Purple, 2011/12 has been the mildest winter ever. During March, we had about two wks at 80-90F, and very high humidity. Then temps dropped, but the lowest was 40F. Then we had a little over a wk in the 90's. This week was mid to high 70's, days, 60's night. It's all over the place. I've never had a Sans that bloomed. Seems few ppl get theirs to flower. Maybe the cold had something to do with yours flowering or a combination. How is your house so humid when temps are cool? lol. Do you run a humidifer? I've never been in a home where oil is used for heating. Is it a dry or humid heat? Don't worry Purple, you can run different experiments with your Callisia. Remember, invasive house plant. lol. Is Callisia hardy? You mentioned it growing as a ground cover. That's one thing I don't have to worry about here; it wouldn't survive normal winters..Normal opposed to this last winter. I'm shocked a good number of annuals returned. But, I wish our winters were always as mild. People in 'Palm Forum' who live in Chicago and as far north as Canada grow palms and certain succulents in their garden. The palm in Chicago is huge. The guy lives by the lake front which is a lot colder and windier than my area..sw burbs. The wind chill makes 35F feel like single digit. I'll try getting a pic today. I'm working inside, taking a break, checking emails and GW..lol. Anyway, Congreats on flowering Sans and Callisia

I have all of the Austin oranges - Pat Austin, Lady Emma Hamilton, Summer Song, Lady of Shalott, and also Carding Mill. My Pat Austin has shown rose rosette disease, but is responding favorably to aspirin treatments at the moment. I'm hoping for the best on this. It does bloom nicely, but the flowers do not take our summer heat. The bush gets quite tall. It does have a good color, but, again, the flowers fry easily. Lady Emma Hamilton does not get to be a tall bush. It is more spreading. It does not bloom in large amounts of flowers at any given time, but it has a fairly steady supply of nicely fragrant flowers. It is the most consistent performer of the oranges that I have. Summer Song was quite pretty in the spring. For summer all three bushes of it that I have didn't do much of anything. I noticed that a couple of them were munched on probably by deer. Something ate the leaves off of them as well as part of the stems, and I have seen deer in the yard at various points. The first year I had these plants they did reasonably well. This past summer, year two, they didn't care for the excessive heat and just sulked. They did, however, throw long canes. The orange color does fade badly in the heat. They did not bloom much at all in the fall either. I think it was more because of the weather. Lady of Shalott was pretty its first year. It seemed to be going along okay growing and flowering most of the way through the growing season. It pretty well stopped by the end of September, but it had a couple of flowers late. I think this bush will get fairly large. Flower size has been on the small size. Perhaps it will improve some next year. Carding Mill does reasonably well, but the flowers have been on the small side. It can get to be about 5-6 feet tall here. Its growth habit is fairly cylindrical and doesn't spread much. The apricot color bleaches out to a pink in the heat. Otherwise, overall it has been reasonably consistent here. I have no major complaints about this one. I hope this helps a bit.

Sansevieria are supposed to be summer-dormant plants, i.e., they do most of their growing in fall, spring, and winter as an adaptation to the harsh summer conditions in their native habitat. Changes in day or night length are the normal triggers to go in or out of dormancy (and to flower, etc.) However, despite this scientific fact, I read a lot about people's Sans growing the most during the summer (or at least spring and fall). My hypothesis is that cool in-home temperatures slow down the chemical reactions and biological processes of heat-loving Sans so much that they are unable to grow during their normal, natural growing period when kept as potted house plants, and that's why so many people report the greatest growth during the warmer months of the year. A rhizome is just an underground stem. Pups are just leaves on an underground stem, or new "branch", so that's how you can treat them. With most Sans, the whole plant is underground except the leaves. You might be able to deal with the water-retentive media by watering with a high pressure squirt bottle. Some people here are going to hiss at me, but it's a "cheater's" method for keeping moisture-intolerant plants healthy in water-retentive soil. I've kept plants that way for years. Get a squirt bottle or squirt gun with a very strong single stream (those squirt ends for outdoor herbacides and pesticides are good - cleaned WELL of course). Place the tip on the soil, point it down toward the roots, and fire. Do it all around the plant so there are roughly evenly spaced wet streaks in the otherwise pretty dry soil. If the stream is good enough, it'll squirt several inches into the medium. This prevents the dreaded "perched water" near the bottom of the pot where rot usually starts. In media like peat, those wet streaks inside the pot disperse into damp columns. If you pay attention, you can alter your shots each watering so you do dampen almost all the soil over several weeks so it is never all wet at the same time, but every part gets damp at different times. It is an excellent method for the hopeless over-waterer who just can't resist the urge to give a plant a drink. You get to mess with your plant all the time without killing it. You can even squirt a little water up through the drain holes, or with plastic pots, you can stick holes in the side with a hot nail just for this purpose. It works. You CAN even over-water with this method, but you're less likely too. Don't tell on me, but I'm maintaining several plants this way right now.

