backs of leaves

It is 'Moonshine', and it does make flowers.

Giggity! Thanks!

I have one pot of 'Moonshine' with no green cross-banning what so ever and another pot just like above. I like the one with more regular green cross-banning myself. One friend has one and only one leaf with a green cental strip thru it. Looks like a great find.
Stush

Purple,
That is a great find, it's difficult to find a moonshine here that's not beat to hell and back. Thanks for sharing.

Planto

Thanks, but all I did was go to WM. It seems they've started a relationship with Costa Farms recently, at least the store I frequent for plants. This pot was the only one with 3 plants in it. The others all had just 1 or 2, there were about 5 of them.

I've been eying this one for weeks. It was $10 but they changed the regular price on these ("plants of steel") to $7. I hope they are not breaking ties with EA. I still prefer a smaller plant for $3, or more unusual plants if they're going to be that expensive.

Hey Purple, that is a nice find & it does look like S. Moonshine. I'm used to them w/ less green banding on them. I tend to prefer the ones w/ little or no color on them, I happen to like them in the super pale green stage. Another characteristic some Moonshine have is that very dark green leaf edge.

Pls. be aware that these plants will likely darken w/ age & mature to have much more ordinary looking Sans. coloring.

I haven't taken any pix yet, but I recently managed to score several young Moonshines, pretty pale. I'll post pix when I can. I particularly like these pale colored Sans, they remind me of sculptural marble.

Enjoy!!

Purple,
Our WM doesn't sell the plants of steel, only Lowes. With that being said, the only Sans I've seen them carry that are plants of steel are 'Futura' Sans, no 'Moonshine.' On that note, hopefully they'll start carrying those here. :)

Planto

Purple..your Moonshine is beautiful. I love the dark green bands.

Do you place Sans outside during summer?

My Sans stay indoors..could being inside be the reason my Moonshine doesn't have bands?

See, no bands...Should it go outside? Toni

Toni,
I have one pot of banded and one with-out. They are treated the same. I take them out in mid May and in by 1st. week of October. Watch direct sun. It will burn the leaves. This one likes more shade and indoors will suit it fine. Looks good. Great job.
And By the Way, Welcome to our side of the forum.
Stush

That's good to know, Stush, hadn't had this one long enough for it to come up about the sun, got it after bringing everybody in. It will definitely go out next summer, but apparently not in as much sun as the other Sans.

PG, you're right. I hadn't even noticed the edge until you said that. It's in an east window now. Sounds like it should be happy there for winter. The do look like marble.

Toni, your plant is great! Nice and tall. I do see bands, just very faint.

To all, many species of San. will produce a different form from starting from a leaf. You should not give every different leaf a new plant name. I can start 20 different leaves and they will all look different. I do not name each leaf, I wait until I have a pot full to see if I discovered a new sport. They will revert back to the species, or change the leaf form, 'Moonshine' 12" only will produce flowers in ideal conditions like Hawaii, grows to approx 12" does not has the color of
'Silver Queen' grows tall like a true S. trifasciata with very little banding will propagate true from leaves note apt to revert and 'Gray Lady' 12" it is a listed plant in Juan Chahinian first book . It a good idea however to start leaves and see how they end up. They do this in Thailand who plant thousands at a time to select one possibility of a new fins. They also grow them from seed, and and practiced this tecknique for a hundred years. l and this is why there is so much confusion, it may take 20 or more years to establish your great find, then stablized it. I have used Juan's first book which helped me try this, most of the leaves that start I toss out they are not worth keeping, but may be fun to try. Norma Lewis

Thanks, Norma.

Came by to check the date on this thread since this plant is still not dried out and the leaf that looks like the oldest one is dying I think. It's texturally strange, kind of curled, has become much darker, and there's some kind of white stuff on the back of that leaf. I just cut it off. It doesn't look worthy of any propagation attempts to me.

This crumbly peat stuff all of these "plants of steel" are in is awful, and this particular plant is really having a hard time. Really wishing I'd repotted this when I first got it, but had no idea how moisture retentive this strange potting mix would be. I don't think it should wait another 2 months until I start taking plants back outside and mix up some more "soil." Never seen anything like this stuff before. There are also balls of styrofoam in it. If anyone buys a "plant of steel," I strongly urge repotting immediately.

