Hi. Stan here. All right, let's put this puppy to rest. First, if you want to keep one of the "resurrection plants" alive, you need to figure out which resurrection plant you have. Here, I'm going to address ONLY the resurrection plant from the Chihuahua Desert, spanning several states in the southwestern USA and adjacent parts of Mexico. (If you have one of the other kinds of resurrection plants, you're on your own.) Botanically, these plants are part of a much larger group called the club mosses. They fall somewhere between the mosses and the true ferns. They are a very old group of plants dating from the Coal Ages. Their scientific name is Selaginella lepidophylla. If you want to get it right, the "S" and only the "S" in Selaginella is ALWAYS capitalized, all other letters are lower case. And both words are italicized. (No italics on your typewriter? Then you can underline them instead.) Almost all other Selaginella in the world are moist habitat plants, living in deep forests, swamps, in or near streams and creeks, or among other plants for protection from direct, scorching sunlight and desiccating dryness. You would grow them the way you grow most of the true mosses. S. lepidophylla is a distinct exception, apparently surviving if not thriving in a desert, and a pretty severe one at that. I am trying to include several photos I took of them growing in their native habitat in western Texas. Note that they most commonly grow on the northern sides of hills and protected in the shadows of rocks or other plants. If they receive any direct sun at all, it's only for a few hours in early morning and very late afternoon. They tend to grow where they're in dense shade throughout most of the day. Note also that the soil in which they grow is comprised mostly of disintegrated, calcareous rock (i.e., limestone soil) with a little organic detritus (mostly naturally composted leaves, grasses, mosses, and other dead plants) mixed in. The limestone base is strongly alkaline, and the organic stuff tends to act as a hydrophilic buffer, holding water for a few precious hours or days after a dew or rain. The climate in which they grow is fierce. In Summer the daytime temperatures often reach 100̊ F. They may receive a few drops of rain from time to time, BUT while the Chihuahua Desert does not receive a lot of moisture in the form of rain, it is often blessed with dense fogs and heavy dews. And these are the resurrection plants' saving grace. Winters are a little less hostile. Nighttime temperatures often drop slightly below freezing, and light, freezing rain and sleet are not uncommon. For S. lepidophylla, life is a lot easier. S. lepidophylla, much like other Selaginella, uses a collection of tine hairlike roots to hold itself in place in the desert, and to absorb what little liquid water might be available, but it probably gets most of its water from the aforementioned fogs, dews, and occasional rains as the water is absorbed directly through the surfaces of its leaves and stems. It almost never sits in liquid water for more than a few hours. No, they are not immortal, and cannot survive forever in a dried state. In fact, if your S. lepidophylla isn't obviously fresh and alive when you get it, it probably never will be, regardless of what you do for it. All reports of them recovering after 50 years rolled into a brown ball are either circus hawkers' sales pitches, or statements by people who can't recognize a dead plant when they see one, and were fooled by the unfurling corpse. (At this point perhaps you should review the Monty Python "Dead Parrot" Sketch on YouTube.) How long can they survive in such a dried, dormant state? I don't know. Apparently no one has ever performed any sort of controlled experiments to determine this, and there is so much hogwash flying around about the matter that it's impossible to even make an educated guess. So, how might you try keeping one alive? I confess I've never been successful, and I've only seen one botanical conservatory with living S. lepidophylla on display. And, I know of a veritable garden of them growing wild in the Chihuahua Desert of west Texas. Here are some suggestions based on general plant care, plant physiology, Botany, and what I've seen in the wild: 1) Almost all plants in nature experience an annual growing cycle based on the change of seasons. This helps all members of a given species flower at the same time to promote cross pollination. It also prevents them from flowering in deepest Winter and trying to go dormant when they should be actively growing. If you try to get one of these to grow as Winter approaches, you're almost certainly wasting your time. Early Spring would be a much better time to try this endeavor. 2) Don't waste your time on a dead plant. If it isn't obviously alive, move on to the next hobby. 3) Soak your newly acquired S. lepidophylla in room temperature tap water for 2 or 3 hours, no longer. This is intended to just "top off the tank" of its water reserves. Soaking it any longer might likely afford harmful molds or bacteria a foothold. 4) Plant it by laying it, right side up, on a layer of barely damp soil. The soil should be composed mostly of a mix or limestone sand or finely crushed oyster shell mixed perhaps half and half with compost or garden loam. Do not use commercial potting soils because they are composed of either peat or composted lumber byproducts. All these things are acid by nature, and these plants have evolved to survive in an alkaline environment, the exact opposite. Commercial cactus soils might work. Maybe, maybe not. 5) Do not use a tall or deep container. A "bulb pan" would be much better than a standard 6" terra cotta pot. The entire soil must be kept only slightly damp, and large masses of soil are sure to develop pockets of wetness in their centers. If the plant or its roots are allowed to set in water or are too damp, they'll rot and the plant will die. 6) For the first week, keep it loosely covered with plastic to maintain a high humidity. Remove the plastic after a week, or as soon as the plant appears to be alive and growing, or begins to develop mold. Mold is a bad thing. Generally, a molding plant is a dead plant. Maybe you need to try a newer, fresher resurrection plant. 7) Give the plant the brightest light available that isn't direct sunlight, except that it can receive a little direct, early morning sunlight for 30 minutes, no more. 8) Do not water the plant like you do your geraniums! Instead, mimic a dew once a week by misting it. The plant itself should end up quite wet, but the soil should be only a little damp. 9) S. lepidophylla should be allowed to dry out a little more in Winter, and moved to a brightly lit but much cooler place for several months beginning in early Winter (November in the Northern Hemisphere). Remember that they routinely survive light freezing weather during many Winters. They may be taken out of their Winter rest period in early Spring (early March perhaps in the Northern Hemisphere) by moving them to a warmer room and beginning their weekly misting. Go easy on the misting at first, but resume normal misting after two or three weeks or as you can see new leaves and branches forming. 10) *USE DISTILLED WATER.* Not spring water, not softened water, not demineralized water, not baby's sanitized water, not holy water, not expensive French bottled water. Reverse osmosis (RO) water might be acceptable, but is a lot more expensive than simple, old fashioned, distilled water. All such water contains some level of dissolved minerals, important ones being lime and/or salt. As you water your houseplants with the wrong water, the water evaporates, but these contaminants merely accumulate. If you don't believe me, look at the mineral crust that's developing around the edge of the soil in your half dead geranium's pot! And before long your gorgeous plant begins to look tired and droops as it tries to fight off the doses of lime and salt that you've been dumping on its roots for months. Soon, it can no longer grow effective roots and it begins a slow, inch a day, march towards the waste bin. I hope this helps you when you try your hand at growing these most fascinating plants. Best of luck.

