It’s hard to believe that just over a year ago, I had one unhealthy propagation and no interest in houseplants. Even harder to believe is, in that year, I have cultivated immense knowledge about the plants I’ve come to own. Even so, with 53 houseplants (part of an ever-growing collection), you might not consider me an expert on all things plants. I don’t blame you. I have a lot to learn. However, I’ve got a rabbit hole kind of personality and an all-consuming thirst to know everything about my passions and, if you’re into it, I’d like to take you along for the ride. Hint: since I’m about to be a grand-plant-mother, I thought it would be fun to chat about sansevieria care.
As I am currently attempting to eradicate every single fungus gnat from existence, it’s been easy to maintain my feelings of resistance to starting this blog. I quickly determined I was a plant failure. But then my gaze fell upon two plants: my most proud and one of my newest, a snake plant (sansevieria moonshine). Now you might not think snake plants are super exciting, especially when they aren’t yet producing pups, but they’ve kind of become my origin story.
Flash back to December 2018. I’m living in a tiny bedroom at my Nanna’s house with my husband, P (diving into a short term family favor) and it’s the holidays. I own zero plants, I care about zero plants. My stepmom laughed in the face of my aversion, decorated a lovely little glass bottle and gave me a tip cutting from her favorite snake plant. I thought the bottle was adorable, but when I looked inside, I was surprised to see that the leaf was dipped in water. Too embarrassed to ask questions, I thanked her graciously, took it home, and sat it on a table in my bedroom. It sat there, alone, for months.
In this time, my sister C had been taking an urban gardening class and had established her own succulent and cactus collection. I became intrigued and purchased a zebra cactus. This caused me to glance towards the leaf in water and I decided it was time to do something about it. I pulled it out of the vase and, to my utter surprise and delight, one root (less than a quarter inch) protruded from the stem. I immediately jetted off to my parent’s house to show them my treasure and ask for help planting it.
I wasn’t prepared for their polite laughter. They explained that, after months and months in water, that one measly, rust-colored root might not do much in soil. I stubbornly insisted anyways, and my dad helped me pot it up. I sat and chatted awhile (probably bragging about the *really challenging* succulent I had just purchased), and then packed up my treasure to go home.
Music loud, sun shining, I turned onto a side road without thinking. Pot overturned. Soil everywhere. Plant crumpled. Panic set in and I pulled into a trailhead parking lot to observe this new disaster. I shoved as much soil back into the pot as I could, working frantically. Then, the plant. The root was...just gone. I shouted in fury, brushed hair out of my face with a mud covered hand, and plunged the stem back into the pot. It slumped a little. I grabbed dirt from near the creek, plucked out a stray cigarette butt, and did my best to strengthen the base.
Once again, it stayed that way for months and I ultimately had to dispose of it. Swearing off snake plants, I began collecting every other plant I could get my hands on...but, over time, the interest crept back in. I wanted something striking that would be happy and easy to maintain with the chance for impressive growth over time. Enter cylindrical snake plant. I plopped her in cactus soil in front of a sunny window, and now, only a few months later, I’ve got a new pup growing! Now that I have my moonshine too, I’m excited to learn even more about snake plant care. But for now, here’s the basics of snake plant care.
PLANT NOOBS
tips for new friends
LATIN NAME - Sansevieria (in many different epithets)
COMMON NAMES - Snake Plant, Mother-in-Law’s Tongue
HUMIDITY - normal, no pebble tray or misting needed
WATER - give a nice hearty drink, then let dry fully
LIGHT - bright indirect light, tolerates full sun
FERTILIZE - regularly during the growing season (depending, of course, on the type of food you use)
PROPAGATE - you can divide new babies at the rhizomes (more on that later) but the easiest way is to take 3-4” tip cuttings, let the cut heal, then place in soil or water for root growth
SOIL - any well draining cactus mix
EXTRA TIPS/FRESH CUTS
This is a good beginner plant because the best sansevieria care comes from a little neglect.
A great sharing plant, as taking tip cuttings doesn’t hurt the mother plant and babies can sometimes grow rapidly.
Some epithets can flower in the ideal environment.
BOTANICAL JARGON
Propagate/propagation - to take a cutting from an already established plant and use methods to encourage root growth from the cutting
Epithet - part of the plant's latin name, usually describes something about the plant (Sansevieria cylindrica, for example: Sansevieria is the genus, cylindrica is the epithet that describes what kind)
Rhizome - fleshy, underground stem, "rootstalk"
You can carefully divide them to separate your plants before repotting.
I hope this is helpful for y'all new snake plant parents! Did I miss anything? Do you have a snake plant fail that I should know about? What other "easy" plants have you had trouble with? Let me know in the comments!