This is a most interesting thread.... I'll go off topic here briefly, if only to lighten the mood a little.... As a testimony of New Yorkers NOT being rude, I share the following experience: While in Connecticut on a business trip (for DH), I went to NYC to see a play with a friend. Of course, I wore all my "cute" going out clothes to be out on the town that night with her and some friends. Went shopping, got mistaken for Anne Heche several times,(I wonder if that's a compliment or not!!) saw the play, had a blast. Next morning, DH was to bring the himself and the kids into the city to go sight seeing. It was November, and VERY cold in the city, so I told him to dress the kids very warmly and to bring me a warm hat and my tennis shoes. (MY "cute" boots had left me blisters....ouch!) Dressing "cute" was no longer important. I was cold, tired and just didn't care...) While waiting for DH and kids to come to my hotel room, I decided that I didn't want to lug all of my new purchases around with me while sight seeing with 3 kids. Plus, I thought, it was freezing, so it just made sense to "layer" all of my clothes. Perfect solution. No carrying heavy bags, and I was warm. All that was left were some of the dirty clothes from the night before. Socks, uncomfortable shoes, etc. Very light and easy to carry. Finally met DH in the lobby when I saw that he'd dressed the kids in their (albeit) warmest down coats, that were normally reserved for playing in the (few and far between) snowy days in our home state. They were very dirty from playing outside, but warm. DH also (as per my request) brought me a warm knit stocking cap and my tennis shoes. Not the most attractive thing, I admit. But I didn't care. Off we went to go sight seeing. But first, a pit stop at McDonald's. Wanted to take a pre-emptive strike against the inevitable "We're hungry" when we're RIGHT in the middle of something good. I decided to go against our norm of ordering each kid a separate happy meal. They weren't that hungry to begin with, and the dumb toys would just be a distraction on this particular trip, so I opted to just get them a snack of a supersize fries and large drink to share. Just something to tide them over for a few NYC sights. DH goes to counter to wait on his delayed order, and the three kids and I are sitting at the table eating when the nicest lady came up and gave my youngest a toy from a Happy Meal. Oh my gosh! Thank you so much! How nice. We continue eating. Then a few minutes later, a very nice gentleman comes up and gives us one of those peel-n-win game pieces worth 1 free apple pie. Oh my gosh AGAIN! How NICE New Yorkers are! DH comes back, surveys the new found items, and looks at me kinda crooked...."Why are people giving us stuff?" "Well, I don't know, but I gotta tell ya, New Yorkers just must be SO much nicer than we've heard!" We leave, with me thinking that the whole "rude New Yorker" thing is just not so....And then it happened. I looked to my left and saw a huge plate glass window. I saw the reflection of my family in it. And I immediately knew why people were giving us stuff. Let me paint the picture for you. All of the clothes I was wearing were showing in some way. 4 or 5 different collars were poking up out of my big, black coat. 2 pairs of the pants I bought the night before were velour-like material, and were consequently riding up on each other, showing that I was wearing 3 pairs of pants altogether. My hair was a mess, sticking out of the stocking cap. I had my dirty clothes and shoes from the night before in a large shopping bag....complete with paper towels hanging out the top. My children, of course, had their dirty old coats on....and while they were in McDonalds were all huddled around ONE order of fries and ONE drink!!!! It hit me. PEOPLE THOUGHT WE WERE HOMELESS!! Oh my gosh. We laughed so hard. We still laugh to this day! But those New Yorkers WERE some of the nicest people we ever met!! Just had to share. Sorry I went off topic!