1. You have a nice variety of spoons Vitorama. They are all so different. I just have one. It is a dwarf, very tiny, maybe 6 inches tall. It may be Lavranos 5933.
   
   
   Same plant on the left, ballyii on the right.

It's so pretty Barb! I love it!

So thats what you mean by spoons! I was beginning to wonder lol

Lori, thanks for all the pics. I don't think splendens is a valid species, although I've heard of the name for a very long time. Interesting and beautiful sans though, Hard to tell from pics, but it could be subspicata. If you have a subspicata already how does this one compare to it?

Cute little spoon Barb, could very well be sp. 5933. Love the woods in the background, my kind of place!

Russ

Thanks Russ,

We love the big trees, after growing up on the Okla. prairie, we appreciate the trees in Georgia.

Your plants are beautiful Barb. I was in Atlanta once for training a number of years ago and I remember the woods. I like it there.

Russ, I'll do a comparison tomorrow and let you know. It figures I have another plant with the incorrect name.

Don't you hate when that happens Lori? Names are so messed up with sans, it's gotten to be a common thing. I don't mind buying a sans with wrong or no name if I think it's something different, I would have bought yours in a heartbeat even if I knew their name splendens wasn't right.

I'm running late on posting my spoons, yesterday a 12 foot section of bench with a hundred plants on it collapsed in my 23 year old shadehouse. So I'm cleaning and repotting the mess and scratching my head about rebuilding it. Thankfully not too much was damaged, those that were are prop material.

Russ

I do hate it, Russ! It's so frustrating. I agree that a beautiful sans is worth the buying even without a name, but I sure wish we could get the names straight when they are named! It's just crazy.

I am so sorry about your shade house , Russ. That kind of work would be devastating to me. I'm having a hard enough time keeping up planting the things I have bought. Nevermind having to repot dozens of plants. And rebuilding? Hmmmmm..... I've got my plants on milk crates so I won't be of any help there!

Sorry you're having a rough time over there Russ. What a mess! Hopefully there are no losses. I'd love to have a 25ft bench. I have shelving, but I'm running out of space. Back to the patio table! My husband had mad carpentry skills so while he cant build it for you, he can definitely help you with logistics. Give a shout if u need.

Nice looking spoons. My not so local nursery had tons of them so I'll be picking 1 or 2 up when I finally make it back there. I didn't know there were different types. This board is so informative and I appreciate everyone sharing their knowledge.

Russ, sorry about that bench! I hate it when something like that happens.

I've been toying with the boards between the milk crates idea Russ. I wish I could build something more permanent as you described but alas, I am not a homeowner, so whatever I put up has to be disassembled in the fall.

Of course, finding the time to do any of it is another story. It seems I go outside to pot one thing and wind up doing 20 others. Sigh. A gardener's work is never done.

I do the same thing Lori, starting on one plant chore and end up doing some others. Never enough time, and I'm retired. Seems like I got more done when I was working.

So I would just go with boards across the milk crates for the summer if you have somewhere to stack the boards during the cold months. But I get having to do things temporary rather than permanent when you don't own. That was me for a very long time.

Russ

Vitorama - your spoon collection inspires me to keep my eyes open for these sweet little Sans! This may be of interest either causing confusion (it did for me) or clearing up some questions for others (by none other than J. Chahinian): Lake Sibaya Sans

I have spoon leaf sans marked 'from Socotra' or 'sp. Socotra dwarf'. These are some of the ones mentioned in these emails. There are no sans in Socotra as one of them said, but the erroneous info follows the sans around as part of their background collection data.

I'll introduce the newbies to the folks in those emails...

The 'Herman' at the top of the emails is probably Herman Weitkamp in Tenerife Island, Spain. I corresponded and traded with Herman years ago, I heard he's no longer interested in growing sans.

