Al

I have two. One I've had for many years and it is broken. It is missing part of on of the veins, so it flops. But I use it all the time. The other I bought when I was at a store and it started to rain. I had to walk that day, so I bought the umbrella thinking it its larger size would keep me drier than my old one anyway. However, the newer big one catches too much wind and threatens to turn inside out. When it does catch the wind, I need to grab it with two hands, but I usually have a bag in one hand. So Keep using my old umbrella. It has been broken for at least eight years and now it actually has little holes breaking through at the vein joints. Waste not, want not. I won't get rid of it until it no longer works. In my car I have a 99 cent rain poncho and also one in my backpack.