thanks, woodnative! I haven't heard from him in a while either. I considered emailing.

As of last month Russ is fine. I sent him some plants then. I just put them away for the winter but if they look good, I still need to unload more plants. Getting too hard wintering them over each year.

I re-read your post a few times, Stush. You sent him some pants? Haha... I'm sure you meant plants. But the first pass was pretty funny.

Oops. Hate when I do that. (Plants) Corrected it. Thanks.

Hi folks, thanks for thinking about me. Sorry for dropping out for such a long time, I just turned 82 and have had health problems for many years. I can still get around but slower and with less stamina. I have over an acre of property and thousands of tropicals and sansevierias all over the place, mostly under large live oaks, so mowing, watering and maintaining property is a chore that's becoming more and more difficult. I continue to send sans to anyone that asks but it takes longer now to find plants that are small enough to send and are in good enough shape. Weeds have become a major problem, having to move pots, mow and replace back is time consuming and difficult. Basically I need to cut down to an amount of plants I can maintain, but I can't bring myself to throw out rare and hard to find plants. I do toss garbage cans full of philodendron and monstera vines that have grown everywhere, I've also thrown out many aglaonema types where I have dozens of pots of the same kind. I pick out 6 of the best and toss the rest, these are nice hybrids that aren't rare but just can't maintain so many.

I set some sans down toward the back of my property years ago and they eventually escaped into the ground thru drain holes in pots and are seriously established. I am astounded by the size of dawei leaves, obscura v. nilotica is a rampant grower, and aubrytiana with it's bright bandings is big and beautiful.

I recently ran across an old sans list of mine and am astounded at all the species I've lost over the years, most from dear Alice Waidhofer and the Huntington Botanic Garden back in 1998 and 1999 when I was very active in collecting. So that prompted me to check Houzz and see if the old sans group even still existed. And here you are, with some names that I remember.

I still have a decent, large collection but certainly not because I've taken care of them, thankfully sans are tough as nails and most have survived my neglect. I have very large collections of aroids, crotons and other types, so my attention is mostly just trying to keep everything watered during droughts. This past summer was unusually dry in the early months, then storms and hurricanes came in later months. Winter is usually bone dry and I'm having to stand out there for hours now with the hose.

I've sent a few boxes of sans out this summer. Also been trying to get sans together so I can see what I still have and update my old list. I can post it here if anyone is interested.

Thanks again,

Russ, central Florida

Russ, So very good to hear from you. What you wrote could have been me also. So hard to get around now and living up North, I have to bring all my plants inside for the winter months. Sans looks good when I bring them in but thru the winter under LED's they get very sick looking. Thank God I have two sons that came over and helped me get them in this year. I was thinking about leaving them all out and forgetting about them.

If possible, some pictures would be nice to look at.

Take care my old friend.

Stush, I still have a number of plants you sent me years ago. Getting old sucks but I do as much as I can with the disabilities. I'm in my usual winter mental slump because of depression, which I've had most of my life. When the light starts getting low in the fall I can feel it coming on. I get a lift of mood in spring but the depression is always there, my intense interest in plants has kept me going for decades.

I recall you seemed really down on plants in general some years ago, and I thought you were getting out of it entirely. I see you're still here and apparently still have some sans and other succulents. I don't know much about some of the genera you have, but I do love aloes, haworthias and the like. The latter would be especially good to collect since most are small and one could have a nice collection just utilizing windowsills.

I've never thought about quitting plants altogether but definitely considered picking one or two families of plants and giving away or dumping the rest. I have a gigantic collection of philodendrons, monsteras and other aroids,the vining types are clambering across the ground, are in the trees and everywhere else. Besides sansevierias I have smaller collections of succulents, begonias, odds and ends in many other families, plus small and mature size trees of crotons, Literally thousands.

Unfortunately I find all plants interesting and beautiful. But, getting down to hundreds of plants rather than thousands would be a relief. Sans would be at the top of the list since they're tough and require less maintenance. Unfortunately, the leaf disease that has plagued the trifasciata types since 2010 has been disappointing, I haven't found a treatment that works very well, I guess it's a fungus, have you found a product that works? The best I've found is spraying with full strength mouthwash, but not 100% effective. Neither are fungicides. I only have a couple of pitiful looking Hahnii's, and no Futura types because of the disease, all have been wiped out, I used to grow them so well prior to 2010 when it was discovered in that wholesale greenhouse in Florida and thousands of sans had to be destroyed. Still, it got out and now is world-wide. It's like the Covid of sansevierias. The full-size trifasciata types seem to be a bit stronger against it, but leaves are still made ugly by the watery lesions.

I tried posting some pictures yesterday, both from my phone and my desktop and I can't figure it out. Houzz is so clunky and user-unfriendly, oh for the old GardenWeb days. Pics from my phone seemed to be foggy looking, very low quality. Sending from my desktop could be the fault of my very old computer. I downloaded pics from my phone and I see them in Pictures on desktop, but when I go to Houzz and attempt to download there, the pics don't seem to be in my Pic Folder even tho I know they're there. Wish I was more savvy with computer stuff, a 15 year old that grew up with this stuff could probably figure it out in the proverbial New York minute.

I'll keep working on it. I'll post some if I can figure out the problem.

Russ

I remember old Houzz, I had to downsize the pictures to get them to copy on here. Now I post one picture at a time and go back in to 'Edit' and post another one. I posted as many as 10 that way.

My collection of Haworthia and some odds and ends.

Side of front porch. I since gave away the tall Euphorbia. Just too much to bring in and find a large spot to put them in. Sans fill the gutter I installed to hold them.

I completely forgot about them all summer and did nothing for them.

Happy New Year

Glad to hear your still growing. Many thanks for all your shares. I can't wait for spring as I am already struggling with my some of my Sans, (overwatered). I'm building up my Philodendron collection and yes they take up a lot of space. (Always room for 1 more, right?) I'm still trying to get Madame Butterfly to bloom. Experiencing bud drop. I'm not giving up.

Best Wishes for 2025

Good to see old friends here!

Yea, can't wait till spring. Every winter seems to be getting harder and harder.

Stush keep enjoying them! Best wishes for 2025!!

Thanks for the best wishes, Love that plant your showing. Looks like three different plants in same pot. What name?

Stush that is the variegated Moonshine, a variega masoniana is in a pot to the left. Do you still have all your Huernias and Aloes? Do you grow the very dark, almost black flowered Huernia? Silver blue kirkii from you here in my office.

Chris, I gave my Huernias collection away. Still have the Aloes and keep starting the seeds produced from the colorful hybrids. Rest of seed pods I throw away. I gave away my variegated Masoniana due to overgrown roots and small top growth. Almost like growing sweet potatos. My variegated Moonshine I think rotted. Not sure. Might be hidden on the shelve. Those Silver Blues are the strangest sans I own. So thick and hardy growth.