Not a whole lot to report - it is cold in New Jersey, and all the plants are in and dry for the winter. I find that the larger pots don't get any water from October until February at the earliest, as the mass of soil does maintain a bit of moisture, and takes about that long to dry out. I know this because all of my larger plants continue to push new growth without any water during this time. My larger pots are 12" and above. Some of these are quite full of plants, but I'd rather have the plants underatered than rotted.

Flowering has continued for the past two monts almost constantly. There are still a couple of S. parva in flower, aas well as some S. trifasciata clones. None of the big species have shown any interest in flowering this year - maybe next year. I've been waiting for my S. masoniana and S. hallii to bloom, and my S. cylindrica cylindrica flowers every other year (but not this cycle for some reason). Speaking of my S. cylindrica, it is getting larger and larger every growth cycle. I thought it was big when I got it from Bob Smolley's GradenWorld 8 years ago, but the new growths are getting much bigger, and each leaf is now almost 1" thick. Thankfully this is a tall, rather than wide plant, or I'd be out of room. It started out as a 30" plant with 3 leaves when I first got it. It flowered that same year, and each subsequent growth takes a year to mature and then a year to flower. The plant now must be 48" tall. I have not seperated any of the growths - I know I could have more new plants if I divided, but I wanted to see how big I could get it. Not dividing has certainly made the plant grow and mature faster than any of my divided plants.

I have continued to have some difficulties with some of the variegates - my S. fischerii is doing better, but the S. cylindrica pautula may not make it to the summer. I'm suprised, as all of the other variegated cylindricas are doing fine. I really need to add supplimental light to all of my variegates, as all of the new growth that forms over the winter is solid green. The first year or two I was sure that these plants were reverting, but growingthem with more light brings out the colors. I may just have to give up on some of them. If I can't get them to hold their color in my conditions, it might be the best option.

I do have access to a greenhouse at school (I'm a science teacher), but I hat eto bring in really valuable and expensive plants, as they might be taken by someone. I do have a lot of my personal plants in the greenhouse, and we do some propagating for the school from my private stock ( you should see all of the variegated 'pink princess' philodendrons we have!), but I still hesitate. I might try next winter.

I've been testing cold tolerance for some of my S. trifasciata clones - totally dry, of course. These are my larger plants, and no longer fit on the shelves in my plant room. I have them on the floor, whcih has a draft. It is definitly in the 50's at night down there, and there seems to be no problem. I do have a high/low thermometer down tyhere to monitor conditions, and I have something to raise them up off the floor when it hgets really cold,m but so far no problem. These are large plants that have never been divided for at least 10 years, and are all fully mature - at least 4' tall, and some are almost 5' tall. They get fed in the summer when they are in active growth, and I grow them pretty hard - lots of sun, controlled water. This gives me very strong rigid leaves, and they still seem to get full size.

That's it for today - I'll see what interesting things come up next month (but don;'t count on much until spring).

Joe 'I try to make it interesting' DeRosa