The one at 3:00 was the healthiest of the group. He only had a broken branch that left an indentation that I smoothed out with a sharp blade. For him, a simple re-pot in gritty mix & reduction of length of branches. Here's the blade I used.

The one at 6:00 had the most damage, though not profound :) He had no leaf & an apparent mealy bug infestation. After unearthing him from his pot, I cut out a wee bit of necrotic root & tidied his caudex up a bit. Shaving off older cut areas closer to the caudex etc. I also smoothed out the areas that the mealy bugs were hiding in & treated with alcohol. A quick rinse in cool water post alcohol treatment followed. I used a teeny new tile nipper from Harbor Freight to clip the dry crusty areas close to the trunk.

Here's a better look at his branches complete with mealies - blick

Here he is post surgery, hands neatly folded into lap & legs crossed. So polite =) I preferred the back of him though, DH says calls him the rubber chicken. I let him dry out a bit, it only took a couple of days in the shade before the cuts dried up to where I thought he might have a good chance.

The one at 9:00 also came from the same store that rubber chicken came from. He had mealy bugs too, though less severe.

All he really needed was a re-pot, alcohol treamtment, and reduction of branches. I also cleaned up roots that were to end up above the soil and any raised scars where branches had been previously cut but were not flush to the trunk.

The end :) With any luck, these 3 should do well. I also potted up my seedlings separately. This is the before pic

I put 'em in 2" pots of gritty mix. It rained overnight but I'm sure they'll do well as it was a simple pot-up.

annd here's the after:

Annd the seeds Emily sent me have sprung!!!!
My cup truly runneth over, lol. I have them on bottom heat in the glass candy jar that had previously held the potted up babies. I have 2 jars with seeds incubating.

Improvising, I used my yogurt maker. We had a garage sale a couple of weeks ago & it just didn't move :/ So I filled it with Hydroton & cut a circle out of a foam sheet for stability & plopped my candy jar on that. The hydroton helped to diffuse the heat that I think may have been too much.

The second jar is on an electric heated dog crate floor pan. I got it on sale at the pet store a few months ago for about 20$. The seeds of both jars are germinating at the same rate =)

Antoinette

Hi Antoinette, Im a beginner with these things, so its nice to come on here and see what people are doing with their plants. They certainly all look great now and Im laughing at your description of the one with his hands folded and legs crossed ha ha. He even looks like he has a belly button. Thanks for sharing all the pics and info
Averil UK

Hi Averil,

I'm a beginner too :) Only just started about a month ago, annnnd now I'm thoroughly obsessed. I expect there will be stories where I will put the kooky cat lady down the street to shame some day. I'm just glad there aren't coffee mugs & t shirts with goofy sayings & cartoons that only DR geeks would find amusing or profound. heh heh.

O gosh, that belly button...yeah, I trimmed it closer to the trunk, it got kinda creepy after a while, lol. Glad you enjoyed the pics =)

Antoinette

Those are really nice DR's, great caudexes, and the babies look good too. There's Walmart's around here but I don't shop there. I've been before and it just skeeves me out. The ones around here are filled with "Walmartians". Besides that I doubt the Walmart's here carry any decent plants, even HD rarely does. I don't even know if they have plant departments.

Yep, walllyworld (here in NY anyhow) is sometimes surreal, lol. I won't go to the ones without garden centers. I can usually rope the hubby into going by creating a 'need', he's a sucker for a bargain. When we get there, I show him my cell phone & skip away, ha ha. He's no dummy though, he knows what's going on XD When we do the wally world thing, I go just as the store opens, less painful that way.

I've tried all the HD's & all the Lowe's as well but *none* have them or anything close to fun :(

He doesn't know it yet, but we're going to IKEA this weekend. haw haw!!!! I've heard they have been known to carry DR's & other interesting house plants.

Antoinette

Haha OMG i would totally buy a geeky DR shirt or coffee mug if they made them :P I am also a beginner starting about 6 weeks ago. DR are actually quiet hard to find here. I got a couple from school fetes and have been to various nurseries, bunnings and a new store called masters and either they dont have them in stock or they only have really young ones similar to my baby one. I would love to get one similar to these ones u guys can buy at walmart. I saw some nice ones at some markets a couple weeks back for $15 and i wish i had have bought one now :( i have been to all the markets since and have not seen that shop again :( You have done a great job with all those walmart ones though hookilau, and i love rubber chicken :)

Sarah

Antoinette
Those are cute DR babies.....seeing their fat bodies already, at very young age. They look good enough to eat. Marie

ha ha! nom nom nom =)

Antoinette, GREAT score and surgery to those WalMart DR!!! They look outstanding! And I'm SOOOOOO excited to see your seeds are sprouting - you are truly a natural at this. Your seedlings look fantastic too! I really admire your fearless attitude about digging in there and fixing those plants, like I said, a natural. You go girl.

Antoinette
Considering you have just started out with these plants, you are very brave carrying out surgery etc ha ha. Mines are only 3 months old so far, so it will be a while yet before i start cutting bits off and adding things on. Your doing a great job with them
Rgds
Averil

Hi Emily :) Thanks! both for the encouragement & the new babes tooo. It was reading all the GW posts that gave me the confidence to buy them & then know what to do. That and that hunt-me-down gritty mix!

I don't know if it's me or not but my potted up babies seem to have grown larger since the move. I don't remember which day I did them but I think it was only last Sunday 0_0 They seem to be floating taller above the soil line & their little trunks are getting shapely.

The babies you sent me are now standing (gleeee!) I can't wait till they pop leaves! Should happen in a day or 2 I guess, they look like little cobras right now, lol.

@Avril; I'm soooooo trying to practice 'benign neglect' here. It helped to be able to do a little something to them =) other than lurk, loom & stare that is. You'd think I'd have other things to do (smile).

Antoinette

I love your rubber chicken!

How is that Rubber Chicken looking today? Those were great buys. Paula