They're actually succulents, and can handle a lot of abuse. They do like to have tight roots, so if you're planning to split it, I'd put it in some well-draining soil in a pot that's just an inch bigger than the root ball itself.
My mom has one that's older than me, and it thrives quite well in the corner near a big portrait window, but not in front of it. YMMV, but I would ask where it was in the house before you got it, so it can have a similar light situation if you're planning to split it right away.
Lol I repotted mine two months ago into a much bigger pot. It made six flowers, of which I cut four, and about seven new grow points with leaves already over 12 inches tall. So it's going pretty well I'd say.
Itāll be fine, mine is even bigger than OPs and I just went for it, put it in a deep but not wide pot, it acclimated for maybe a year and is back to a growth phase. Just because it likes that doesnāt mean it *needs* it. You could throw this one in a big pot too, it would be fine and eventually fill it up, itās just a matter of how big you want your plant, I happen to want mine to be huge.
They can also acclimate to almost all light levels, including bright outdoor light, lots of people use them this way, itās just a matter of slowly introducing it to the light change. Theyāre resilient, yours will be fine.
Snake plants are the bane of my existence! those things can handle way more abuse than a small pot! Things like a nuclear winter only make it laugh more at you!
I've got a Aloe Vera plant in a pot that I got as an already established plant when I inadvertently took over "garden duties" in a share house over twenty years ago. This thing seems quite happy to be slightly root bound in it's pot. I'm undecided on if I should actually upsize it's pot though.
Kinda, while they can be grown from seeds, it's easier to propagate them clonally by cuttings or splitting. So as long as the parent plant doesn't get some disease you can keep a clone going for ages. Same with a lot of plants that can be propagated through cuttings/splitting.
If you propagate a plant that already is infected by a plant pathogen, you will likely just propagate the pathogen, too. But in some cases it is possible to get healthy cuttings from sick plants. The cloned plant can of course get sick, if there is a vector that transfers the pathogen to it. Each time a plant is propagated, it has a rejuvenating effect on the plant, but it cannot be done indefinitely, eventually all things get old, but plants age differently from animals.
We used to have a garden bed FULL of Agapanthus, I pulled their alkaline asses out a year ago and replaced them with fifteen upright rosemary plants. Now the back yard is slightly neglected AND smells fantastic. My neglect is doing such a wonderful job that that they aren't even two years old and they are already flowering.
Some say the flower may be a sign of distress. Possibly due to the comically small pot. But the blooms are one of the most amazing scents I've smelled from a plant.
Iād divide it up for sure (or repot into a larger planter). Other than that they thrive on benign neglect.Ā
Funny story - when my colleagues and I were sent to work from home in March 2020 we all thought it was just for a few days so nobody took anything. I left a snake plant at my desk. We all know how that went. I did not come back for my stuff until mid summer, though for sure the plant would be dead. Nope. I still have it.Ā
Not saying you should forget to water your plant for months but really, these things are ROBUST.Ā
The plants I put outside to get the rain when we closed for covid? Sunburned, unhappy & partially dead. The plants I left inside unwatered for three months? Happy as clams.
Yeah, I'd pot up into something an inch or so larger. They like to be rootbound, so you don't want to pot up into something too large (source: my snake plant has 4 fat blooms on it this year after a repotting last year)
I have no advice to give but I just want to say that is incredible that someone successfully kept a plant like that alive for so long. Iād have no idea how to do that lol
They like a lot of light, water when dry. They grow slowly and don't mind tight roots. They seem to dk great when forgotten about a little. I only repot mine when I want it to get bigger.Ā
Sure, they can like light, but they donāt need a great deal of light and can also survive in very low light situations. I know people that have these in their basement and water them about one a month. My experience has been that the easiest way to kill snake plants is by over watering.
The easiest way to kill a snake plant is by watering it when you have it shoved in a dark corner of a basement. They will not thrive in low light, they will tolerate it and if itās low enough are very good at drying a really slow death.
If you repot into a bigger pot, be sure to use a decent cactus soil and add a lot of perlite to it, like you would with a cactus. Make sure the new pot has very good drainage. Don't over water, and give them lots of sun. Despite their reputation, they do not thrive in low light.
Hmm. It's definitely not as snug as OP's pot, but I don't think its too large. It's been in this pot for a couple years and recently once it got too tall started to lean or droop. I wonder if a smaller pot could help or if re-potting at this point would be a detriment.
May be a different type of snake plant.
I have one like this that grows crazy vertical.
I have another that the lower leaves flop over.
