Ime5573 you have found a Chlorophytum comosum 'Variegatum' which is the one with the green stripe in the centre. The commoner one is C comosum âÂÂVittatum'' with the cream stripe in the centre. I was also excited when I first saw one of these in a Bed and Breakfast I was staying at. I got a baby from them and now have a big specimen with babies of its own. They are easy to grow. Just as easy as the usual version. Here it is on my kitchen windowsill when it was younger. Don't know who stuck the pencil in there! BTW, personally I'd root it straight into in potting medium, not bothering with the water step, but that will work too. Are there already root nodules or roots showing? If not it will be harder to root.

Looks like everybody else also thought the conditions you describe should be appreciated by the spider plants. It's been way too long since I had a variegated one to have any advice for you, just foggy memories of having one. Curious how things are going though. With unsatisfactory variegation, all you can do is experiment with exposure. Either more or less sun should "fix" it. My gut instinct with this one would be to try less first, but it's just a hunch.

I am alittle late in coming in here, but Ill share none the less. Ive usually had a spider plant. I think ive had a total of 3. They have usually been very long lived and the only one that never produced seeds or babies was my solid green one. You dont see too many solid green ones, and I kind of am partial to them. I currently have a small verigated one. I work in Downtown Washington DC, and the Smithsonian Castle's gardnes in the summer usually have many, very large hanging basket spider plants outdoors on light posts. They are ENORMOUS, and usually have hundreds of babies on each plant, if not more. They are all verigated. There are usually 40 or 50 of these giant plants around, and most of them are in direct sun, and do great. My last spider died a few years ago, it never even produced a bloom spike, let alone a baby. It was solid green. So, summer 2004 when I was on my luch break, I took a small baby from one of the gigantic outdoor spiders at Smithsonian. It lived in my office, in water for about a year, and did OK. It did almost die a few times. I took it home and repotted it in winter 05/06 in a small ceramic pot. At one point, it only had 3 leaves. 1 leaf on one, and 2 leaves on the other. Slowly, it put out a couple of new leaves. I placed it outdoors in full sun for the summer, and in less than two months it is 10 times the size it was, it now has about 30 leaves, and has a nice bloom spike that has been blooming for a month, and even has a seed pod. Im hoping I can get a "GREEN" one out of the seeds as id like to keep a verigated one, and a solid green one. So they definately can take full summer sun, at least here in Washington.

50C (122F) is a bit higher than is used commercially and 3 hrs. is a longer period as well. V. Read gives the following temperatures as a common application in commercial concerns: 48C (118F) for 80 mins. or 46C (115F) for 2 hrs. I would *not* use the oven till I had pre-tested the pan of water, employing a *good* thermometer for at least the projected length of soaking time. Fill the pan with water and proceed as if you had your bulbs in it. Check the temp of the water when the oven clicks off and recheck every 10-15 mins. or so. Of course, opening and closing the oven door frequently will affect the procedure somewhat, so an oven-proof thermometer in the water at all times that can be easily read through the oven door is called for. Write down all those temperatures and if you're getting the desired temperature continuously, I think you'll be OK. Ovens are notoriously "loose" in temperature calibration, especially in the lower or "warming" range. They may switch off at what it is set to respond to, say 46C, but it could easily be higher or lower than that in actuality. Another problem with home oven is the on-off cycle of heating. This can result in temperature fluctuations of the soaking bath. First going higher than desired as the oven heats, then lower before the oven switches back on. Unless your oven has a cooking thermometer that is inserted into the water, it will react to the air temps inside the oven which may not reflect the true temp of the water or the bulbs in it. You could easily cook your bulbs to death if the temperature is too high! Too long and you may also damage the forming buds, but your bulbs will eventually recover completely and be blooming again. It will just take time. But if all goes well, no harm will come to the forming flower buds. If in fact your problem is caused by mites, the treatment will rid your bulbs of them. I would caution you strongly against using the oven, but if you are set on it and take *ALL* precautions, you may succeed. If you intend to throw away the bulbs anyway (which you say you already did in your first post.....)you have nothing to lose. Robert.