I haven't reported back for the past few months, as I got busy with work. All the Sansevierias are indoors now, toughing out another cold New Jersey winter. Some were able to get to the greenhouse at work (imagine- all the small ones made it there, while the large ones that would most benefit are stuck at home). All the plants seem to be doing fine, but I did get a bit of rot on some of the variegated ones. I'm only concerned about the S. cylindrica - it has rotted pretty far back. I'll have to see how the winter treates it.

Most of my S. parva are in flower right now - each pot must have 25 spikes in them. I had tried to trade these earlier this year, but had no takers. This coming spring they will be divided up and spread out among the locals. I was lucky enough to find some pretty nice plants locally - S. cylindrica patula in a local nursery chain that was going out of business (Franks here in New Jersey) for under $5 for a 10" plant, S. masoniana gilt edge in Home Despot for $7 (and it was a nice single leaf 2' tall plant, too), as well as one of the spoon-leaf species in another nursery for under $10. Golly-gee, when did they start shipping these out? Of course, I was most suprised to find 10 Pink Princess variegated philodendron hanging baskets in the local Home Despot - I snagged a large one with great variegation for $5. I have no idea where to pack things away this year - I'll have to get rid of a good portion of my collection next year and just keep my favorites. Those will be the Sansebvierias, of course.

Many of the plants have started showing new growth, but I don't expect any real growth on them until spring. I've pretty much stopped watering for teh winter - no water now until February, so growth has slowed or stopped on almost everything. Some of the larger pots are still growing a little, since they hold water longer, but even these are slowing more. The S. hallii grew some really gigantic leaves this season - some were almost 2.5' tall. They also seem to be bulking up as well, getting much thicker leaves. These are great plants. I hope that the variegated one grows as well. I suspect that the variegated sansevierias will all do better in more light than I can give them in winter - I just hope that the winter light doesn't prevent variegation ffrom showing.

I hope to be able to report more flowers as the season progresses. It is possible that the S. kirkii varieties I have are large enbough to flower, I just don't know if I was able to give them enough light over the summer. I have plans for giving all the plants better light next season (this has bene my plan for many years, but might actually happen next season), and then I'll have to see what effect this has on my flowering. Of course, it might be that the plants will wait for spring or summer to flower, since the room is cool and dry.

Wish me luck for continued success.

Joe 'lucky so far' DeRosa