SMC - I still am praying for the red hibiscus. It never was too prolific at flowering, but it put out gorgeous, huge blooms. I've learned my lesson about propagating them, though. If they do come back, I'll have a lot of cuttings just in case they die again for real this time. Elizabeth - I wait until I see if the plant is going to really come back before I cut it back. For example, I had a Vinca that was coming back from the base, but it didn't make it. Luckily, they send out VOLUMES of seedlings every year, so no great loss.

Sorry folks, been a very busy month with quarter-end... @Kara - About that rootless mesemb... the largest portion of the plant died. ): I have a smaller piece of the plant left, but I haven't touched it. It is currently growing new leaves. I am a bit concerned it'll die soon after, as I have no idea how to force it to grow roots. yikes!! Where did you get lophophora seeds, if you don't mind me asking? I've been dying to have some lophophora plants...! Not for the "medicinal" properties fyi- it's purely superficial. I find them to be very cute buttons. :) @Jeff - I have horticultural sand on top! It is this exact bag and the particles look like below. I have play sand too and I'm thinking I actually need to add more of it on top. I found that the poor little seedlings don't handle aggressive misting very well when they are supported by mostly a layer of horticultural sand. They are easily disturbed by over-the-top watering as you'll see in the update picture... I made a small ditch in the soil when I tried to water from the top! lol. Newbie mistake which I'll not be doing again. I am still keeping the container closed right now. I only open it to mist every few days or so. However, the take-out lid does have a very small hole at the top. It might be helping with ventilation but I can't be sure. Seedlings seem to be enjoying my care. :D Picture taken last night, 4/25/18 (3 weeks since last picture)

I didn't realize that Moonshine's had so many leaves per cluster and that's all mine did all summer, produced more leaves within the existing cluster. I brought all my plants in before the hurricane that turned out to be more rain than anything else for us and realized that it finally had a pup coming up. The same holds true for the braided cylindrica that I unbraided and repotted, it finally rooted well enough to pup. I think its fun, makes me feel like I'm doing something right, even though the anticipation can kill you at times :)

perennialfan275 I'm in northern IL like you, zone 5a. This is the worst winter in a decade. Yesterday May 9, I took a short walk around my block and counted 8 dead street trees from this winter of freezing rain and temp. down to 20 F mid-April. My street tree in front started to sprout tiny buds yesterday, so it's not dead. After this warm week of 89 F to 90 F, I will dig up the dead roses without any green shoots. Julia Child is on sale for $9 in a 4" pot from Hirt's Gardens today May 10. Here in Northern IL, It's tons of freezing rain in mid-April that killed trees and roses. My 8th-year own-root Dee-lish in open space is down to 6 inch. green canes (last year it was 3 feet of green canes after winter). But my 2nd Dee-lish, planted under a roof-overhang that blocks 80% of rain, is 3 feet of green cane this spring. Same with my neighbor: her roses under a roof overhang are green to tip, but her roses in open air (receiving freezing rain in April) are down to 6 inch. My best winter-survival are roses under a roof-overhang, or the ones that I spent 1 hour digging deep for fast drainage. All my 150+ roses are own-roots, I have only 3 grafted-on-Dr.Huey, and these 3 grafted-roses have the worst winter-kill (died down to 4 inch. of only one cane. Grafted-roses on Dr.Huey prefer fast-drainage & alkaline and can't take tons of acidic rain. Freezing rain in April also killed $5 Pink Peace that I bought as bare-root from Menards & planted this mid-April.