Question
hi, ive brought a rose of jerico plant the other week and it says to leave it in water and it will go green and come back to life , ive watered it and only the middle has gone green all the rest is still  brown. shall i fill a pot of compost and put it on the top to plant itself,  

Answer
Colin,

Your plant is also called resurection plant. It is a plant that dries up as though dead, yet revives when wet conditions return. There are 2 different varieties.

The club moss Selaginella lepidophylla, native to the southern USA and Central America, curls up tight when dry, but unrolls and resumes growth when placed in water.

The rose of Jericho Anastatica hierochuntica in the Cruciferae family, is native to desert regions of North Africa and Southwest Asia. The plant curls stems and seed pods inwards in the dry season, forming a ball that is blown out of the soil and rolled by the wind, shedding its seeds, which germinate rapidly in moist conditions, when it reaches a damp spot or when the rains return. When moistened the plant develops into a fernlike plant up to 30 cm/12 in across.

Either one may benefit by being place on top of a pot of moist soil and pressed firmly into the soil so it has good contact with the soil to root. It will probably not be a long lived plant. Good luck.

Darlene