Hi Marcy. I've only had one of my plants bloom, and it is the big old S. trifaciata. The picture of the one standing next to the broom. It has bloomed multiple times, since being in that blue pot. They like to be pot bound before they bloom, in my experience. I had this plant over 15 years before getting all the 'right' conditions together for it to bloom. I think I used to repot these too much, and give them loads of room, seperating them into many pots of a few leaves, rather than lumping them together for awhile.

If you look at a photo of a bloom stalk you can see multiple buds going up the length of the 'spike'. Each of those buds open at different times, multiples of them opening each evening, each bud lasting one day, but the total bloom event lasting about seven days.

I have only had the one variety bloom personally, so cannot comment on the scent of others. I found my plain old one to have a wonderful fragrance. I didn't even know it was blooming until tracking down where the smell was coming from. Surprise!!!

I've found that all of mine that have flowered have a scent that is pleasant. The flowers initially seem to open in the evening, but stay open during the day. The fragrance is stronger at night (in my experience), but this may be due to lower temperatures allowing the scent to linger at night.

All of mine that have flowered have been fully mature plants. I've found that dividing plants slows down their flower potential. Feeding heavily also has this effect on my plants. All of my plant shave flowered when they reach full adult size - it depends on the maturity of your initial plant. I've started with some small cutting sthat have yet to bloom, but the plants continue to get larger, so I know that they aren't mature yet. I have also received cuttings from some places that flowered as they were establishing into my conditions (S. cylindrica comes to mind), and now flower every two years (that's how long it takes me to get a pup to fully mature). I'm sure that I can slow this down by dividing my plant (which would make them pup faster), but I prefer to have the larger plants.

Most of the Sansevieria you can buy in the home improvement stores can probably flower in a year if you don't repot them and give them plenty of light. I think that the main reason people don't see their snake plants flower more regularly is lack of light - everyone KNOWS that these are low light plants, so they grow them in their darkest corners. They will not bloom unless conditions are right, and getting the conditions right isn't very difficult.

Joe 'you have to THINK like a plant' DeRosa

I have one of the plain Sanseverias which I was thinking of letting it vacation outdoors this summer. I live in Oklahoma and the summers can get pretty sizzling here - being that they are low light plants, can they handle full sun?

Jill

Jill, these plants tend to look really bad out in full sun. If you could put it under a tree, or an outdoor structure, so that it only gets morning and evening full sun, it would do better.

They bleach out in full sun, and nick and scar worse than if lightly shaded. These plants can 'take' just about anything you can dish out. The point of loving them and growing them, I think, is to grow them well, and have them look their best doing it.

The one I have gotten to bloom sat in the front corner of a large front window facing South. So the light it received was bright, but mostly indirect.