Latest news with #Sansevieria
The Citizen
11-07-2025
- Lifestyle
- The Citizen
Create a cosy winter hideaway with indoor plants
Winter can be a cold, dull season, with very little sign of life outdoors and homes that feel equally chilly. Just adding colour, especially colourful winter throws and cosy knee blankets are warm on the eye while indoor plants and flowers bring a room to life. Another bonus of indoor plants is that they keep the air fresh and improve humidity when windows and doors are kept closed. Make the most of sunny rooms and windowsills, by adding flowering plants and succulents that enjoy the milder winter sun. Zantedeschia, chrysanthemums, anthuriums, kalanchoe and calandiva, as well as Gymnocalycium cactus will provide long lasting winter colour. While cyclamen like a cooler spot they will also thrive in sunny room as long as they are not in direct sun. Indoor flowering plants should have consistently moist but not soggy soil. Cut off dead flowers to encourage new flowers. Calla lilies (Zantedeschia) add indoor warmth with their vivid colours. Plants grown indoors can bloom for up to six weeks. Feed with a liquid fertiliser once a month and remove spent blooms to encourage new blooms. True to their tropical nature, these mini lilies flower best in a warm, bright room and can take some morning sun. Bold and big Big leaved feature plants like Monstera deliciosa, Alocasia, Ficus robusta and Ficus lyrata always make a statement and effortlessly add that missing element to a well-furnished living room. These are all tropical plants that need a warm room and medium light. Water when the potting soil feels moderately dry. Alocasia 'Red Secret' has large leaves with an intriguing texture and colour. The upper side of the heart-shaped leaf has a metallic, bronze glow, but its 'secret' is the burgundy red under leaf. It is easier to grow than it looks and its strong point is that it adapts to different light conditions, growing faster with bright light and slower with low light. Bathroom forest Plants that love humidity are perfect for steamy bathrooms and showers. Why not try the jungle look to transform your bathroom. Indulge in a long, hot soak and imagine yourself in some tropical paradise. Think ferns like Bird's nest fern (Asplenium) or Maidenhair fern (Adiantum) as well as leafy plants like Spathiphyllum (peace lily), Ficus Lyrata, Delicious monster and even Strelitzia. For a trailing effect try string of turtles (Peperomia prostrata). All these plants like medium light and can tolerate low light. Sweet dreams Plants that release oxygen at night and remove toxins from the air are especially good for bedrooms and one of these is Sansevieria, also known as mother-in-law tongue. Basically, the stomata on Sansevieria leaves stay closed during the day to prevent evaporation and loss of water, and only open at night releasing all the stored oxygen. It will survive almost anywhere. It will take low light, cool temperatures, and dry soil very well. Cascading beauties Trailing plants don't necessarily have to trail although that is part of their charm. They can be trimmed to fill a hanging basket or to reduce their spread to fit into a smaller space. They are great for adding greenery in corners, higher up on bookshelves or spilling over the edge of a container or coffee table. Most trailing plants need warmth and medium to bright indirect neglect watering as it is easy to forget to water less accessible plants. However, most don't like to be over watered. For a luxuriant effect there is Golden Pothos (Scindapsus Aureus) or the heart leaf plant (Philodendron scandens). Peperomia Angulata is a trailing peperomia with light greens stripes on its bright green oval leaves and Peperomia prostrata, also known as 'String of Turtles' is a really quaint trailing plant that is idea for baskets. For more details: For more on gardening, visit Get It Magazine.
