> I'm a bit confused about exactly how P. Moranensis
> should be treated in the winter. Mine, which I bought
> this summer, gradually started losing all its large
> leaves in the fall, and since December only had
> those small, pointy, and very thin-looking leaves
> in the center. It's planted in a peat/sand/perlite
> mixture with a thin layer of sphagnum on top, and I
> keep it indoors (19-25 oC) in filtered-light.
Maybe there are varieties of P. moranensis which behave differently,
but mine just grow right throught the Winter, and still flower well.
I keep them in the house, still in a water tray. The temperature is
usually lower than your 19-25C (we don't keep houses very warm over
here). Just about now, they start to form smaller central leaves,
and by maybe March or April will have less of the large ones. I
usually divide them then. P. moranensis doesn't mind growing in a
nutritious soil, and will probably then grow faster. The root system
always remains very small though - the size of pot is regulated by
the leaf spread rather than the roots. Possibly I am growing them
unnaturally, and they should have more Winter dormancy, but my
attitude is just to treat them as pretty flowering house plants (what
else can flower maybe 10 months out of 12?).
-- Clarke Brunt (clarke@brunt.demon.co.uk)