It resembles Fernwood (many plants/pups in one pot). I have two of them, both purchased as a single rosette in a pot - one of which is pupping. Now I know what I have to look forward to (years from now). Thank you for the pic!

What a beauty! I second Fernwood. I have a little one. I have alot to look forward to...years from now as NextO mentioned.

looks like a grown up Fernwood to me. How tall do you think it is?

I thought Fernwood too but I had no idea they get that large! The plant itself was about 20" tall, each plant about 26" from tip to tip, so overall it made for quite a striking display! Thanks ladies!

I hope my small Fernwood/Mikado grows up to look like this one.

Oh yeah, one of my Fernwoods is at least that size, looks like a pineapple plant. Barb, I am seeing cylindrical leaves on my Mikado - Fernwood has a V-shaped channel the entire length of the leaf - so it will be interesting to see what Mikado turns out to be in a couple years. Mine is sending up a pup or two....

Is Fernwood a cultivar?

Larry, Fernwood is a hybrid between S. parva and S. suffruticosa.

NextO, that is a great description! Pineapple plant indeed.

It does look like Fernwood. It used to be a fairly uncommon plant but we're seeing more of it these days. It's a beautiful plant, if this was in a Home Depot or Lowe's it'd be $30-$40. Still, it's a great find Lori! You have a strong constitution in holding back from snapping it up!

Russ

I found out Fernwood Nursery used to be in Topanga Canyon, CA about 20 min. from where I live and my route to work when I worked in Santa Monica (beach). I remember what the nursery entrance looked like, their sign, I may have even stopped there a time or two. I find it so sad when these local nurseries close (two close to me are out of business recently); I fear we will be left only with big box stores.

Russ, I got my two Fernwoods at OSH, haven't seen them since or anywhere else. The first one cost double what any other Sans costs in a 6" pot but it was so beautiful I gladly shelled out for it; the second one was priced lower and they were having a 15% off anything that grows sale - how could I pass that up? So now I have two. They take up some space as the leaves fountain out in all directions but the pattern on the leaves is really showy.

Ha! Strong constitution, Russ?! Hardly! No will, but small wallet is all. Otherwise I would be finding a home for that plant very quickly!

I like that one: "no will, but a small wallet is all." I just got back from Bantings Nursery, where I bought Jared the Jaboa from. They were have 30% off but there was nothing there for me. Disappointed...it's about 40 min away.

Nexto,

My Mikado has channels all down the leaves. There were many pups and they are making a fountain shape. Maybe you will see this as your pups grow.

Didn't we decide that Mikado and maybe Japonesa was a planting style rather than any particular sans? The Japonesa pots I've seen seem to be Fernwood or one of two trifasciata hybrids, Stellette or Stella.

Interesting about Fernwood Nursery going out of business, I wonder what the association is between the nursery and Fernwood the sans, did they make the cross and name it after the nursery?

Russ

Russ, yes I think it was a planting style, a tight clump of cuttings. Just waiting to see if mine turns out to be Fernwood or something else. I don't know about the nursery.

Katrina, don't you hate it when you make a long trip to look for plants and don't find a thing? It's happened to me more times than I can count. If I had the proverbial nickle....!

Thanks Barb, I was pretty sure about Mikado being a style, still not sure about Japonesa. Does your Mikado plant look like Fernwood now, as a young plant? By the way, how are you feeling these days? Hoping you're much better.

Lori, I'm afraid a flat wallet has saved most of us sansophiles from total ruination in spending all the grocery money on plants... and the kid's college education and retirement money!

Russ

Yes Russ, I believe it was reported there was a conversation in another thread or forum that Mikado is a style (like a table decoration, braiding cylindrica, painting the tips, etc.). However, I did catch something in the ISS Journal about Japonesa parentage so I'm no longer sure. Fernwood the plant was indeed hybridized at Fernwood Nursery, and named for it. And then I found a thread from a few years ago showing a Mikado growing up to be tall and vertical, some other references to S. bacularis....only way to know for sure is to grow it out. My Mikado has perfectly cylindrical leaves in the center of some of the rosettes - which Fernwood does not. But maybe they've just folded over - it's possible. It seems weird to me that one can barely find Fernwood (must be a reason, they're slow to propagate?) and yet, someone is growing them to cut off the leaf tips, bundle them up into plastic cages - oh I know - they're being imported from Asia. That must be it.