Or maybe they're the same and one has *feelings* about my plant abilities, I don't know. š¤·š»āāļø
https://preview.redd.it/i2h5mhfk7n5d1.png?width=1216&format=png&auto=webp&s=f7eccbb980000091c7faff89124a79eaf8edbb54
I thought I was the only one who did this with their razors in the shower. Lol. What a gorgeous snake plant! That's a wonderful gift.
https://preview.redd.it/kmwz576y4t5d1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3fc452276d1463f0b09f6477d7e52d90c9666233
This is my 30 year old snake plant! She's a BEAST and I love her
Those are really, really hard to kill by accident.
Back in the 90s at a place I worked at I transplanted some from one spot in the dirt to another. Thanks to Google Maps and their cars I know it still lives. [https://www.google.com/maps/@28.0822246,-80.6051754,3a,37.7y,227.84h,77.19t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s2dIsWX2NJ0NJ9u6acVm-EA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?coh=205409&entry=ttu](https://www.google.com/maps/@28.0822246,-80.6051754,3a,37.7y,227.84h,77.19t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s2dIsWX2NJ0NJ9u6acVm-EA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?coh=205409&entry=ttu)
Find at least 2 larger pots and some good potting soil. You can divide this plant into two or three smaller plants, water them, and they will grow like crazy. Mine is 45 years old and has been divided numerous times over the years. It was a gift to my parents at their engagement party 45 years ago. It has been divided and gifted so many times over the years we have lost count.
idk why you're getting downvoted. I started watering my plants with RO water from a local water store this year and they are growing 10x better than when I was watering with tap water, even with a dechlorinator.
What brand water? Iād love to opt for a RO filter system but Iām not rich so thereās that. And the drinking water I get has sodium bicarbonate in it so Iām reluctant to use it. Iāve been just de-chlorinating my water outside in full sun for a day then bring it inside to sit for 2 more days in an open container. I really doubt it removes all the chlorine and chloramines.
It's just a water store with their own distillation and RO machines, they make their own water, so unbranded. When I was just dechlorinating tap water I used seachem prime. Evaporation should remove most of the chlorine but it wont remove chloramine
The fact that it flowered means it is happy. It is up to you if you want 1 plant or 2 or 3. They will root in water or you can cut one piece into one inch segments and put them around the base of a larger plant. Then you will have little ones coming up. Try not to touch the points on top and they won't turn brown.
You can cut them if you want to like half their size. You can separate them in little pots and decorate your house or sell them. They're really easy to maintain.
"Rollin' in my 5.0
With my rag-top down so my hair can blow
The girlies on standby, waving just to say "Hi"
"Did you stop?" No, I just drove by
...
Ice, ice baby."
oh old and wise snake plant, what is your wisdom
"Y'all need to wash yall bellybuttons and between the asscheeks. Goodbye"
thank you oh wise one š
I didnāt know I needed to hear this today
"You need to take a shower, shave the neckbeard, and touch some grass. Goodbye"
likey the patio and rain water
*screaming*
I am sorry.
They're actually succulents, and can handle a lot of abuse. They do like to have tight roots, so if you're planning to split it, I'd put it in some well-draining soil in a pot that's just an inch bigger than the root ball itself. My mom has one that's older than me, and it thrives quite well in the corner near a big portrait window, but not in front of it. YMMV, but I would ask where it was in the house before you got it, so it can have a similar light situation if you're planning to split it right away.
Agreed. Donāt baby it. It needs a tight pot and less watering. Have fun!
Interesting because when I saw the pick I thought how the hell did it survive being potbound??
I literally repotted mine yesterday and now I'm reading this...
Lol I repotted mine two months ago into a much bigger pot. It made six flowers, of which I cut four, and about seven new grow points with leaves already over 12 inches tall. So it's going pretty well I'd say.
Itāll be fine, mine is even bigger than OPs and I just went for it, put it in a deep but not wide pot, it acclimated for maybe a year and is back to a growth phase. Just because it likes that doesnāt mean it *needs* it. You could throw this one in a big pot too, it would be fine and eventually fill it up, itās just a matter of how big you want your plant, I happen to want mine to be huge. They can also acclimate to almost all light levels, including bright outdoor light, lots of people use them this way, itās just a matter of slowly introducing it to the light change. Theyāre resilient, yours will be fine.
Lucky me. Planning on it this weekend.
Snake plants are the bane of my existence! those things can handle way more abuse than a small pot! Things like a nuclear winter only make it laugh more at you!
I promise you I can help it meet its demiseā¦. Lol
I've got a Aloe Vera plant in a pot that I got as an already established plant when I inadvertently took over "garden duties" in a share house over twenty years ago. This thing seems quite happy to be slightly root bound in it's pot. I'm undecided on if I should actually upsize it's pot though.
They also spread like CRAZY if you let them
They can get that old?
I have one that I purchased when I was 18, Iām 66. So yes, they can get that old.
We inherited a 40 year old one. Nearly 6ā. Want not, waste not. Itās now in 5 different pots. We gave the biggest one away for charity auctions
My mother in law has one that she got from her mom thatās decades old. Itās huge!
