Hey there,

I bought the exact same plant from Home Depot. I broke the rocks and repotted the Pachira in the pot, here's how I did it:

Outside, I sat down and held the pot in between my legs. In one hand get a flat-headed screw driver (not a philips head) and in the other a hammer. Use the screw driver as a chisel and gently tap it with the hammer. You'll find that the top layer of the rocks is only glued -- rocks underneath are loose.

Once you break through those rocks you can pick them out or dump them out. Then, I took out the soil (about an inch or so at the bottom) and found my roots were sitting in water basically. SO i added a layer of rocks to the bottom of the pot for drainage (since there is no hole in the bottom of the pot), then threw in some soil and covered the top layer with a thin layer of inorganic bonsai soil just for looks. The soil was just preference; i think all you need is to have the roots covered in soil, however.

Hopefully this helps!

Hi, are you still looking for info about your Money Tree?

We almost bought one yesterday at a nursery, but didn't because all the bulbous roots were squishy, even the ones in regular pots, not fake bonsais with rocks. Now I'm wondering if that is normal for this plant. It grows in swamps.

Came home and looked it up. Here is info on Money tree. It get's BIG in the wild and produces edible nuts:

http://www.floridata.com/ref/p/pach_aqu.cfm

Here is a link that might be useful: Wikipedia info on Pachira aquatica

Is the Money Tree the same as a Money Plant, which produces round green flat pods, but when dried you rub the green pods off and underneath a beautiful iridescent pod appears,usually used in dry arrangements with asian flair
I think I have some seeds I can send you.

Hi, Firewater, since the OP didn't come back, I will answer your question. No, it is not the same plant. The money tree can be an actual large tree. I also have money plant and have several arrangements with it in it. It is a biennial that never gets much bigger than 3-4 ft and is not woody.

i just bought a braided pachira insignius from ikea a couple days ago. i repotted it into a glass pot with no drainage whole but with glass pebbles below the soil and small rocks on top to make sure the tree didn't fall over (the roots are very short). it is sitting about 6' away from my S facing window. today i noticed that the leaves are starting to show a silvery film almost like small spider webs and i'm not sure why. i believe from reading other posts that i may have over-watered it to start out with, but have since drained the excess water to let it dry. the soil however is still somewhat moist. should i repot it in drier soil? should i mist the leaves?