Xerophyta retinervis

[CG100]

There is a very brief and old thread here on the website, but has anyone grown the plant beyond seedling?
Growing Rare Plants by Geoff Nichols implies that growing the plant once established is relatively straight-forward, but makes no mention of early growth from seed and transition to a normal cycle of "wet" summers and dry winters.

I have several seedlings from seed sown as suggested both in the archive here, and elsewhere online - surface-sown onto saturated compost, the pot half-submerged in a pan of (rain) water. (To reduce evaporation, I have used my usual method of fitting a cheap shower cap over the whole lot, so the seedlings will be sitting in water and in air near 100% RH.)

[CG100]

Update....................
The seedlings did essentially nothing - cotyledons, so maybe 3mm high and across, and that was it. I did try repotting, but again, nothing, so I sort of forgot/ignored them in the propagator after most died.

A few days ago, I noticed a bone dry pot in a plastic bag with what looked like a minute sprig of dry culinary herb in the compost - the last seedling. Well....... they are one of a handful of plants commonly called resurrection plants, so I watered it.

The cotyledons have withered and there is what looks to be perfectly healthy first leaf emergingfrom the growing point. If it really is alive and grows, that must be a first for me - seedlings that actually require what must have been near total desiccation before progressing. I have no idea how long it will have been dry, but a few months for sure.

Or it could all be wishful thinking and the apparent leaf is actually, really dead.