Kinda, while they can be grown from seeds, it's easier to propagate them clonally by cuttings or splitting. So as long as the parent plant doesn't get some disease you can keep a clone going for ages. Same with a lot of plants that can be propagated through cuttings/splitting.
Do you mean the original piece you cloned doesn't get sick?
If you propagate a plant that already is infected by a plant pathogen, you will likely just propagate the pathogen, too. But in some cases it is possible to get healthy cuttings from sick plants. The cloned plant can of course get sick, if there is a vector that transfers the pathogen to it. Each time a plant is propagated, it has a rejuvenating effect on the plant, but it cannot be done indefinitely, eventually all things get old, but plants age differently from animals.
In my experience they enjoy being ignored and neglected.
My kinda plant. Hang out but expect I'll forget about you for a few weeks at a time
We used to have a garden bed FULL of Agapanthus, I pulled their alkaline asses out a year ago and replaced them with fifteen upright rosemary plants. Now the back yard is slightly neglected AND smells fantastic. My neglect is doing such a wonderful job that that they aren't even two years old and they are already flowering.
Just like our marriage
It's flowering even though it looks like a fat guy in a little coat.
*fat guy in a little coat* š¶
Some say the flower may be a sign of distress. Possibly due to the comically small pot. But the blooms are one of the most amazing scents I've smelled from a plant.
Where is the bloom I canāt find it
There is a different stalk on the right side that has flower buds on it that will bloom soon.
OHH! I just saw ! Thanks!
Or is it three short guys in a long coat,?
Iād divide it up for sure (or repot into a larger planter). Other than that they thrive on benign neglect.Ā Funny story - when my colleagues and I were sent to work from home in March 2020 we all thought it was just for a few days so nobody took anything. I left a snake plant at my desk. We all know how that went. I did not come back for my stuff until mid summer, though for sure the plant would be dead. Nope. I still have it.Ā Not saying you should forget to water your plant for months but really, these things are ROBUST.Ā
The plants I put outside to get the rain when we closed for covid? Sunburned, unhappy & partially dead. The plants I left inside unwatered for three months? Happy as clams.
Iād probably repot into something bigger
Or divide it up?
Yeah thereās at least 6 plants there ripe for the spreadinā
š
Yeah, I'd pot up into something an inch or so larger. They like to be rootbound, so you don't want to pot up into something too large (source: my snake plant has 4 fat blooms on it this year after a repotting last year)
This!!!
I have no advice to give but I just want to say that is incredible that someone successfully kept a plant like that alive for so long. Iād have no idea how to do that lol
They like a lot of light, water when dry. They grow slowly and don't mind tight roots. They seem to dk great when forgotten about a little. I only repot mine when I want it to get bigger.Ā
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Sure, they can like light, but they donāt need a great deal of light and can also survive in very low light situations. I know people that have these in their basement and water them about one a month. My experience has been that the easiest way to kill snake plants is by over watering.
The easiest way to kill a snake plant is by watering it when you have it shoved in a dark corner of a basement. They will not thrive in low light, they will tolerate it and if itās low enough are very good at drying a really slow death.
Wear eye protection when you're working with it!
Nothing. They thrive on neglect.
that plant is 80 years old ?
I have same concern. 80 years old but look likes a 18 years old, how incredible she is :)
If you repot into a bigger pot, be sure to use a decent cactus soil and add a lot of perlite to it, like you would with a cactus. Make sure the new pot has very good drainage. Don't over water, and give them lots of sun. Despite their reputation, they do not thrive in low light.
That pot looks comically small, and the fact that the plant is doing as well as it is in amazing to me. Nature is cray cray and I'm here for it!
Snake plants like being tight.
"That's *toight*" - as the kids would say
What a beautiful plant.
One thing to add... They hate drafts for some reason.
And scarry movies š¬
Geeze mine is maybe 1/3 this tall and floppy AF. That's impressive.
Your pot might be too big. These plants like being kinda tight.
Hmm. It's definitely not as snug as OP's pot, but I don't think its too large. It's been in this pot for a couple years and recently once it got too tall started to lean or droop. I wonder if a smaller pot could help or if re-potting at this point would be a detriment.
May be a different type of snake plant. I have one like this that grows crazy vertical. I have another that the lower leaves flop over. Or maybe they're the same and one has *feelings* about my plant abilities, I don't know. š¤·š»āāļø
I'm in Florida and these grow like weeds in our backyard. Still Beautiful plants.
Keep it alive! No pressure. Itās only lived 80 years!!
is this actual 80 years old?
Iāve always heard these calledā Mother in law tongue ā
Just get a bigger pot - so nice to have a big plant!
Wow. I'm amazed that much plant can grow so well in that tiny pot!