The Citizen
27-06-2025
- General
- The Citizen
Warm up the kitchen with indoor plants
Plants bring life and colour into the kitchen, just as they do in any other room. Plants also create a companionable ambiance and there are many plants that improve air quality as well. Bright and light kitchens are good for plants too. They are warm and humid which suits most indoor plants that originate from tropical forests. Best indoor plants for kitchens Because kitchens are workspaces, compact, slow growing plants that don't take up much space are the most suitable. These include peperomia, peace lily, flowering pot plants like kalanchoe, African violets, chrysanthemums, and anthurium, succulents such as Haworthia, echeveria, and cacti and trailing plants like Philodendron scandens and Golden Pothos (Scindapsus aureus.) Maiden hair fern and Bird's nest fern (Asplenium) as well as Sansevieria and even bamboo palms (Areca) enjoy the warmth and humidity of a kitchen. Care for kitchen plants Keep an eye on plants for fat splatters which attract dust to the leaves. Once a layer of dust settles it smothers the air pores and leaves aren't able to photosynthesise. Make it a regular weekly task to wipe the leaves with a moist piece of cotton wool or cloth. African violets are particularly susceptible to dust on their leaves. Clean by wiping gently with a damp cloth or microfibre cloth or brush the leaves with a soft toothbrush brush. Plants that like warmth and humidity should be closer to the stove and can trail from the top of the fridge. Air purifying plants Quite a number of indoor plants have air purifying qualities and are compact enough for a kitchen where space is an issue. Mother-in-laws tongue (Sansevieria) absorbs carbon and increases the levels of oxygen. Sansevieria grows in medium to bright light and should dry out moderately before watering.. Peace lily (Spathiphyllum) filters unpleasant odours tolerates low light and needs minimal water. Bird's nest fern (Asplenium antiquum) absorbs carbon and increases oxygen levels. Plants like a warm room and moist soil. Misting the leaves improves humidity. Calathea purifies the air, likes warm rooms and low to medium light. Keep soil slightly moist. Flowering plants for countertops and windowsills Kalanchoe and calandiva are succulents that need very little care, good light and moist but not wet soil. They are indoor stalwarts with long lasting flowers Cut off the dead flower spikes, feed with a liquid fertiliser, and they will come into flower again. Also try: Succulents such as echeveria, cactus and Haworthia (Zebra plant) that are ideal for sunny kitchens. They will thrive on a windowsill, and need very little water, yet always look decorative. Anthuriums, especially the mini's, are long-lasting plants that survive neglect. They like bright indirect light. Wipe the leaves to remove dust. Pot Begonias are rewarding indoor plants with their bold, beautiful blooms. Keep in a warm room, with bright indirect light and don't over water. Chrysanthemums like bright light and moist soil. Can be planted into the garden in summer. African violets like bright indirect light and humidity and should only be watered with the soil is slightly dry to the touch. Trailing plants for hanging baskets Golden Pothos (Scindapsus aureus) has variegated yellow and green leaves. Keep plants compact with regular trimming. It tolerates low light, and the soil can dry out before watering again. Philodendron scandens, also known as the sweetheart plant for its heart-shaped leaves is a vigorous grower, easily trained as an indoor climber or for trailing down from shelves. For more information visit: Article and images supplied by Alice Coetzee. For more on gardening, visit Get It Magazine.
New York Times
12-02-2025
- General
- New York Times
You've Seen One Snake Plant, You Haven't Seen Them All
The genus Sansevieria had never really spoken to the botanist Chad Husby, until it did — loudly. But not in the way it usually ingratiates itself to potential adopters, who hear that the most familiar one of all, the snake plant (Sansevieria trifasciata), with its vertical, swordlike succulent foliage, is indestructible, maybe the lowest-care of low-care houseplants. Dr. Husby, chief explorer for Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Coral Gables, Fla., heard Sansevieria's call in 2019, during an International Palm Society meeting in the San Diego area. At a tour of a member's garden, another attendee commented on a handsome, silvery Sansevieria growing there. The host gifted the man and Dr. Husby each a cutting of the rare plant, which looked nothing like the image of the genus he held in his mind. The horticulture industry's emphasis on the generic snake plant, he said, 'leads people to totally misjudge the genus — which happened to me for most of my life as well.' But no more. That silvery specimen catalyzed in him the same curiosity and craving that it has in recent years in keen houseplant collectors, sending them scouring specialty catalogs and Etsy listings for species and cultivars that are anything but generic looking. Even within the species S. trifasciata there is variation. Beyond the upright, linear-leaved types, others of medium stature display wider foliage; the smallest form ground-hugging rosettes. Elsewhere in the genus, these sculptural plants range from distinctly vertical, achieving shrublike stature, to low, nest-like mounds of foliage. Leaves may be flat or wavy or even cylindrical and shaped like tusks, arranged in a configuration like a fan, or maybe a pineapple top or the most emphatic of cockatoo's crests. Some are near-alabaster or silvery, others the darkest of greens, and there are variegated choices, striped or mottled in gold or white or silver. A few, like S. hallii Pink Bat, are even tinged with pink. It wasn't long after that San Diego event that Dr. Husby began visiting other collectors and acquiring plants, focusing on unusual types. Then in 2021, things got serious. He and a colleague flew west and filled a rental truck with specimens from the botanical gardens at the Huntington near Pasadena, and from two stops in Tucson: the personal collection of Alan Myklebust, an officer of the International Sansevieria Society, and Arid Lands Greenhouses nursery. They drove their haul back to Fairchild. The 83-acre botanic garden and scientific research