I don't know if you can tell how moist this still is after 6-7 weeks. This stuff isn't even worthy of going in a veggie/flower bed, (my usual procedure for discarding used "potting soil,") I'll find a hole that needs to be filled... No idea what it is, almost feels like tiny chunks of clay.

Daggone it, lost the pic in edit, will they PLEASE Fix that?!?!?!?!?!!

Moonshine is a fussy plant this time of year. They are known for brown spots forming on their leaves. Keep warm and water on when needed. Of course in a fast draining mix but if not then hold water back. I am having trouble with one pot of Moonshine while the other pot right next to it is fine. The one I am have troble with is in a fast draining mix and I think has too little water. Still learning on this one. I would not be too fast to blame the soil for all of what is happening.
I am also haveing problems with my Gold Hahnii. Loosing most of the bottom leaves while the top is still producing some. No new pups so I am worried about this one.
I know my house is too cold this time of year. I keep the thermostat on 62 degrees and by the window seals they may be going down to 50.

Thanks, Stush. Luckily the rest of the leaves look fine.

I just realized these aren't styrofoam bits, they're snail eggs. I had just assumed because I found styrofoam bits in the potting soil of some plants I got at L's. The snail I also just found down in one of the crowns is what set me on the correct course of investigation. I picked up this plant to take a closer look and was thinking, "I don't remember these white balls being here before." I smushed one of these and it was obvious, it's not a ball of styrofoam. Extremely curious to see them hatch, so will see what I can do in that direction when I repot this - putting the eggs somewhere observable but contained from escape.

Purp,

If you adopt my Cut & Paste technique for your threads, then your pix won't go ppppft.

Gross about the snail eggs, & here I was going to suggest maybe they're balls of Osmocote, guess not!

Thanks! If I could remember to use a technique, I could remember to re-browse the pic, or just click back to edit. Totally frustrating and unique to GW.

Sorry to gross you out. I'm looking forward to the scientific observation aspect. After thinking it through, apparently that crud in the pot can function as a snail hatchery, THEN fill a hole. The snails will be fed to the tiny birds that clean the crumbs and ants from around our dog's dinner bowl. What a recycling coup!

Pic thing still on my mind... I've asked for this to be fixed and from a practical standpoint, I would think somebody at "their" end would want to. When you consider how much bandwidth is being consumed by people needing to upload the same pics over and over, it's a significant unnecessary strain on resources. I wouldn't be so vocal about a mere inconvenience, it's the drastic illogicality of this that bugs me. And I don't need sympathy but it's frustrating when new people show up and have unnecessary trouble, end up thinking the thing doesn't function correctly or that they are just incapable of getting it right. There is no doubt GW is the best (gardening) forum for quality and quantity of content, and the functionality has improved into the competitive realm recently with this improvement, so why let this situation exist? Why not at least be functionally correct if implementing a new feature? Nothing I can't live with, but it's actually wrong in a quantifiable way.

...btw... did anybody expect a pic of a mason jar of clear liquid when first clicking this?

People up north, enough with the cold wind. Please stop! That's wrong too!

Hey Purp,

Why not just go back to the older way of posting pix? The I just COPY & paste each time I write & before I Preview, so I rarely lose anything anymore (happened too many times to me in earlier yrs.), so I trained myself to slow down a tad & always do it.

I don't have the time or patience to post ONE pic at a time, who does?

Purp, I meant to say use my COPY & paste (not CUT), that way it's ALWAYS in the 'puter's memory as the last edit one has done.

Thanks, I didn't even see the error, knew what you meant. I just have a memory problem. Sometimes I edit something 10 times before I get it "like I like it." I'll remember the first 9... That's uploading the same pic 9 times (10 counting when I come back to add it after forgetting.) No wonder this thing is slower lately.

Just came by this thread to estimate how long I've had this plant... about 2-3 weeks before I posted its' picture. Still haven't watered it (so that's over 2 months,) but it will finally need a drink this week. Looks like just the one leaf rotted from it's awful, waterlogged experience at the store.

Why oh why do they do it? I want to meet the ignoramus person who puts these Sans in pure peat with no way to drain! Hopefully they'll start selling stuff to make up more "soil" soon. Some of these plants are desperate! This year I will make sure to stock up more so I don't run out again.

The snail eggs are still sitting on the surface, btw. I've done nothing but glance at them occasionally...