I hope your wish comes true and these are the roses and not the rootstock, Beth. Water is certainly a miraculous thing, and maybe there are more surprises in store. When we enhanced our drip system by adding tiny sprinklers to the drip lines a few years ago, I had several perennials come up that I thought had died out years before. Also some rootstock that seemed to be long gone, too (not so good, but nothing disastrous either). Diane

Hey Deborah - I once stopped at a rock shop that had a lot of glass in that area but I thought it was in Maggie Valley NC. The guy in Oklahoma (also on I-40) implied that they would no longer be selling glass wholesale because they have more than enough retail business. He refered me to a place in Marietta Ohio, but I can't find a website or listing in the yellow pages. I have to go to Ohio anyway so I plan on snooping for them. My dad/families problem is that dad is very much alive in his head. He talks fine and comes up with charming stories to keep people by him. His body is just damaged. He could improve somewhat and live for a few more years but he doesn't think the doctors know it all and he doesn't really wanna work hard at it. He is also receiving an antibiotic shot every day for his pseudomonas infection. A nurse comes out to the house and gives it to him. Without this shot his infection would take over and kill him. With the shot he runs the risk of more damage to his kidneys (and its the only antibiotic for his level of infection - nothing else works). Because of this shot and his type of "do not resuscitate" living will (his ask's to be resuscitated in certain circumstances), the local hospice people will only come out and talk to him and won't provide care. Even though he qualifies for hospice and under hospice all the costs would be covered by Medicaid, as long as he gets that shot and asks to be revived, they can't help us. Also because of the shot, he won't be accepted at any of the nursing homes. He only has enough money to keep his live in nurse for a few more months. Insurance and Medicare won't pay for home health in his case. So he can only live in two places, a private home (his) or the hospital. He wants to stay at home as long as possible and keep getting that shot because he doesn't want to die from a massive infection (painful and messy). None of us kids has enough money to pay for his care and none of us are willing to move back home permanently though my little sister is willing to stay there for many months at a time. We have been told many times that this could go on for years. If he ever catchs a cold or the flu that may end everything and if his kidneys react to the antibiotic (this has happened a couple of times before) he will be out of options. Of course at that point the shots will cease and he can either move into a nursing home or have hospice caregivers come out to the house.

We lived in Georgia when I was eight years old. Had a cool creek that ran through the backyard that my friends and I spent lots of time in, catching crawdads and throwing lily pads at each other. The first week of May I got horribly sick with what the docs guessed was an allergy. I couldn't breathe, even though I've never had asthma. My face turned very red and swelled to the point that I couldn't see. My hands swelled so much that they actually cracked and clear liquid ran from the cracks. It lasted for several days and then disappeared as suddenly as it came on. The following year it was back -- again in the first part of May. It was worse the second time and I ended up in the hospital, on oxygen and being pumped full of antihistamines. After asking tons of questions about anything new in my environment, the doctor finally told my mother that he believed I was deathly allergic to something that only bloomed during that time of year. His suggestion, besides documenting everything that I'd recently come into contact with, was to be GONE from the area well before the following May. Needless to say, we moved up North, and there were no more episodes until I went to an Easter Sunday service where the church was filled with blooming LILIES. The uncontrollable coughing started before we were even seated. Within five minutes I was having trouble breathing and freaking out. Mystery solved. I got out of there like my pants were on fire and my butt was catching! Nowadays I don't go to Easter services, or weddings, or funerals. I steer clear of the floral department in garden centers and grocery stores. No more lilies for me. For the record, I don't think I'm allergic to ALL types of lilies, but I have no plans to test that theory.