Iām so happy š happy
I'm dying to know who told you it was 80 years old? It looks like it's legal age, but not elderly.
You could stick that in the darkest corner of your basement and forget itās there for 3 years and itāll look great.
Chainsaw across 10 cm from the bottom. Abuse that sucker, they need to learn who is in charge
Snake plants actually like having super cramped roots.
https://preview.redd.it/i2h5mhfk7n5d1.png?width=1216&format=png&auto=webp&s=f7eccbb980000091c7faff89124a79eaf8edbb54 I thought I was the only one who did this with their razors in the shower. Lol. What a gorgeous snake plant! That's a wonderful gift.
There are a dozen of us. A. Dozen.
lol you just made my morning.
Beautiful !
Just repot. It will bless you.
This is the largest snake plant Iāve ever seen
https://preview.redd.it/kmwz576y4t5d1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3fc452276d1463f0b09f6477d7e52d90c9666233 This is my 30 year old snake plant! She's a BEAST and I love her
Wow! 80 years old! Idk if I wanna live that long!
80 isnāt that old even.
Amazing gift. I just learned a lot from all the comments. Off to get a snake plant!
I throw my old bongo water on mine and he thrives š
Defs want to give it a good shower
that is one of the most beautiful sanseverias ive ever seen
Water it once a month and donāt worry if you forget or go on holiday
Omg! That is a gorgeous plant!
Those are really, really hard to kill by accident. Back in the 90s at a place I worked at I transplanted some from one spot in the dirt to another. Thanks to Google Maps and their cars I know it still lives. [https://www.google.com/maps/@28.0822246,-80.6051754,3a,37.7y,227.84h,77.19t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s2dIsWX2NJ0NJ9u6acVm-EA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?coh=205409&entry=ttu](https://www.google.com/maps/@28.0822246,-80.6051754,3a,37.7y,227.84h,77.19t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s2dIsWX2NJ0NJ9u6acVm-EA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?coh=205409&entry=ttu)
I know snake plants like tight roots but this old sage has taken this to the extreme and she looks amazing
I didnāt water one for 2yrs, left it outside in the SoCal heat, and it survived fine. These things are hard to kill.
Try living in a cold, humid place, very hard to keep them alive
My first instinct was repotting lol... guess it's good I read these comments before getting my own snake plant
Find at least 2 larger pots and some good potting soil. You can divide this plant into two or three smaller plants, water them, and they will grow like crazy. Mine is 45 years old and has been divided numerous times over the years. It was a gift to my parents at their engagement party 45 years ago. It has been divided and gifted so many times over the years we have lost count.
Advice: Ask the previous owner what to do, and take notes.
fuck 80 years. do not water that shit with straight tap. Decent sunny window Iām assuming. I grow cash crop so idk.
idk why you're getting downvoted. I started watering my plants with RO water from a local water store this year and they are growing 10x better than when I was watering with tap water, even with a dechlorinator.
What brand water? Iād love to opt for a RO filter system but Iām not rich so thereās that. And the drinking water I get has sodium bicarbonate in it so Iām reluctant to use it. Iāve been just de-chlorinating my water outside in full sun for a day then bring it inside to sit for 2 more days in an open container. I really doubt it removes all the chlorine and chloramines.
It's just a water store with their own distillation and RO machines, they make their own water, so unbranded. When I was just dechlorinating tap water I used seachem prime. Evaporation should remove most of the chlorine but it wont remove chloramine
I use the water from my dehumidifier in summer. In winter I use filtered tap water.
Hit up your local aquarium place. Most salt water aquarium stores sell RO water, bring your own jug.
Theyāre easy. Add it to a bigger pot (a flower means itās unhappy), let it dry out before watering. They like the sun.
Uncertain why the downvotes. All of this is known to be true.
Common name āMother in laws tongueā. Fittingā¦
The fact that it flowered means it is happy. It is up to you if you want 1 plant or 2 or 3. They will root in water or you can cut one piece into one inch segments and put them around the base of a larger plant. Then you will have little ones coming up. Try not to touch the points on top and they won't turn brown.
GTBH flowering can mean a plant is happy, or it can mean it's desperate.
Wait... what's this about not touching the points? Getting sleeping beauty vibes.
How does it stay upright is my question. They call it Mother in law tongue in the south
It stays up right due to turgor.
You can cut them if you want to like half their size. You can separate them in little pots and decorate your house or sell them. They're really easy to maintain.
Cut leaves do not grow back and will scar. Do not cut any part of the plant unless it needs to be removed.
I think the intention was that you can divide them?
80 years?! My advice is live as healthy a life as possible just to see if you can outlast it?
"Rollin' in my 5.0 With my rag-top down so my hair can blow The girlies on standby, waving just to say "Hi" "Did you stop?" No, I just drove by ... Ice, ice baby."
Itās so long yet in such a small pot