Purple: saw some moonshine sans at WM today, but they had lots of broken leaves and the soil was soaked. I couldn't justify picking up one with the condition. I don't want a pity purchase to lead to a plant funeral!

I'm still thinking about repotting my sans bantel's sensation that I picked up mid-December. Watered for the first time this week. The soil grosses me out just looking at it! I guess I'm glad I'm not the only one anxiously waiting for repotting time!

Hi Purple,

Don't you think it'd be good to lift out the snail eggs? I would't knowingly leave them in a pot, would't want to risk them hatching in w/ the pot.

If it were my plant I'd remove every visible egg in there.

I'd agree the plant should have a drink after 2 months, that IS a long time. Have its leaves started to curl shut (along the vertical)? If so that is a definite sign of thirst. If you think it's in all peat, perhaps bottom water it, or at least water only around the outer edge of the mix, not near the base of the plant.

I agree with you PG. I think the eggs should be removed. Last summer I had a few very choice species eaten by snails/slugs. They are growing out of it, but the entire center of the plant has holes.

I just started giving all the Sans a big drink just last night. Most have been pretty dry with only slight watering if they began to get the tell tale creases in the leaves. Species like concinna were pretty much getting water all winter, but the ones like robusta have had little to none. I have to be careful with trifasciatas as I tend to keep them too dry. I'm still learning... aren't we all!

I way too "inspective" for snails to cause a problem, but appreciate the advice. If something takes a bite, I'd notice right away. Got to satisfy my curiosity about those eggs... Been doing s'more searching and it's not unrealistic that they could be skink, anole, or gecko eggs, tho kind of small. Don't want to be too hasty because I found a snail shell and they also resemble snail eggs. And how cute would tiny snail hatchlings be?

I've never been a "stick your finger in the pot" person but SOOO many people advocate such around these forums, I've done some of it this winter. There is still moisture in the pot of this Sans, even though it looks like that (below) on the top. Leaves still very firm and vibrant-feeling, you can see where I removed the one troubled leaf.

No doubt, still learning. I feel that way about the trif. I've had for decades.

I don't think there's any curling, but not sure I would notice it if I was looking at it...

Purple,
Is it possible those "eggs" are some kind of fertilizer... or something else? I've bought plants in the past that came in the same exact soil and those gray balls were present in every one. If you squeeze them, they'll pop and liquid comes out. When I unpotted the plants, those gray balls were present throughout the entire soil. Even some roots were growing through some of the balls. Not sure what they are but I've noticed a pattern with seeing those in certain soil I find certain plants potted in.

Planto

One cart jumped at HD today. It's about the size of Purple's and on sale for $4. You people are a bad influence on me!

Oh Goodie,

Another convert, eh Laura. You're welcome, that's part of our job as I'm sure you know.

LOL PG. you crack me up.

My two Sans.

Nice, plenty of room to make pups too!

Planto, I'm pretty sure they're some kind of eggs, but I'm no biologist! They're different from those fertilizer balls, I've seen those before.

Purple,
Oh ok. Well, in that case we'll have to see what hatches out of the eggs!

Planto

Nice looking Sans, you've got Laura, the right plant suggests Moonshine.

Here's my suspected Moonshine, an orphan leftover from a meeting. I love them when they're pale like this. This particular one seems nicely proportioned & graceful in stature, I feel it a good find.

That's extremely pretty, PG! WOW!

PG..your plant looks like it's sculpted out of marble! Beautiful!

Thanks Ladies, yes, I really like this one, wish it could stay pale (wish too I had planted it in a cleaner pot, but it would seem that's all that I had if I did that).

Side note: I repot Sans. all year long, if they need it, or just came to me as a few have in the last few months. To me, if the mix is bad it's more important to fix that than wait to do it in Spring. But I also recycle my own mix for Sans., they don't seem to care as long as it's fast draining & I use lots of pumice.

Thanks for that vote of confidence, PG. I probably would have repotted this sooner if I had any "stuff." I do that in the back yard and mentally, it's just not a winter thing. I ran out bringing stuff inside and haven't gotten more yet. Just ingrained from being in OH for so long. Don't know why I'm stuck this way 'cuz there are plenty of warm, sunny days all year here.

FWIW, I love the look of a clay pot with character like that, it looks like it has some experience and knows what it's doing! You can't trust a cool plant like that to any young whipper-snapper pot.