That's wonderful! The choices you've made sound very good, Moonshine particularly is easy and the new growths are really attractive. Some of the species ones are pretty tough too - I've become more and more interested in these, so you may want to try one of those.

'Silver Queen' is the same coloring as 'Moonshine' but with a normal tall trifasciata leaf, while 'Moonshine' is a silver variegate of the short broadleafed cv. 'Austrian Hybrid'. Both are very nice. The tall stately leaves of Silver Queen and the short very white new growth of old Moonie. Silver Queen should even come true from leaves. It is the only variegated sans I know of that does this. Silver Laurnentii is another beauty. Its new growth has a broad pale green center with the yellow edge. But it darkens with age to look sort of like regular laurentii after a while. But, new growth is very pretty. I don't know where your plant originated from but I know a sans collector here who found this one and named it, among a large number of regular 'Laurentii' at a nursery. (It may well have originated several times in different places but be identical--this is known to happen with variegated sans.) If they have the cv. 'Lilian True'--that is one of my favorite trifasciatas--very dark green unbanded leaves with a yellow margin, or 'Futura Aurea', with short leaves like Moonshine with the normal center and a wide pale yellow to white edge.

But, without getting too many varieties (ahem....) I would suggest trying some other species. They are usually just as easy and a lot of fun to grow. Metallica (spelling?) grown big in a large pot, and, puts up a beautiful broad leaf with a blue cast, and the aforementioned (another thread) huge floral scape. Other species are more striking but I like it. Acutally the one I would get first is kirkii v. kirkii, also recently mentioned somewhere here on GW. Whether you get the 'Coppertone' clone or the regular clone, it doesn't matter; they seem to look identical to me??). Usually more expensive but well worth it is kirkii 'Superclone' with leaves to 4' tall--very thick at the base, broad at the top, and with a blue cast. It is hard to really get into sans without ending up with another huge collection (sigh....). At least, they are easy.

Thank you, Kniphofia, and to you, Jon, for that really detailed information - they don't have 'Lilian True', sadly; thanks also for the descriptions of the S. kirkii and Metallica. I'll check them out on the list; right now I have to go easy with the money, but in a way that makes the venture more worthwhile. I think I may have Futura aurea already - I'll try and put a picture of what I have on the gallery later, and see what you think. I appreciate this help so much!

Hi. S. trifasciata 'Silver Queen' does propagate true from
leaf cuttings. Leaf cuttings from 'Moonshine' will give you
a plant called 'Robusta', which has the same height and leaf
width as 'Moonshine' but will have the colors and banding
of regular green trifasciata. It's a nice plant worthy of
a place in your collection. 'Silver Laurentii' mostly
produces plain trifasciata from leaf cuts.

All these are nice choices, as is the 'Lillian True' that
Jon mentioned. There are so many choices in the trifasciata variety group, and many have colorful
variegation. A few even have texture on the leaves.

Glad you found a source for your Sans in England, Marguerite. What's the name of the nursery?
Russ

Thanks, Russ. It's Brookside Nursery, Lincolnshire, England. I can give you the full address if you want it.