The beloved Sansevieria! I painted this in a style that is pretty different than what I am used to but it was fun to experiment with a looser style with different layers of watercolor and new colors. These can be the easiest plants you have ever looked after but beware - if they take a turn for the worse, they can be as good as gone. But don't lose hope, that's why we're here!
The snake plant is praised as a favorite interior plant, not only for your home, but also for high-rises, offices, hotels, and nearly all of the other kinds of interior accounts I have serviced. They have a striking architectural form, especially when planted en masse and used as a visual divider in an open space, such as below. Their sword-like foliage is pretty unique compared to the broadleaf tropicals we are used to seeing as houseplants, so they contrast well against other plants. They also look fantastic solo in a pot that is big enough, as long as proportions are kept in check. I have seen a few too many Sans that have outgrown their pot and are very top heavy. Down in the Care section, I will talk about a few issues I see fairly often with snake plants and how you can try to avoid them!
Snake Plant Ssscience
Sansevieria trifasciata has actually now been reclassified based on genetic testing as a Dracaena, but there are so many other Dracaena species used as houseplants that I, and likely most others, will only really use the name Sansevieria. Now that that's cleared up, on the the fun non-latin stuff!
This plant is native to tropical west Africa where it will grow in large swaths with individual leaves up to 4 feet tall. It's a succulent, stemless plant with a rosette growth pattern meaning the leaves are thick to store water, and all grow from the same center point near the soil surface, and there is not above ground branching. Instead, this plant spreads through rhizomes, which are modified stems that spread horizontally through the soil and pop up a new baby plant, which is called a pup<3 ! This growth pattern makes pruning these plants slightly different, but makes propagating by division very easy! I'll get more into that down below.
There are so many beautiful cultivars of snake plant with stripes, variegation, and different leaf sizes. My personal favorite is 'Moonshine' with its wide light sage green/ silver leaves, but I have yet to get one to have as my own. The one I painted above is likely a 'Laurentii' which is a taller variety, but there are also dwarf cultivars like 'Golden Hahnii' if you want a plant that will stay compact and won't get leggy.
Sans Care
Snake plants can be one of the easiest plants to take care of - they thrive on neglect. But now, in the days (weeks, months...) of quarantine, you may find yourself hovering over your plants on a daily basis. Well I am here to say, step away from the watering can.
Snake plants can go down hard and fast, and it's almost always overwatering that is the culprit.
Water
These are one of the most drought tolerant plants you can have in your house. In the winter months when they aren't actively growing, they probably only need to be watered once a month max. Even when the weather is warmer, they really do not require that much water. As I will always say, feel the soil with your fingers before you water. While most other house plants should dry out about 60-75% before being watered, you should let your snake plant dry out about 80-90% before you water it. You don't want to wait until the soil is cracking and dusty, but because of the way these plants photosynthesize, and how slowly they grow, they don't take up a lot of water at once, and therefore can deal with almost-totally-dry soil.
The key is to water fairly regularly but with only a tiny bit of water each time, so the soil is always a bit dry, and never saturated. Every other week with a splash of water should work just fine.
If you water your Sans too much all at once after a long drought period, the roots can take up more water than is being released through transpiration and it can cause the leaf cells the burst. This causes this super gross condition called edema where the leaf gets all mushy inside and smells horrible if it gets broken open, and because it is usually coupled with root rot, the plant usually falls over. It must be avoided at all costs, so just a splash at a time.
The root systems of Sans are shallow, so if you overwater, the soil at the bottom of the pot may never fully dry out. If you have standing water in your pot, you are very liable to get root rot. Root rot can take over a plant alarmingly quickly, and likely before you will notice it because it occurs under the soil surface and may not have visible symptoms until it's too late. Without their root system intact, the entire plant will fall over. If you give a light tug on the leaves, you can gauge if the are firmly rooted in their soil or not. In my experience it is nearly impossible to recover from a bad root rot infection without a massive amount of effort. You could de-pot the plant, strip all of the soil from the root system, disinfect, and repot with beneficial mycorrhizal fungi to help balance out the soil microbiome, and there are some helpful videos out there to help you through that process if you're really invested.
Light
Like most houseplants, this one prefers bright indirect light, but can tolerate more shade than most. I have seen this plant in the darkest corners of already dim restaurants and offices, and it can deal, it just won't really grow. When your snake plant is in an especially dark area, make sure that you are extra diligent about not overwatering, because low light = low photosynthesis = low water uptake + overwatering = rot. Did I lose you with the math? So sorry, let's get back to it. While I wouldn't suggest putting this plant in total darkness, it also doesn't want to be in harsh direct afternoon sun, as the leaves can get sunburn.
Also, check on your snake plant friends. Their leaves are dusty, they are not okay. Wipe em off.
Pruning
So because these plants have a rosette growth pattern and don't have above ground branching, pruning strategies are a bit different. If your issue is a bad looking leaf, and its localized to the tip, you can take a pair of scissors and reshape the tip, no problem. As long as your scissors are clean the plant will not have any adverse reaction to it, except there will be a light brown edge where it heals over. If the leaf is really bad, just cut the entire leaf out as close to the soil as you can without cutting other leaves. If some of your plant is getting too tall or too dense, selectively cut out the tallest leaves, or leaves that are too crowded. Always take a step back and look at the specific leaf you're taking out, as one missing leaf can cause a drastic visual change right away. If the leaf you're taking out happens to be the newest leaf, aka the one at the center of that clump, aka the growing point, then that stem will either send out another new leaf in its place, or it will change the direction of the flow of hormones and encourage growth at a new clump. Either way, you'll be in good shape.
Propagation
Snake plants can be propagated really easily by division, where you separate a pup from the mother plant once it has grown a bit of its own root system. You can also propagate these from leaf cuttings if you have a bit of patience! You can root leaf cuttings in soil or water, and then plant them from there, but beware, most variegation won't make it to the new plant through leaf cuttings, so division might be your best bet.
Be on the lookout for an entire post dedicated to propagation of snake plants! I haven't done it since my first year of college so I am looking forward to experimenting a little bit and showing ya'll how it goes.
I'll close this post out by saying what I will probably say at the end of all of these, which is to just keep trying new stuff with your plants! If you're noticing that your plants aren't looking as good as you've seen on the internet, experiment! Change the lighting, water slightly more, water slightly less (don't be goin crazy) add in some humidity, try hanging it from the ceiling, move it to a new room (granted your apartment has more than one room), repot it, cut it apart, who cares! Most of the fun of having plants is figuring out what they want and watching them suddenly thrive. Have fun with it! <3
Could this blog be any cooler!? Look at that art!!