All of the plants in my plant room have been pretty dormant during the past frigid month. The room has maintained a daytime temperature of about 62F, with nighttime lows closer to 52F. This seems to be about the lower limit of what most of my variegates can tollerate. I've been fortunate to be able to maintain humidity levels of close to 50%, but I wonder when the walls will begin growing moss if I maintain this long term. I'll probably begin lowering the humidity back down to 35% as the weather warms up a little bit.

I've added a heat mat to the plant room for some seed sprouting - I'm sure it helps maintain the temperatures as high as they've been. Nothing special about the seeds, just some South African bulbs (mostly Cyrtanthus and lachenellia), but they do not wantt o sprout without some bottom heat. They'll get moved out to a cold frame as soon as the weather warms up a littls.

The Sansevierias have been pretty much dormant since the last report. All the flowers are done - no seed set this time around. All of the pups are still the same size as last month - I imagine that they will all pop up above the soil in the next few weeks (based on my diary from last year), and should be well on their way by the time they get set out for the summer.

I'll have to divide a couple of plants this year. Pots are at the breaking point, and I just don't have room for everything anymore. I hate to divide most of my plants, as I believe that Sansevieria 'plants' include previous growths, and that to get fully mature sized plants, I have to keep many of these growths intact. I'll only divide some of my smaller plants this year - the really big ones will get one more year (at least). The S. parva is most in need of repotting and division. I have a 6" pot that must have 24 plants in it - including at least 10 new growths thsi winter. I'll pot up a couple of the plants to keep this going, and I'm offering the rest as trades right here - I already have them listed in the trade section, and have reserved a couple to people who have emailed me. I'll also be dividing one of my S. trifasciata variegates - I think it is laurentii - I have a nice pot that I need to get rid of - just no more space - so I figure I'll trade this off as double or triple divisions. I must have 24 of these squeezed into an 8" bulb pan. The S. masoniana gets one more year - I finally got it to grow a shoot over 24". I've been growing this plant for 10 years, and every year it puts out one leaf growths that are only 24" tall. Never taller, never more than one leaf. until three years ago, when it started putting out 2 leaf growths. Finally some mature growths, but still only 24" tall. The pot is always crowded, the growth is always 24" tall, and I'm out of room. But then this year the growth is two leaves, and already 30" tall, and still growing. At this rate, I might even get a flower off of it in another year or two. But at least it is getting taller. It took a long time, but I'm happy that it is growing. I MIGHT be able to squeeze off one or two of the oldest growths whenb it is repotted later this spring, but for now I'm considering this to be undividable one more year.

The marginated S. masoniana looks like it might be pushing some new growth finally. I've been waiting a while for this one - it has been a single leaf sitting there for a very long time. I don't know why the marginated and variegated Sansevierias grow so much slower for me, but I'm hoping for a second leaf some time this year. The Variegated S. hallii, S. cylindrica pautula, S. parva 'white' and the S. fischerii are all sending out new growths, but time will tell if the variegations will be stable again this season. Every couple of years I have to remove some all green growth. Let's hope that this is a year that will give the best variegation yet, and that I'll have some to share in another year. One can always dream.

I expect to have some real news to report in another month. In the meanwhile, I hope that everyone is having luck wintering their plants.

Joe 'roger, and out' DeRosa