Any tricks to get my snake plant (AKA mother in laws tongue) to bloom?
Answer
The Dracaena species known as snake plants or mother-in-law's tongue were until recently considered a separate genus, Sansevieria, but have been reclassified following molecular examination.
Mother-in-law tongue, or snake plant, is a popular houseplant, easy to grow, although slow. There are numerous species that fall into two main catagories: tall-growing plants with stiff, erect, lance-shaped leaves; and dwarf-growing rosette forms. Flowers, which appear only erratically, are whitish or yellowish, narrow-petaled, in clusters on a erect spike and often fragrant.
Getting snake plant to flower can be tricky. First, the plant needs to receive generous sunlight, to which you should adapt it gradually. It is hard to provide enough sunlight in the home and your plant may need a move outdoors in the summer. Then, the plant needs to be so pot bound that there is literally no space for new shoots to emerge out of the soil (this may happen naturally in the center of a congested plant which isn't fully pot bound yet). You also need to nick the top off some of the leaves which prevent them growing upwards. With absolutely no where left to grow you might get the plant trying to propagate itself by seed, i.e. through the elusive flowers. Note that the nicked leaves will not resume growth.
For more help caring for this plant, you can refer to our Snake Plant Care Guide.
Courtesy of NYBG Plant Information Service
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