Hi Solar Storm,

Your plant is beautiful! I really want to see how it looks when the flowers open.

Could you talk a little about how you grow the concinna and parva in water? Are you using the expanded clay stones? Liquid food?

I'm still a beginner and want to learn. Thanks!. Barb

This is a very LUSH plant. I live not far from you and I too sometimes grow certain of my Sansevierias in very moist and even jungle conditions. At one time I grew large numbers of gold hahnii with bottom watering via wick, and there was always water in the trays. I look forward to a photo of the flowers when they are fully open.

Thank you for the compliments. I will post a photo when the buds open. I should add that I only put parva, dooneri and concinnia in standing water - never a variegated plant. In fact I admit I have killed every variegated sans I've had. That includes almost every known cultivar of the hahnii group. I think if I had a greenhouse or could grow them in the house, that I would have more success because I would water less. Those are fancy pebbles I sometimes use as top dressing. My mix is half pumice half nitrated fir bark. It drains quick and lasts a couple of years before the bark decomposes.

Last week I went through Lowes, and spotted a small Bantels Sensation, growing in a small glass cube filled with clay pebbles and water. I have been debating about pulling it out and potting in regular mix. It does seem to be doing okay for now, but it's definitely variegated. What to do?

Bantels Sensation is the most touchy plant I am willing to grow---- because you CAN grow it...(unlike Manolyn which will eventually be disfigured with rust streaks and spots)...Many people have grown Bantels to HUGE size in pots on windowsills. I grew mine when I was growing in quantity, in that same ultra hot steamy greenhouse, but I grew it in a soil mix which was exceedingly well drained, and kept it upright by putting in a deep top dressing of big coarse granite because the soil was so friable, it would not have supported the weight of the plants. In good conditions which is warmth, adequate water, bright diffused light, this plant can be VIGOROUS and unblemished. I think the day this sport appeared, there must have been wild celebrating in the nursery. Warmth and that bright diffused light plus the kind of watering one would do for a Begonia is all it took to grow it perfectly. it is very different from the African desert Sansevierias. And it did show up in a greenhouse of a commercial breeder, so it never had to survive in the wild.

Thank you Hermine,

It's so interesting to hear your comments. I'll be sure to give this one a nice warm spot this winter. I think I will go ahead and repot it now. It does have a distictive look.

Solar Storm

You plant is beautiful, so healthy and lush. i love it.
Its on my want list, but for some reason I cant find it. my main source is Ebay, but its rarely offered.
Does anyone know the place I can purchase it?

Thanks
Inna

What a nice looking Concinna! Good picture. I have the dwarf form which also has purplish flowers when they are young, but they (the dwarf form) become much more white as they mature.

If you had a greenhouse, and it does not have to be all that tropical and INTENSE, just like night temps no lower than sixty and regular watering, S. concinna can become like a greenhouse weed. I mean, on one side of the greenhouse are the special beautiful plants, and then there is this area which is increasingly taken up by concinna, pups coming out of drainholes and so forth. Somebody should just GIVE you one. Mine are getting into serious flowering now, and if I did not have a failing, diseased camera, I could post pix of them. Will give this a try tomorrow. Somebody mentioned not growing variegated plants in a lot of water, but I did once grow tons of very highly yellow 'Gold Hahnii' with wicks in standing water. I kept them very warm and they had lots of bright diffused light. Warm temps are needed to do this intense growing with lots of water.

Inna,

I got my concinna from Arid Lands this spring. It's really just sitting there. I think I have to get it into a plastic pot for waterings' sake. It's in terra cotta and not growing much. I expect it to do much better next year.

Michael

Michael

did you get LAV 5949 or LAV 5933 or both;) Would you recommend getting them from Arid Lands?
I'm wondering if you could water concinna more often instead of transferring to plastic pot?

Inna

Inna,

I got both. They are interestingly different. One has defined red edges, the other does not. One is larger. Both are small and I'm still waiting for offsetting.

I recommend Arid Lands. I like the selection and product, and have had good results. They have very fast delivery and are quite responsive to questions.

I guess I could water more, but in the summer, they dry quite a bit in the heat. As they are more water loving than some, it would be just easier for me to have them in plastic pots.