institution, which specializes in the conservation of rare tropical plants, had a mere handful of Sansevieria before that. Now, not in pots as houseplants but growing in the ground on prominent public display, there are more than 200 accessions representing 46 species. Roots in Africa South Florida is the one place in the continental United States that virtually all of these roughly Zone 10-hardy plants are happy outdoors year-round, Dr. Husby said, though certain species are adapted to conditions in the Los Angeles basin and parts of Arizona. But most of us know them as houseplants, and according to a 1982 University of Florida research paper, Sansevieria has been grown in commercial nurseries in the state to supply the houseplant trade since at least the 1920s. Unlike other plant groups he'd worked with, where a collection grew after a series of plant-hunting expeditions in the wild, this was different for Dr. Husby. He didn't go botanizing in Sansevieria's native range, which 'is really concentrated in East Africa,' he said. 'Basically from Somalia down through Mozambique is really the main concentration of diversity.' Some species occur in western Africa, including S. trifasciata, or in southern Africa (S. hallii); a few outliers hail from the Arabian Peninsula and even into Myanmar. He didn't have to look that far. 'To see that the Sansevieria world already had all this incredible diversity in the hobbyist world was really exciting,' Dr. Husby said. A lot just bore a variety name, or a number; what species they fit into hadn't been sorted out. On the topic of taxonomy, most Sansevieria have been moved lately into the genus Dracaena, based on recent DNA analysis, with the Sansevieria name now considered an older synonym. Whichever name you adhere to, these are succulent members of the Asparagus family (Asparagaceae), which might make sense if you saw the white flowers around January that are more common on outdoor plants than houseplants, followed by orange seed-filled berries. Dr. Husby and the International Sansevieria Society he is a board member of are of one mind. 'Because it is such a distinctive group for horticulture,' he said, 'I think I prefer to stick with the old name. It does denote some special characteristics that are really relevant to us as horticulturists.' One example: Sansevierias can be propagated from leaf cuttings — like that silvery piece he carried home in his suitcase from San Diego. 'As far as I can tell,' he said, 'that is unique to Sansevierias and not the other Dracaenas, which don't seem to allow that.' A cross-section cut from a leaf will root and send up new growth in time, as long as its polarity is observed — as in right side up. The end of each piece that was originally closer to the root is what gets stuck into the growing medium. Before it does, let the cuttings sit out for a day or two, so the cut edges callus. Sansevierias also have another difference: They grow from rhizomes, 'these creeping underground stems,' Dr. Husby said. 'I don't know of any Dracaena that does that.' The enthusiastic rhizomes allow an even easier method of propagation — simple division. For variegated types, that's actually the preferred way, since rooted cuttings often send up new shoots that are just plain green. Care and Feeding What most people know about the classic snake plant is that reputation for withstanding neglect. (Why Aspidistra, and not Sansevieria, laid claim to the common name cast iron plant is puzzling.) 'It is a little hard to write about the cultural requirements of Sansevierias since they hardly have any,' Hermine Stover wrote in 1983 in 'The Sansevieria Book,' reinforcing the neglect-proof stereotype. There are better reasons to adopt one — and better care regimens than treating it like a nonliving item of décor. It will live through being relegated to a dark corner and watered infrequently, but mere survival is not a sign it is thriving; it's just dying more slowly than most foliage houseplants would in the same abusive conditions. One other note: If your S. trifasciata got extra-tall, that may not be a victory, either, but simply that it has stretched upward, or etiolated, searching for more light. 'They do appreciate as much light as you can give them, especially filtered light,' Dr. Husby said, which will prompt these generally slow growers to accelerate. He recommends providing a well-draining soil, to which he adds slow-release fertilizer. Moderate watering may suffice in cooler, lower-light months; they dislike the combination of cool and wet. But in warm, bright conditions — such as when potted plants summer outdoors — Sansevieria want frequent watering. Eighty-nine species were cited in the 2022 reference 'The Genus Sansevieria: A Pictorial Guide to the Species' by Robert H. Webb, owner of Arid Lands, and Leonard E. Newton. 'I think we're probably nearing 100 species by now,' said Dr. Husby. The list of cultivars is even longer. Maybe Dr. Husby's favorite cultivar is Chanin, a hybrid from a Thai breeder with distinctive 'short leaves that form an elegant spiral, rigidly arranged,' he said. The wavy foliage of another Thai hybrid, Dancing Dragon, also warrants attention. 'These are ones, if you grow them in lower light, they get greener,' he said. 'But if you put them out in full sun, they get that full almost alabaster color.' Another showy Thai hybrid to be on the lookout for is Iceman, with random narrow green lines contrasting against its thick, silvery leaves. Various species have cylindrical foliage, including S. cylindrica, home to the popular cultivar Boncel, sometimes called the starfish Sansevieria. Sansevieria stuckyi, the elephant tusk Sansevieria, with its very vertical foliage, is another exceptional cylindrical choice, Dr. Husby said; its leaves can get six feet tall or more, and a couple of inches thick. S. powellii can achieve similar height, its foliage arranged in fan-like fashion around a prominent vertical stem. Different cultivars of S. masoniana, the well-named whale-fin Sansevieria for the ample shape of each leaf, may be marked with exceptional yellow striping, or thick vertical bands of white, or mottled in silvery patterns. So which will it be? Will your own collection focus on extremes of leaf color, perhaps, or a diversity of shapes, or variations of cylindrical foliage? You've seen one Sansevieria, you haven't seen them all.
