Ocala. He's in a pot, and his roots are probably at the edges. I guess i should fertilize him but not sure how without burning the roots. I have some 10-10-10 fertilizer and also some azalea food. Both are granules. (Clearly a novice gardener here).

I've got some vinca on the ground underneath him (the potted plant is in a birdbath and then there are vinca on the ground around the base as well). The vinca on the ground is lush, green and happy.

Vinca can be cut back - & should be, IMO, once it gets leggy.

If you're in Ocala, it's going to drop leaves in the winter. If you cut it back now, it will put out tender new growth that will die if we have a freeze, and we are likely to have another one before March gets here. Wait until this cold snap passes (supposed to be over by Feb. 1) then put a little of the 10-10-10 in him - about a teaspoon per gallon of pot, so a 1 gallon pot is 1 teaspoon and a 3 gallon pot is a tablespoon. That's a light application that will give him a boost. If it's rootbound, put it into something deep and soak it awhile in water. Put a squirt of dishwashing liquid in the water to make it stick to the soil and not just run out the bottom.

Is it in a clay pot? If so, put it in something deeper than the pot if you have it, and pour water in until it runs out the bottom and fills the deeper pot up almost to the top of the rim. Leave it overnight until the pot has had time to soak up enough water so it isn't sucking water out of the rootball.

Cut it back when all danger of frost is past. I usually wait until March 1st to do my tenderer plants. I do shrubs in mid-February. You can cut it back drastically, and the cuttings are easy to root. I'd only cut it back by half at a time, since it's stressed.

Ok, I'll wait then. What is the best way to apply the fertilizer? Should it be in water, then sprinkled on?

Also, how would you go about rooting cuttings?

Just sprinkle it on top of the pot. It will be released when you water it. Semi-woody cuttings root best, and be sure to make it long enough to bury 2 nodes under the soil. Rooting hormone helps. Of you can ground-layer it, by putting the still-attached vine in a pot and pinning it down with something. I use some heavy-gauge wire I found in the dumpster cut and bent into a "v" shape, but you can use a rock or even a bobby pin. Anything that is going to keep the root nodes in contact with the soil while it roots. I used to root my confederate jasmine by letting the vines grow down onto the ground and sticking bits of broke brick on top of them.

Hmm. I've tried to plant pieces cut from the vinca and they just died....

Then try ground layering it. Maybe they were too woody, or maybe too green. It has to be semi-hardwood, that part right below the new growth that isn't totally woody yet. The woody parts will root with ground layering, but not by cuttings. That is my experience, anyway.