Michael
Interlaken, NY Z 6

Michael

Thanks for the info. Sorry, off the topic i didn't know where are you in NY until now. I just came back from Watkins Glen and Corning. We stayed almost a week. Beautiful place. every evening we went canoeing in Seneca Lake. You must be nearby. We are already planning to go upstate next year.

Inna

Inna,

OMG! How fun. I'm about 20 minutes from Watkins, north east up Seneca lake. I'm getting accustomed to growing everything in a new space. The climate is a little different and the sun is quite a bit different. My 65 or so Sansevieria seem to be adjusting pretty well.

Hey, you're in NYC. I think Pirate Girl is too. We should have a little Sans convention someday.

Michael

Sorry to have missed all this wonderful and interesting response, but I did promise to post a photo when the flowers opened and I was able to capture a photo last night. So here it is. I tried a hand massuage to see it I could initiate a little self fertization. More in a few weeks if fruit forms.

Love that mauve color! Thanks for the pics & interesting discussion.

This plant certainly has beautiful flowers - looks like more purple than white. For the flowers to set seed, the stigmas must be receptive to the pollen. When receptive, they are a bit sticky so if pollen lands on it, it stays. This occurs usually at night when the flowers send out their perfume inviting pollinators to come for the show.

The best luck I ever had artificially pollinating a Sansevieria came when, late at night, I teased off anthers with a pair of tweezers and dabbed the stigmas with the anthers. Dab, dab, dab.

Mike,
I use a art brush. I use it for about one hour and leaving the pollen stuck on the bristles, put in the refrigerator and use again the next day. This goes on for 3 or 4 days. I am talking about clivias and amaryllis. I did this also on daylilies. I was susesful.
In fact, I used to save pollen from my clivias and use it on another plant several months later. It must be frozen and thawed before using, and only once. They sell pollen frozen just for this purpose. I suspect sans should be the same way.

Some Sansevierias seem to be self-sterile. I say this because I and others have had them flowering madly for years, decades, and have pollinated them to no avail. and they are all from the same clone. Other Sansevierias set seed if you do NOTHING. Tis sad!

It is pretty stupid for a particular species to be self sterile. It seems to go against the survival laws of nature. Why have flowers if no hanky-panky's going on? Ha! The only way they can reproduce is by rhizome and even they are sterile.

Is it the pollen that is sterile, or the ovary... or both? Is there any advantage to sterility? (I mean in PLANTS!).

Michael,

Self sterility forces the plant to cross pollinate. Cross pollination introduces genetic diversity into the species. If a single plant is self fertile, it will produce progeny most like itself. By crossing with another plant, the progeny may be more suited to fluctuations in the environment or perhaps have greater vigor.

Self sterility is most likely found as incompatibility on the stigma. There are chemical receptors that block the selfed pollen from "getting through." With pollen from another plant (the same species, but sometimes not) the pollen is "allowed" to germinate, pollen tubes form, and the ovules can be fertilized. In actuality, neither pollen nor ovary are sterile, in the strict sense.

It just makes we who are trying to get seed - crazy, if we only have a single clonal selection of a particular species. Ugh!

Michael
Interlaken, NY Z6

I have learned a lot from the 'Great Lakes Bulb Society'. By Jim Shields. On bulbs, they freeze the pollen and use it sometimes years latter. What if the same can be done with Sansevierias. Good for cross pollinating and self pollination. I have done this before on Clivias and Amaryllis. Should work???
Carefully cut the pollen stock and all and place in a sealable container. I use my old diabetic test strip containers and they seal up nicely. Then using a artist paint brush, select enough pollen for use and let thaw on the brush that way you can keep the rest of the pollen frozen.
When mine flower (when and if) I will try this and post what happens here.

Jim is a great reference. He's done a great deal of hybridizing and knows his way around a flower, certainly.

Being in a "similar" family, I can't imagine the pollen storage could be that different. It would definitely be worth the effort, especially if you can get pollen from different clones of a species. The trick is identifying DIFFERENT clones. I'm sure there are many plants floating around that have been in cultivation that are the same clone. S. 'Ed Eby'/patens for example has been propagated lots, but appears to be the same everywhere.

Michael
Interlaken, NY Z6