You may have had a sansevieria (snake plant) for some time and never once saw it bloom, and this may leave you wondering, do snake plants flower?
The answer is yes.
Yes, the snake plant, also referred to as mother-in-law’s tongue plant does indeed flower. However, Sansevieria, also known as Mother-in-Law’s Tongue or Snake Plant, only flower under certain stressful conditions and rarely flower while being grown indoors.
Snake Plant Basics
The snake plants are evergreen, hardy, and low-maintenance plants known for their sustainability and ability to survive in the harshest conditions, making them one of the more popular kinds of houseplants.
Snake plants boast impressive sword-like leaves that can grow up to 8 feet tall. Don’t worry, though, if your plant is small, as snake plants are notoriously slow growers, and it will take many years to reach their full potential.
How to Make Your Snake Plant Grow Faster
They don’t require a lot of water and can survive in low light conditions, but if you want your snake plant to grow big, it’s going to need lots of bright indirect sunlight. Adding a couple of hours of direct sunlight can boost its growth as well.
Making sure your Sansevieria gets enough water is also key to promoting faster snake plant growth. Although Snake Plants don’t require much water to survive, they need enough to prompt speedier development.
One of the problems with this is that because snake plants can store moisture in their leaves, they don’t usually show signs of distress from underwatering for several weeks or even months of being under-watered.
Be sure to check your snake plant for signs of underwatering distress at least once per week. Signs of underwatering a snake plant are curling leaves, brown leaf tips, and of course, a lack of new growth.
The best way to ensure your snake plant is getting enough water to promote faster growth is to check the soil every 4-7 days. If the soil is completely dry on the top 1-2 inches, it’s time to water.
But, be careful with the watering because overwatering your snake plant can also slow its growth.
Overwatering can cause root rot. And all plants need good, healthy roots to grow to their full potential.
Another factor that might be slowing your snake plant’s growth is that the roots may not have room to expand. Take your snake plant out of its container, and if the roots are growing around themselves, replant the snake plant in a slightly larger pot.
So, now you know how to make your snake plant grow faster, but that won’t necessarily make your snake plant produce flowers.
Why Snake Plants Flower
Snake Plants blossom to propagate themselves during times of distress.
The plants bloom when they are neglected, exposed to bright light levels, and without water. When the snake plants are mildly neglected, they spread fast and bloom.
Neglecting the plants gives them a message that they will die due to a lack of water. The interpretation of this message makes the plants flower, spread, and grow roots.
If you notice your Snake plant is not blooming, it could be due to lack of enough light, or you have been overwatering the plant. Snake plants do not flower when indoors or if they are overwatered.
The snake plant’s stalks do not die after blooming. Instead, the flowers transit into orange berries for propagation.
How Often Do Snake Plants Bloom?
Snake plants do not flower often, and it’s rare to see the plants flower. Usually, Snake plants bloom only once annually and only during springtime. It’s difficult to predict when the plants will bloom since no specific conditions make them bloom.
When the plants bloom, the flowers are tiny, white, or cream, and they bloom in clusters along with the stalks of the plant. The flower stalks become covered in small white or cream flowers.
The flowers grow along with the plant’s stalks up to 3 feet high. The flowers open at night and close during the daytime.
Although the plants bloom for up to 8 weeks, it’s difficult to tell how long the blossoms will last. Snake Plants can blossom every year, considering they survive the underwatering condition that prompts them to bloom.
When they bloom, the snake plant flowers produce a pleasant fragrance at night. The plant’s flower fragrance varies depending on the different snake plant species. The flowers produce sweet and sticky nectar, which seems like dewdrops on the flowers’ stems.
What To Do About Flowering Snake Plants
Usually, plants, including Snake plants, flourish when watered, fed with fertilizer solution, and exposed to light. But snake plants are hardy and require little attention, especially when you want them to bloom.
If your snake plant is flowering, you’ve probably been intentionally or unintentionally neglecting it. If you want your snake plant to continue blooming, keep it in bright sunlight and don’t provide too much water.
If the signs of distress like curling leaves and browning tips get too severe, you might want to improve the current conditions of your snake plant to save it. But, unfortunately, this will cause the flowering to stop in most cases.
Since Snake plants grow in a vase indoors or on the window sill, you need to ensure the area around the pot is clean, especially when it’s flowering. Place a paper towel at the bottom of the pot to prevent mess as the sweet-smelling nectar trickles down the plant.
You don’t have to cut off the flowers immediately. Instead, you can wait until the flowers die, then prune the flower stalks. Pruning the flower stalks ensures the plants continue flourishing and do not die.
How To Get a Snake Plant to Flower
Snake plants can grow for decades without blooming. Although there are no known conditions to make snake plants flower, there are ways to increase the likelihood of the plants blooming.
The snake plants can fail to bloom even after many years, although in other cases, they can blossom within a few years.
Mainly, snake plants only flower when they are kept outdoors year-round and mildly neglected. Therefore, you should first move your snake plants to a well-lit outdoor area and stop watering them often if you want to get them to bloom.
Put them in mostly direct sunlight and allow the soil to go completely dry for up to two weeks between waterings. It is best to do this in mid-springtime instead of summertime when the sunlight will be too intense and cause scorching of the leaves.
After neglecting the snake plants for some time, the plants may likely begin to bloom.
If it doesn’t flower after several weeks in direct sunlight and is showing severe signs of distress, move it inside, or at least to a place with indirect sunlight, and begin an adequate watering regimen to revive your plant.
Since snake plants are very hardy, the chances are good that your plant will rejuvenate and continue to thrive once placed in optimal growth conditions.
How To Keep a Snake Plant from Flowering
Even though it’s difficult to coax a snake plant into flowering, there are some excellent reasons to want to inhibit your plant’s likelihood of blossoming.
The following the reasons people may not want the Snake plants to flower:
- The Snake plants flowers are beautiful but not suitable for flower arrangements. One can only enjoy the flowers’ beauty without cutting them, and it’s only limited to when they open.
- The flowers produce a fragrance that does not appeal to all people. Some people do not like the fragrance released when the flowers open.
- The sweet-smelling nectar produced can cause a mess. The nectar trickles down the plant and causes a mess unless you place paper towels around the flower pot.
- The best conditions for flowering a snake plant require you to put the plant in distress. This can be dangerous to the plant as it is possible that you might not be able to revive your plant and it could die if it suffers too much damage during the neglect period.
It’s difficult to determine and predict when the plants will flower or if they will at all.
Simply taking care of your indoor snake plant will, in most cases, make it very unlikely that your snake plant will flower. Make sure it gets plenty of indirect sunlight (or even less than optimal light), adequate watering, proper fertilization, and enough room to stretch its roots.
As stated above, most indoor snake plants can grow, thrive, and survive for decades without ever blooming.
Conclusion
Snake plants are very durable and can be used as both houseplants or for outdoor space decorations. They are beautiful, low maintenance, and a perfect choice for home or office decoration.
Although snake plant flowers are quite beautiful, they are fragile and don’t live long after being trimmed. While alive, these flowers ooze sticky nectar that can be quite pungent and unpleasant.
Unlike most houseplants, snake plants don’t necessarily flower while enjoying optimal growth conditions.
However, you may find it challenging to get your snake plant to bloom, as they only flower under specific stressful conditions.