I traded with my friend Stazek aka Stanislaw Chrapusta for many years, he's in Warsaw Poland. Our trades, mostly just leaves, took 10 days to get from him to me, and vice versa. Only sans could have made those journeys and lived, many of the sans in my collection are from him. He got many of his sans from collector/seller Ernst Specks in Germany. Sadly, I lost track of Staszek a few years ago.

Some of you know of Hermine Stover in California, a lively and highly experienced sans grower from way back, and author of the soft-back book The Sansevieria Book which you can download online.

Norma Lewis wasn't mentioned in the emails, but she is Hermine's best friend and another grower with life-long experience and close connections to the Huntington Botanic Garden in California.

Here are 8 pages of sans at Ernst Specks' website, mostly unidentified with sp. numbers.... https://www.specks-exotica.com/en/gallery/sansevieria/01/

Russ

Thank you Russ! What a selection at Ernst Speck! No prices though.

I found an article in the Sans Journal by J. Chahinian - most of the spoon types are from Mozambique, except 'Lake Sibaya' - Lake Sibayi (sic) and 'Sudwalla Caves' -Sudwala Caves (sic) are both in South Africa. He writes that S. concinna was the first to be cultivated and has wine red petioles (the handle of the spoon). Then Lavranos collected two more in 1967, both having green petioles but more banding like the trifasciatas, especially 4979 they are the small one Barb has 5933 and a bigger one 5949. These are the Sans erroneously called "Socotra." They're from Mozambique. Fruits of both are burnt orange, big and showy. The next discovery is 'Lake Sibaya' which is much like L.5949 but with maroon on the back of the petioles, leaves more yellow-green, without much cross-banding. Last is 'Sudwalla Caves' it also has in it's early growth, wine color on the back of the petioles, 1/3 up the length, and pronounced cross-banding and thin red edges to the leaves. He goes on to say that subspicata is related, has a surface texture like ground glass, reflecting light in all directions, leaf shape is variable, shows markings in strong light but tolerates low light and will then show as black-green.

Thank you Barb and Vitorama for introducting me to these fascinating little Sans!! I'm a fan.

Thanks for that info. I was just looking at my subspicata today and wondered if they were of the spoon family. I do notice a shimmery type quality on front of the leaf.

Such nice forms everybody. Gosh Russ, sounds awful, good luck w/ restoring that.

Barbara, all your pix show such gorgeous Sans, really each nicer than the last, I think my plants want to come live w/ you for inspiration!

I've had several spoon shaped Sans. over the years, but none now. Just this one, would this be considered a spoon shaped Sans? Not sure.

This came to me as no ID, I just really like the form & solid green. Interesting sort of wide open rosette.

Had this for a year now, didn't see how dusty it was 'til I took the pic.

Lena

Sure looks like a spoon to me, Lena! Nice plant!

Thx Vitorama, it's hard to see but it's got the slightest red rim on the leaf edge, so pretty!

That might be subspicata, the plant I have which I suspect is subspicata has red edges and is basically green, no banding to speak of.

It appears to me the concinna types have longer "handles" to the spoons.

I did a search on eBay to see what spoons have sold recently, J. Chahinian had a gorgeous variegated plant up for auction. Really something to see.

Great to see you here Lena! I was thinking the same thing, subspicata, which has a very narrow red edge.

I think only the concinna-types are considered 'spoon-leaf' sans, in spite of other species having narrow petioles and similar wide leaf blades that look like spoons. Many of my spoon-types have some indistinct banding on leaves and markings on petioles, a few are all-green with no markings. I'll have to read up on the differences.

Still need to post spoon pics, will get to that soon.

Russ

This was listed as Lavranos 5949 Striated (I think).

I would call that more of a variegated sans rather than striated, but whatever. Also, it's odd that two leaves are completely unvariegated. Nice sans though.

Russ

Adding my NOID spoon to the club.

That's a nice potful of spoons Katrina! I asked on another thread how long the leaves are, what color the petioles are, and if there's any cross-banding on the leaves or just all-green?

Offhand I'm saying concinna right now, but answers might change my mind.

Russ

Lovely, I must say!