Eastern Conference Additions Sansevieria

People love to abuse Sansevierias. I can't tell you how many of these I find abandoned in the park every year. Its an embarrassing number. It seems to me that people just love to hate them. Sanseverias are such architectural plants that require little care and produce beautiful specimens with very little upkeep. In general, they are easy to propagate and come in so many beautiful varieties that the houseplant trade is only finally starting to recognize.

I get why people seem to dislike sansevierias, they're boring, you don't have to baby them, the flowers aren't too showy. But when you're gardening full time and living in tight quarters, the appeal of sanseverias take on an entire new playing field.

I guess my interest in them really started about a year and a half ago when my co-gardener gave me one of those Saneveria cylindricas that have been pretty popular in containers around the city. It wasn't in great shape and I can only boast one added leaf since I acquired it from him. Around the same time I checked out the Sansevieria trifasciata that I propagated in college and found that it had really started taking off and it had flowered.

I checked out some other varieties on Glasshouseworks, saw that there were so many awesome different forms. I saw some of Longwood garden's giant sansevierias in their silver garden. I read this excellent book (you should read it here for free). And next thing I knew, I had purchased 2 dwarf varieties at the Philly flower show and found myself looking for other varieties.

 

Hooked again.. drat.

At some point I had noticed Sansevieria pinguicula and I just couldn't believe it wasn't an agave. I love agaves and now I love sansevierias. It seemed like a match made in heaven. Sansevieria pinguicula is often referred to as the walking sansevieria since it does something unique among sansevieria, it produces stolons instead of rhizomes. The rooting habit gives the plant the illusion of growing on stilts.

 

This one is taking some baby steps.

Pinguicula means fat, referring to the plant's fleshy leaves. The leaves of pinguicula contain the deepest stomata of any Sansevieria and they are still exceedingly rare in the trade.