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purpleinopp

Sansevieria (snake plant) with buds

This plant needs a drink about every day, and I move these every day to "kill" the mimosa trunk stuck in the fence, so I can't believe I just noticed this today.

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I have no idea what made it do this. The last time this bloomed it was 1999, I think, and this plant had spent the winter in a way-too-dark spot, as it did this past winter. A few weeks ago I gave it a little granulated fert on the soil surface, promised to repot it soon, and set the 2 pots of it in a fairly sunny spot. I did that because it blew off the porch while I was gone for a few days and didn't burn and I thought the shade from them might help me defeat the mimosa stump. They still don't look like they're burning, and here's a flower. I don't know which of these factors, or what possible combination contributed to this.

The dief sharing the pot used to be variegated and is now a boring plain green. I tried cutting it off to just get rid of it but it keeps growing back, so if it can survive in the mid-day sun, more power to it! I had originally put them together because I noticed both did better if I ignored them for about a month at a time.

Where they are now - over by the fence - at about 11 AM:

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Comments (18)

  • pirate_girl
    11 years ago

    Congrats to you, how very cool! Hope you've share pix when the blooms open. (I've rarely seen blooming Sans. in person, so I would be really excited to see this; good for you!)

  • plantomaniac08
    11 years ago

    Wow, thanks for sharing!

    Planto

  • Joe1980
    11 years ago

    Mine bloomed twice last year, once in summer, and once again in winter. Although cool, I found it to be a sticky mess, because when it's done blooming, the sticky pedals start falling off and stick to everything. I can't imagine having ants on it! Anywho, congrats, having a snake plant bloom is special.

    Joe

  • rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
    11 years ago

    The blooms are very fragrant, by the way. I have one on my kitchen window sill that blooms several months out of the year. Sticky? Totally! All that sweet nectar is what attracts the ants. (They don't come inside, though....the ants were on a plant that I had placed outside.)

  • albert_135   39.17°N 119.76°W 4695ft.
    11 years ago

    Take a tiny brush and pollinate each blossom shortly after it opens. You may get some seed which should germinate quickly. And then slowly, ever so slowly, you won't believe how slowly, grow into a new plant like the parent - the tiny young plant may not remind you of the parent plant. Persons at Sansevieria Forum - GardenWeb would be eager to share more about this curious behavior.

    Some sansevieria may open at the same time every day. If you watch carefully they may vibrate ever so slightly and then burst open releasing the fragrance mentioned above.

  • rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
    11 years ago

    Thanks for the suggestion, Albert. I won 't be trying to pollinate my Sans anytime...they are simply too easy to divide or take cuttings from. Maybe your comments will light that fire under someone, though. Propagation is fun no matter how you do it.

  • PRO
    Horticultural Help
    11 years ago

    Had you repotted before it flowered, it would not have flowered. Lke most flowering plants, your Sans needs to be quite potbound to bloom. It thrives on neglect as far as watering goes, but is more likely to flower in good sun. The fertilizer may have provided a little boost. If you want it to flower again in the next year, then you will have to break your repotting promise!

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Thanks for the comments. I will post another pic when the flowers open up.

    There are ants EVERYWHERE here, so I'm sure they've already started a lottery to see who gets to visit the flowers first.

    I wonder if it would be necessary to hand-pollinate since it's outside? Aren't those ants good for anything? LOL! Getting a few seeds would be way cool!

    mrmothernature, these plants are absolutely neglected, small sip of water about once a month while inside, grow so slowly they only get repotted every few years. I admit once they cracked the plastic pot open before I got around to doing it. I'm not a subscriber to the "does better when it's rootbound" thing for any plant, but this plant was given to me that way, repotted very infrequently, and has had no problems. I think I will give one the larger pot and "new dirt" I think they need and leave one alone. Until a few years ago it was all "one plant" so that should be a good experiment to compare the results.

  • rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
    11 years ago

    Purple, I had to laugh when you wrote, "they cracked the plastic pot open before I got around to doing it." On two separate occasions, my window sill plant, which has been divided and subdivided numerous times, has 'busted loose' from its 8 inch clay pot...crashing into the sink in the middle of the night on both occasions.

    I should divide this one before it happens again, lol.

  • PRO
    Horticultural Help
    11 years ago

    The last two posts are testaments to how well certain plants do even when utterly potbound. Extreme examples, but instructive, nonetheless.

    ~Will

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    An update... Last weekend I decided to repot the twin sans, the one in flower and the other one. I took each one out of the pot and used a shovel to remove the bottom 1/3 of the root mass, fluffed out as much of the old soil as I could, replaced with new dirt. One went back in the same pot, the one that isn't flowering got a bigger pot to accomodate all of the new shoots I found.

    5/16
    not missing a beat
    {{gwi:86990}}

    5/18
    {{gwi:86991}}

    {{gwi:86990}}

    5/19
    Flowers opening!
    {{gwi:86992}}

    The twin that isn't flowering:
    It had several new shoots that were headed down instead of up. I got them pointing in the right direction and they have turned green.
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    {{gwi:86994}}

    When I was repotting these, a couple of the new shoots got chopped off, so I put them in a pot and they are turning green. (Also stuck a broken piece of Callisia fragrans in there.)
    {{gwi:86995}}

  • teengardener1888
    11 years ago

    i didnt know snake plant bloomed i had one when i was four. it cut my cheek one day and i freaked out and broke it. i was only four so give me a break lol

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Ouch! And perfectly normal reaction for a little kid. Thanks for sharing - made me giggle!

    I don't know much about Sans plants in general, but have looked into them (and had this one long) enough to know that blooms are a pretty, fragrant, & rare treat, at least on this particular kind.

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    The flowers are finished.

    {{gwi:86996}}

    The pups are growing really fast.

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    {{gwi:86998}}

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    These plants have been very busy growing the past couple months.

    The pot that flowered is now in a 5-gallon bucket. It's put out about 8 babies this year.

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    The other pot is full of pups also:
    {{gwi:87000}}

    The 2 severed pups have grown a lot. I repotted them Sunday:

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    Now in a bigger pot with some leaves I removed repotting the 5-g bucket one.
    {{gwi:87003}}

  • tropicbreezent
    11 years ago

    My Sans are flowering now too, they always do during the coldest time of year. The fragrance just fills the whole yard. But the Dracaenas flower at about the same time so it makes quite a combination as the fragrance of both is fairly overwhelming.

  • bonful27
    8 years ago

    We got our sans about 20 years ago. It was very small and nearly dead, a coworker was preparing to trash it. As you can see from the pictures, it is now two HUGE plants and both are thriving and blooming f

    or the first time.