Wow, you got a lot to learn. Everyone has there own ways. I like to use a 1/2 gritty mix (granite grit) sold at feed stores as poultry grit because I can't get pulmace. Some perlite and humus potting soil. Some times I use a more gritty mix with 3/4 grit.

Most plants are purchased in a more peaty mix. If it works for you, ok. Got to watch the watering. If possible, remove any soil in crown and on leaves. I use a straw to blow it away after potting up. I prefer to use a gritty mix so not to over water it. If plants are kept at 80 degrees or more, no problem with watering or soil for that matter. Like the green houses they were grown in.

Must note that variegated leaves produce regular normal leaves. To keep variegation, must have root stock. Rhizome with at least 1 inch of roots or 2 inches with out roots.

Stush

Thank you for the guidance, Stush. Using a straw to blow away soil in the crown and between leaves is just brilliant! Most of the Sans plants I recently got have been shipped to me bare rooted, and I've been potting them up using Espoma brand Organic Cactus Mix. Is this ok? Living in an apartment I don't have room to store a lot of ingredients for mixing up my own sansevieria soil mix, but should I be improving the commercial stuff by adding grit, lightening it up with perlite, or something else?

Adding Perlite is the easiest way to improve commercial mixes. Unglazed terracotta pots are best unless you are using a very gritty mix then plastic is often better.

As mentioned above try adding some extra perlite to our commercial mix. I usually throw in a little grit and a little "real" soil too but that is me. If they are grown warm and in bright light they are much more forgiving of damp peaty soils but for most of us the extra drainage helps things a lot. What plants did you get?

Hmmm. Not familiar with Alice H. looks nice. Russ or Stush or Mike LaF do you know about this one??? 'Streaker' has always been a favorite. You might be able to get small quantities of grit at a pet store(?) or tractor supply (?). possibly not sure else try to mail order it. Else a little extra perlite is fine.

Arid Lands, which sells to individual collectors as well as wholesale, has several kinds of S. aethiopicas listed in their online catalog. Most are found in the Sansevierias A-H section. However, the Alice H is in another section called "Selection of Cultivars." They still have another 6 or 7 of these plants available if anyone is interested. https://www.aridlandswholesale.com/

I am limited with my collection. I'm sticking mainly to hahniis', Futuras' and just a few taller varieties. You will love 'Streaker'. It will develop more yellow with time and no two leaves will be alike.

sanny2016, welcome back to the World of Sansevierias. I wondered if you were growing other genera for those 30 years, I've known quite a few sans collectors over the years that developed an interest in other plants and changed their focus.

Something that could help us help you, please add your zone next to your 'handle', and preferably your location as well. Regarding advice, it helps to know if someone's in another country, a northern or southern tier state, etc. We already know you're in an apartment, which obviously limits your growing space.

So any idea what kind of collection you'd like to have? Some folks like mostly variegates, some choose the many trifasciata varieties, others grow whatever piques their interest. Still others like me collect any and all they can find. You might prefer smaller species and varieties in order to have as many different plants as possible in your space. The very interesting spoon-leaf species come to mind, and of course the trifasciata Hahnii group.

There are quite a few growers here that often have extra plants to share or trade, so you might let us know what those special sans are that you can't live without. Realizing you probably don't have trade material, many of us can do 'for postage' offers.

I've heard of the cultivar named 'Alice Waidhofer' but have never seen it, so thanks for that picture. Alice is one of the original pioneer collectors of sansevierias, she retired from collecting some years ago. I hope she is happy and well wherever she is, what a wonderful lady. She helped me get my start in serious collecting nearly 20 years ago.

Russ

Russ, my thanks to you and the others in this forum
for being so welcoming! I tried to
revise my forum name as you suggested (adding zone 7a, DC), but, alas, by
fumbling around I’ve maxed out on the number of times HOUZZ will let me edit my
name for now.

Great to learn about Alice Waidhofer! I’ve learned so much from reading through the older discussion threads of this site, including tidbits
about original collectors!

Your question about what kind of sans collection I seek
to have is a very good one, and one that I can’t answer because I haven’t been
that systematic about my collecting. Including some older plants that I brought with me when we downsized (I wasn't on a complete hiatus from sansevierias, I just wasn't paying much attention to the plants I had), I now have 17 sans
plants and that’s going to be it -- for now.
(Hubby will only let me grow plants in my study.). Eight of the sans are different types of trifasciatas, including my new hahnii streaker. Five other
plants are cylindrical leafed sans like singularis and cylindica.. While most of my trifasciatas have some sort
of variegation, I know to stay away from very variegated plants that are
particularly delicate and expensive. I have a golden hahnii that has soldiered on for many years – hope it does ok this winter in its new environment.

I'm not fond of sans with very hard and sharp points on the tips of their leaves. I appreciate their looks, particularly pinguiculas -- what a beautiful plant -- but I used to have a ballyi and got stuck by it many times, I'm never going to grow another sans like that!