Hello! The container should definitely have drainage holes. Are you sure that the plant is potted in spanish moss all the way through? Lots of times, people will use spanish moss as a top dressing for decorative purposes. You might find that underneath there is a different media so you should check that out. The little green shoots coming from the woody 'stems' are probably new spikes, and will also bear flowers. In theory yeah they do sap energy from the parent plant, but then again so does producing any kind of flower. Most people let the plant flower freely unless a) It's flowered so long that it looks unasthetic because of long spindly spikes, b) it's flowered so long that the grower feels that the plant needs a break (I cut spikes off if they flower for over 7 months..and some do!) or c) The plant is sick and therefore should focus it's energy on growing rather than flowering. In the above three situations, people will generally cut the entire flowering spike off at the base. In your situation, it sounds like the spike is branching which is generally happy news for most growers

Sansevieria are supposed to be summer-dormant plants, i.e., they do most of their growing in fall, spring, and winter as an adaptation to the harsh summer conditions in their native habitat. Changes in day or night length are the normal triggers to go in or out of dormancy (and to flower, etc.) However, despite this scientific fact, I read a lot about people's Sans growing the most during the summer (or at least spring and fall). My hypothesis is that cool in-home temperatures slow down the chemical reactions and biological processes of heat-loving Sans so much that they are unable to grow during their normal, natural growing period when kept as potted house plants, and that's why so many people report the greatest growth during the warmer months of the year. A rhizome is just an underground stem. Pups are just leaves on an underground stem, or new "branch", so that's how you can treat them. With most Sans, the whole plant is underground except the leaves. You might be able to deal with the water-retentive media by watering with a high pressure squirt bottle. Some people here are going to hiss at me, but it's a "cheater's" method for keeping moisture-intolerant plants healthy in water-retentive soil. I've kept plants that way for years. Get a squirt bottle or squirt gun with a very strong single stream (those squirt ends for outdoor herbacides and pesticides are good - cleaned WELL of course). Place the tip on the soil, point it down toward the roots, and fire. Do it all around the plant so there are roughly evenly spaced wet streaks in the otherwise pretty dry soil. If the stream is good enough, it'll squirt several inches into the medium. This prevents the dreaded "perched water" near the bottom of the pot where rot usually starts. In media like peat, those wet streaks inside the pot disperse into damp columns. If you pay attention, you can alter your shots each watering so you do dampen almost all the soil over several weeks so it is never all wet at the same time, but every part gets damp at different times. It is an excellent method for the hopeless over-waterer who just can't resist the urge to give a plant a drink. You get to mess with your plant all the time without killing it. You can even squirt a little water up through the drain holes, or with plastic pots, you can stick holes in the side with a hot nail just for this purpose. It works. You CAN even over-water with this method, but you're less likely too. Don't tell on me, but I'm maintaining several plants this way right now.

-call your local permit office and ASK if a permit is/was needed. Better to know in advance. anytime they say one isn't needed, call and ask for yourself. You will be the one to suffer if it is needed and isn't pulled. also - many gcs/subs will tell you lots of things that aren't true. If suspicious (and be suspicious) ask someone else (not working on your house at the time), google it. don't think that just because you aren't changing the 'footprint' that you don't need a permit - that's not true. I know a bit more about cars than most women but I always act like I haven't the faintest clue. And I always require any changed out parts to be given to me. That way if I do have a question about if that part needed changed, I have the old part to look at or take to another mechanic. My old mechanic from my early yrs (a family friend) taught me to do that - and I always hung out with him when he worked on my car. I loved hanging out under the car or hood with him - lol!

I don't know where these figures come on the amount allocated to furnishing a home. In my experience, if you are buying your first home, you are going to be strapped for cash - at least for the first year or so. Most people I know made do with donations; thrift store acquisitions, odds and ends accumulated along the way and disposable furniture from places like IKEA - or they made do without. If one is moving to a second or third home, surely one has acquired furniture along the way and doesn't immediately discard it. Again, in my experience, most people with middle class incomes make do with already existing furniture and augment as needed. While it's nice to get new stuff, most people I know bought furniture gradually.