Snake Plant aka Mother-in-Law’s Tongue ( Sansevieria trifasciata )
Snake plants will forgive the most neglectful of gardeners. This is the only house plant I have that survived when I returned to college.
It will grow in the darkest corners of the house, but will do better with low to medium light. It can reach 5′ tall even inside.
It does have flowers, I’ve had it flower even in dark corners of my home. It needs to get large to flower and flowers are like small white lilacs.
Let the soil go dry a couple of inches down between waterings. It wants to be almost but not quite as dry as a cactus.
To propagate pull off a leave and stick it in a pot of dirt and water. If it gets too large, you can remove it from the pot, cut it into sections with some leaves and some roots on each section and repot each section. It is extremely easy to propagate. I’m told you can also take a leaf, keeping the top up and the bottom down, cut it into 2″ horizontal slices and place the bottom of the leave parts in soil and the top up much like you would an African violet leaf you were propagating.
The fibers of the leaves of this plant were used to make bow strings in ancient times.
Some one asked if you could trim this plant if it gets to tall. Yes, you can trim off the tops of the leaves if the plant is too tall or if they get brown and it will do just fine. The tops of the leaves you removed, if healthy, can be put in soil and will root.
If the leaves are not stiff or bend, quit watering so much!
See also:
Plants for people who hate plants
3 Responses to 'Snake Plant aka Mother-in-Law’s Tongue ( Sansevieria trifasciata )'
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My potted snake plant has 4 leaves when I bought it. Althou’ the leaves are few, they were nicely arranged. ( man, heaven and earth like). I spotted a small leaf in between.
My concern now is that I want to trim the top off as they are getting longer.
What happens ito the shape of the leaves if you cut the top off? Will they grow back to being spiky or?
Amy
18 Feb 09 at 8:03 pm
You can trim the top off snake plant leaves if you wish, it won’t hurt them. They will stay as you cut them and not grow any more on the end. They will still get longer if they are young, but the end you cut will stay as cut.
If you wish, you can take the tops that you cut from the leaves, put them in soil and they will make new plants.
Snake plants are rather cool in that you can take a leaf, cut it in 2″ to 3″ slices horizontally and if you put each one in the soil, top up, bottom in soil same as the direction it was growing, each leaf slice will root and make you a new plant.
Just be sure to keep the soil moist until you see some new leaves get going.
ljmacphee
18 Feb 09 at 8:14 pm
Thank you!
Amy
18 Feb 09 at 8:36 pm