plant – Page 2 – How to Care for Houseplants

If you have a difficult time with your houseplants, the Snake plant is the plant for you. This plant is great for a medium to high light situation and will do well with minimal attention.

The Sanseveria Laurentii is the most common variety of Snake Plant, with a broad, yellow edge on the thick, sword shaped leaves. The center of the leaf is cross-banded with pale markings. There are different varieties of Snake Plants with shorter, wider leaves, some with thin, long leaves and many with varied color combinations.

Snake Plant is great for cleaning the air, converting carbon dioxide to oxygen during the night and is often recommended as a houseplant for use in the bedroom.

Watering Your Snake Plant

Watering Snake Plant – Snake Plant has rhizomes that store water, so stay more to the dry side with this plant. In low to medium light, allow pot media to dry down 3/4 of the way or more. In higher lighting, allow to dry down 1/2 to 3/4 of the pot depth. You may need some type of soil probe or moisture meter in a really full plant to check for water needs.

When you do water your Snake Plant it is best that you do not pour the water in the leaf rosette as it may cause them to rot. Water the soil only and use room temperature water.

Other Snake Plant Care

Snake Plant is a durable plant and high light is best to keep the foliage full. It will survive in lower light provided it is allowed to dry but will become thin and leggy over time. Temperatures should be kept above 50°F.

Snake plant has upright growth and a shallow root system and is best kept somewhat pot bound. It has thick rhizomes that store water for a long time. While you may be able to keep a Snake Plant that is in high-light slightly moist, in low light the roots will rot and the leaves will turn mushy and smelly. Low light will also lead to a thin, weak plant. You should err on the side of less water with this house plant. In winter months, you can allow to dry completely.

Snake Plant can be found in different sizes and colors. Some are shorter, with a rosette type of growth such as the Sansevieria ‘Hahnii’. Sansevieria ‘Superba’ is somewhat larger but with wider leaves than the taller varieties. The Sansevieria ‘Laurentii’ is the most common coloration. Snake Plant can be found with pale silver-green foliage as with Sansevieria ‘Moonshine’. The ‘Black Gold’ has a dark leaf center, almost black, with a gold leaf edge. The Sansevieria ‘Zeylanica’ is more of a light silver-green with darker cross bands or mottling of the leaf.

With the different growth types and unusual and beautiful colors, the Snake Plant has something for everyone who enjoys indoor tropical plants. And they are easy care, too! Keep your Snake Plant pot bound, don’t over water and place them in adequate light and they should be relatively trouble free.

If your Snake Plant does become root bound you can remove it from the grow pot and divide the plant to make smaller individual plants. Make sure when you do divide your Snake Plant that you plant the smaller plants into pots that fit them. Remember, Snake Plant is better pot bound. You can often place a cut leaf into moist sand or rooting media and get it to root and start a new plant that way. Have fun with your Snake plant.

While Snake Plant is usually about 2 to 3 feet tall, I have seen them at a height of 5 feet or more. This was a Snake Plant potted in a 14″ diameter grow pot in a very good light situation. It is unusual to see them that size indoors but it is possible to grow them that large.

Houseplant Care Question?

If you have questions about your indoor plants, you can send an indoor house plant question.

Thanks for visiting and come back soon as indoor house plant care information, pictures and more are being added all of the time. I hope that your tropical indoor house plants and all of your plants and flowers are happy, green and growing because that is why I started this site PlantAndFlowerInfo.com.

Indoor House Plants Care

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Working in the interior landscape business for more than 30 years has gotten me lots of questions about how to care for indoor potted houseplants. Customers ask about their own plants at home. Why does my plant have yellow leaves… what causes brown leaf tips…how come the new growth on my plant is dying…I water my plant everyday but it still isn’t doing well…how much should I water my house plant?

It can be hard to diagnose every indoor plant problem when you do not have access to the plant itself. So, I generally find myself asking them questions about how they care for their plants. Most often, the problems are solved by changing watering habits or by moving the plant to a better light situation. Often doing both of those things makes a big difference.

In almost every instance, changing the way people look at watering and lighting for their indoor plants gives them positive results with their houseplants.

I care for indoor plants as my job and I know that there are not many plants that I care for that always use the same amount of water or need watering on a rigid schedule. Many different things influence a plants water use.

Customers turn off the lights, leave the lights on, turn off the air conditioning, turn up the heat, close the blinds, open the blinds, and sometimes move the plant to some undisclosed location! All of these things, and many other things, influence the way you need to water an indoor plant. But hopefully, most of these things won’t happen to the houseplants in your home.

There are many things to consider when you are watering your house plants. Read more about watering properly for good results with your indoor house plants…