Here's my Fernwood (the bigger one that's pupping):

Russ, here are my two plantings after I separated and de-Mikadoed them. Poor things were really crammed into that tiny mesh cup. Anyway, you can see the groove in each leaf. Some of the plants have 5 or 6 leaves already.

Nexto, your Fernwood is really nice, I love the graceful shape Is the new pup coming from the soil or above?

I really like the look of these Fernwood types!

De-Mikadoed! Hilarious!

so Barb, you seperated the new growths from the truncated leaves?

Also, what is the chunky plant in the background? Gorgeous!

Thanks Barb, I think it's really distinctive, the form and leaf pattern - catches the eye. The pups come from underground, the plant also sends out adventitious holdfast-looking roots from the lower stem to stabilize it.

I'm so pleased you got two pots from that plant I sent, that's great!

Me too, I just love this one.

So you keep making new plants? Great idea!

I'm hoping that this one will be a good pass around one of these days.

Good job on washing roots and separating all the individual plants Barb. When you bought the plant as Mikado, was it a pot of leaves sticking up out of the soil mix?

I Googled Mikado and found several kinds of sans used in the 'technique', sulcata/bacularis leaves, what looked like Fernwood leaves, and leaves of cylindrica.

NextO, I wonder if the cylindrical leaves in the middle of some of the rosettes of your big plant could be from influence of one of the parents, suffruticosa. I guess it's also possible that the channels have closed completely on such old leaves.

Russ

Mikado? Whats japanese theatre got to do with plants?

We have deduced, as a group, mind you, that Mikado is a style of planting used particularly with the cylindrical varieties where they cut the leaves in half and shove them in the ground. Similar to the paint dipped one you posted. Then they sell whatever it is as Mikado. Interesting that is Japanese theater. Perhaps the reference is to the dramatic look?

Larry, Mikado is another scheme by marketers trying to make a fast buck. It's a newer 'style' of using sansevierias in a different way. It's being marketed as a so-called 'air purifier' as well as a cool-looking pot on your sofa-side table, etc.

Tip cuttings of sans leaves are simply planted and rooted en masse in a decorative pot, like you would cuttings to propagate. The most common leaves used for this technique, if you can call it a technique, is what looks like Fernwood, but I'm seeing sulcata aka bacularis and apparently cylindrica used as well. Virtually any of the cylindrical or semi-cylindrical leaf sans could be used.

I'm sure most people buying these pots wonder what's going on when in a few weeks all those rooted leaf cuttings produce plants. Of course the simple visual effect of Mikado is then ruined. I guess the marketers hope you'll just buy another pot and toss the old one.

Barbmock's picture just above shows her many plants of what looks like Fernwood that she separated from a mass planting of leaves sold as Mikado. I haven't seen any of these Mikado pots here, but folks in this thread in other parts of the country are finding them in stores.

Fernwood has been a very uncommon collector's sans in years past, but if the trend continues with Mikado and if these sans are indeed Fernwood, then it's going to get real common real fast.

Russ

IMHO, Japonesa seems to be the same as Mikado, a design style rather than an individual plant. Leaves are planted the same way, leaf cuttings en masse in a pot. The plants grown from leaves that I've received as Japonesa look like Fernwood to me. I thought at first these were possibly a trifasciata hybrid called Stellette, but I think Fernwood is a better match given the number of leaves in each rosette.

But Googling the word Japonesa will bring up postings of a sans named Japonesa as well as leaves planted in a pot, so I think the public and sellers alike have been confused about this being a plant rather than a style invented by marketers. Some postings have actually said 'new Japanese hybrid' referring to Japonesa, so I could be wrong but I don't think so.

Russ

Here's a picture of some Japonesa braid plants I saw at a local nursery. I didn't buy one as I disliked the braid. So, anyway here is an example of one sold as Japonesa. It may be a shorter plant or maybe just not mature.

Sounds dreadful.

Barb, did this look like the same type of sans that was in your Mikado pot?

Russ

Hi Russ,

I just don't know if they are the same or not. I'll have to wait til they grow up.

Looks like Japonesa