tlbean,

I've noticed that you ask a lot of questions, which is AWESOME!!!! I'm glad that you want to learn (all of us on here are still learning!). However, many of the questions you ask simply cannot be answered because there are just waaay too many variables.

Are you growing these indoors or out? In a pot or in the ground? How much light do they get and for how long? How often do you water? Fertilize? Which part of the country do you live in? What kind of soil medium are they growing in? What is your home like? On the dry side? On the cool side? And these aren't all!
The most important one I notice, at least on this post, is that you didn't even tell us what kind of Sans you have! A trifasciata? Cylindrica? Hahnii? If you don't know, a picture ALWAYS helps!

I'm not trying to beat you up, so PLEASE don't take it that way. When you ask questions here, any and all information you have about that particular plant (growing conditions, etc.) is helpful. We want to help you, but you have to help us, too! :)

Nancy

Well said, conditions affect the rate of growth.

Have a look at my post above titled "what a difference a little heat makes." That's one of those variables. I think it is probably the most influential factor in Sans growth. I added heat because I'd noticed that people in warm climates reported ridiculously fast growth in their Sans, and that despite being a summer-dormant genus, everyone seems to get better growth in summer. The bottom heat I added to these two plants was an experiment, and demonstrates clearly that heat makes a huge difference. All my other sans are still entirely dormant.

Hope that helps some.

Summer dormant? If you can still find where you read that, I'd love to read it too.

Very well said.

Stush

Tiffany, there's a handy list of dormancy periods at the bottom of this page: http://succulents.us/dormancy.

I believe people find it difficult to believe Sans are summer-dormant because in most of the U.S., it just isn't warm enough for them to grow in the winter. I think this is also how they got a reputation for being slow-growers. In the right conditions, they grow very fast. Check out the growth info in this production guide for Florida: http://mrec.ifas.ufl.edu/foliage/folnotes/sansevie.htm.

With a little bottom heat my sans are suddenly growing like weeds in early February. These are plants that hadn't grown visibly at all since I got them around June or July.

TY for the links! The info at the first link is confusing to me, and the location for/from which it is written is not clear. How are these plants able to survive in the ground in Colorado? Is this info supposed to pertain to plants in their native habitat or in pots? If they're potted, why are they experiencing such wild temp swings?

How is this sentence a heading to 2 lists of plants, summer dormant vs. winter dormant? "To break dormancy, plants must first go through a period of cold (about 40 degrees F or colder) for an average of 63 days." Isn't that backwards for plants on one of the lists?

My Sans plants have gotten frost/tip damage at around 40 deg, so I don't expose them to temps that cold if at all possible to avoid. Plants that stay inside all the time have relatively stable temps.

In over 20 yrs of observing plants that go outside for summer (in OH and AL,) and inside for winter, they definitely grow during the summer, very quickly, whether potted or in the ground for a summer vacation.

This winter I have 1 pot in a much warmer room here where my computer is, and another pot back in my laundry room, which can be as much as 25 deg. cooler. None of the plants in either pot have changed a millimeter since being brought inside in late October. A pot of propagated leaves in another room that stays warmer, right near a south window, is also doing nothing.

I think they are 2 diff questions, how much can a plant grow in a year in optimal conditions, vs. how much might my plant grow in the conditions I've offered to it?

Tiffany, I just posted the links you asked for. I didn't author the web pages and I can't answer your questions about those pages. Perhaps you can reread them. I don't see anything written about Sansevieria surviving in the ground in winter in Colorado. I think you're reading too much into a short excerpt about winter dormancy in plants adapted to survival in the northern hemisphere. Sansevieria aren't in that category. As for plants going indoors for the winter, they likely don't ever go completely dormant as described, but I can't interpret that information for you. You'll have to email the sites for that.

It is hard to say what plants do outside their native habitat - hence the discussion of how temperature affects Sans growth.

TY. I was bringing the questions up for discussion in general. Sorry if it sounded like I was only asking you. The info starts with this sentence, "By James Feucht, PhD, 2005 Colorado State University Cooperative Extension." That's why I'm confused about the origin of the info, and the location(s) to which it is relevant.

I also like to read about plants in their nat habitat/climate, but find they don't always follow those patterns if the conditions are diff, and have also seen from outside gardening the huge diff in some plants in just a short move from OH to AL. Some plants that might be deciduous & dormant in OH during winter are evergreen here. Some plants are deciduous & dormant outside, but keep growing for winter inside.

It can be confusing trying to extrapolate anecdotes to the conditions one has to offer if they are diff. Whenever, wherever plants are growing quickly during any time, they're not dormant, whether or not they're supposed to be, somewhere. Plants that have relatively stable conditions all year may not have a dormancy at all.

In regard to Sans in particular, one can observe & write their own anecdote about what it does in the climate/conditions of their house. Predictions may or may not match the results, but fun to make.