The golden rule: If a thing ain't broke, don't fix it. Nobody who is happy with their plants should change anything. Sometimes people decide their thing is broke after gathering more info and spending more time with a plant. Tastes and goals can migrate over time. Hacking, I couldn't agree more with the angle of choosing your own way to do things. So much info is out there, much of it conflicting. Each grower gleans what they can from it, trying to determine which are the real pearls of wisdom, and puts it into practice in their own way, according to their budget, schedule, personal taste, so many variables. Over time, you get to know each plant and the right thing for you and your plants becomes more obvious. Believing a thing will work is at least 51% of the recipe for success with plants, so definitely ask questions when something doesn't jive for you. I know I've had to have some things explained to me several times until they made sense to me and what I'm doing in my own little world. From what you said in your last, yes, we are approaching things differently. Nothing at all wrong with that, but an excellent point to make. For almost 20 years, I had my Sans packed tightly in pots, (the house plant books say that's what they prefer, right?) Much of the time they were in some darkish corner somewhere, rarely given any thought. After reading more anecdotes about them, I wondered why my plants weren't offering the same excitement. They grow faster with more light and space? I had no idea, I'd never tried that. Time to experiment. First with much larger pots. Then with putting plants in the ground for summer vacation. Both venues yielded more pups than I had room to keep in the house the following winter. Those who don't like to repot annually, or who don't want their plant to change that fast, wouldn't appreciate that at all. If one just likes the appearance as-is, there's definitely no reason to do anything to make it change faster. IME, a 5-gallon bucket is a smallish pot for Sans, but that's not what most people want from their house plants - some giant thing that's constantly growing out of control, outgrowing the space one is willing to devote to it. With all of the hullabaloo about Sans being slow-growing, perfect for low-light, yada yada, that's usually the reason for which they are acquired. So the small pot that constricts the roots and keeps the growth at a crawl is perfect for them, it fits the purpose for which the plant is intended. There is indeed a time/place/purpose in *not* having a plant performing at its' ideal, limits of its' potential. The malleable Sans will put up with about anything, except being cold while moist, or simply rotting the roots in any weather as described above. Those who don't kill their plants in these ways should enjoy them well, and hopefully be able to find what works for them to have it growing at their desired pace. One more thing about small pots...

Plants are NOT toxic. In fact sanseveria is used medicinally in some places. The fact that slugs and snails eat the leaves to no end is surely a clue that these plants are not toxic. There are some plants with very sharp tips and spine tips that pose more danger than consumption of leaves or roots. BTW elephants do eat this as I have seen them relish these when ever they can sneak a few leaves with their trunks. I bet the spine tipped adaption is a way to deter these relished plants from being eaten. I have seen wild pigs eat them to the root and they don't appear to be sick from eating massive amounts of this.This was the common S. laurentii variegated forms.

This is one hardy plant and would probably survive without any care at all. I rescued mine off a dump site and it gets very little of anything and still manages to come up smiling. But most plants do need at least some water. Ist new shoot and it will not look back. Good luck Irene

thanks everyone for your help, mm thanks for the pics, I think mine is probably the same type as yours with that yellow strip down the side and yours seems to be behaving itself there. I love the sound of your "mexican garden". dee I will check our local wa site and see what they say about it, Im a long way from any bushland though so it shouldnt be a problem, they wont escape from these beds because it's all surrounded by paving and they wouldnt have anywhere to go if they tried. robyn thanks for that info, frost wont be a problem and our overnight winter temps normally range between about 3-10c and it's pretty unusual for them to go much lower. "they produce lots of offsets when they hit the side of the pot so in the ground they will not reproduce so rapidly." that is very interesting because it explains what mine is doing. Ive had this plant in a smallish pot for about 12 months and all of sudden there are about 4 offsets coming up on the edge of the pot and the pot is getting all stretched out of shape where they are growing. at least I know now if I have to remove them it wont be too hard. thanks robyn. hi len, I'll only put a few of them in there and surround them with a mix of other plants, I dont like the look of just one plant mass planted so I always mix things up together. trancegemini