Yes, I selected a few plants here, then headed over to my favorite nursery with the magic greenhouse...this time I looked elsewhere in the nursery and found a hoop house of out-of-season, past their prime plants are set aside - I found a few Sans of interest, a Coppertone that is nearly black from the bright light in there (may go back for that one), several cylindrica patens (could be wrong about that, but very thick upright fans with furrows) unfortunately in 10" pots so out of my price range. There was a huge plant of what looked like both Silver Queen and Gray Lady stuffed into a 8" pot falling over it was so top heavy, with some damaged leaves, dry spots, etc. I ended up with a just-about perfect cylindrica.

very long leaves on this onethis is the plant on the right of the photo of 3 plantsthe rest of it, the biggest part almost laying sideways, it's very rough and dry feeling, they said East Africa (comes from a grower in AZ)this one has many but smallish leaves, quite thick

From what I remember from those with tags, lots of Horwood, Bhitali 1008, parva, fischerii, trifasciata, pinguicula, subspicata, hallii, no idea what the variegated one might be, but the leaves were thick with ridges - he's got a few of them. I took the only francisii, only NOID last photo above and the best of the East African NOID out of 3. His wife will be bringing many back from Arizona, she'll call me when they're in. Her mother lives in AZ and she goes there often (like weekly).

That last photo looks similar to my S. fischerii Leopard Bat but it is much nicer grown. I really beat mine up during the winter months. Prices look a little high.

Stush

Yeah...pricey for 1 leaf. They are well grown though. Those bats, hallii, Pinguicula, etc are growing on me. I was partial to the thin leaved like laurentii and variegates but my tune is changing and expanding. Trouble!

I THINK he said conspicua, but he wasn't sure and they didn't write it on the receipt. I would have remembered if it was a bat, NOID could be just about anything I suppose.

As far as prices go, I've noticed everything has gone up, but my friends who hybridize and know all the work that goes into growing say for all the years into these plants, the prices have been low - nobody gets rich in the nursery business ;^)

A lemon tree in a 5 gal. pot is $29 at the big box stores, a six pack of veg plants is $3.50 used to be $1.90. Even a bag of potting soil 1 cu ft. $6, I used to buy them for half that. One tomato plant at HD costs more than at a local nursery, just crazy how everything is going up (including my age!) except my salary. Not complaining, just an observation.

Yes your are right NextO, I am on fixed income and see no chance of getting any more than I got right now so I am worried about inflation.

He did give me the francisii for $10, Horwood was $18 at the show. The Bhitala is $15 at Arid Lands, maybe they mark it up to account for the cost of driving it in from AZ. Sometimes I find Sans in 3.5" square pots for $7.95 and sometimes the same plant is $15. It really varies, but I do know, a small business brick & mortar in Calif. especially LA is expensive, I've decided driving for hours to save a few bucks is a waste of my time. Money I can make more of, time no.

Oh yeah Katrina, first Sans with those cylindrical leaves suddenly jutting out of the earth like whales breaching had my attention - they are so, exotic, so unexpected.

I am interested in some of the plants. However, the website doesn't list any sans. CLICK HERE

I hear ya Stush, which is why it's so great forums like this exist and we can trade, yes?

It's just a guy and his wife, they've been so busy selling and stocking and doing shows they haven't had time to work on the website. I spoke to him about just posting a list of species they carry but he wants to post a photo too, so more time involved...then there's maintaining the list, removing what's sold out, etc. Give him a call, tell them Mary (who bought Sans) sent you :) His wife will call you when she brings in a new shipment of Sans, just call and leave her your ph#. You might even tell them if you're looking for something in particular. Doesn't hurt to ask.

You got it.

I got 4 leaves on the Horwood and 2 leaves on the Bhitala 1008 (aka S. rugosifolia)!

I forgot to mention it was this lady who owns the nursery with her husband who made that Sans display at the LACS show I posted pics of.

That last one (possible conspicua) looks like it's been in the same pot for years, the rhizomes seem to have heaved out and up and then sprouted new rosettes... I may be repotting this one soon. I wasn't hell-bent on the francisii but it has an interesting geometry to the way it grows, it still has a couple buds, I'll bring it in tonight to smell the fragrance.

There was a woman in the shop as I was paying and she was talking about selling off her collection (through this nursery) but changed her mind when she saw the display at the show, now she's arranging all 200 of her plants in a distressed wooden thing like at the show. Wowee, that's a lot of plants.

200 plants is a lot? Uh-oh.

I have never heard of Bhitala 1008, what does it look like?

It looks like the negative of Horwood, light gray green ground with dark green splotches, thin red/beige margins. Arid Lands has it but their photo looks nothing like mine, but then their photos aren't the best IMO. They also call it S. rugosifolia; rugose meaning quilted, wrinkled e.g. Rosa rugosa has highly textured foliage compared to say hybrid tea foliage. I'll agree, it's kinda rough textured on the backs of the leaves.

Well, you know, it's a lot of plants to build a display for like at the show - I'd guess there were 25 in that display....I got some 8' long 2"x4" and cinder blocks and made a 2-level shelf to put my plants out for the summer, I can't imagine 3 more of those to get another 150 plants on, I guess some people have a greenhouse or lathehouse, last house I rented had a greenhouse....