It sounds like you are having some problems there.

I would not remove the damaged leaves unless they were showing signs of dying. The plant needs all of the leavs it has in order to grow and produce more leaves. These will get bigger, but you have to be patient. I find that each new growth gets larger than the previous one, so I'd suggest that you just let the leaves stay, and the plant will grow nice.

Your recent plant that has been repotted twice - it sounds like overwatering to me. You shouldn't be repotting a plant very frequently - I don't repot mine unless the soil is staying too wet, or the plant is outgrowing the pot. Patience is required with these plants.

You want to keep Sansevieria in mostly warm conditions (not below 60F), you want to keep them on good light (I grow mine in a south window all winter, and put them outside with half a day sunlight all summer), and you want to grow them in soil that can dry between watering. If you can provide these conditions, the plants will do well. If you can't, they will suffer.

Good luck, and give your plants a chance to grow.

Joe 'We were all beginners once' DeRosa

Joe has given you great answers to your questions. I don't think your plant has anything more than an overactive waterer;~)

These are succulent plants out of Africa. They can acclimate to conditions of lots of sun and very little water. They certainly don't look their best under these conditions, but they survive.

They are sloooooooow growing plants sometimes. They have seasons of growth where they pop out new stuff, left and right, if they are healthy, but the rest of the year... there they sit.

The growing tips are not life or death. Just a way of making your plant look the very best it can. My large Sans still has short leaves 1/3 the size of the rest without tips that I have not removed yet. There was too little growth on the plant when I learned this, so I just let it grow for a couple of years before fixing it up cosmetically. After a couple of fall growing spurts, then I trimmed a leaf here, a leaf there. I didn't need anymore pots of Sans sitting around, so I threw the leaves away.

And now you know to protect the leaf tips. Your new leaves will amaze you the size they get. Patience is a great part of growing these plants.

Good luck with growing your guys.

thanks so much for responding to my question. I do not think I overwatered the plant. I did keep it very dry (I thought any way)I took a leaf into a green house and repotted at their directions. What happened to the leaves was dramatic. The leaves did not get mushy at the soil level-it was moldy mushy spots scattered on the leaves. Quite sad to watch since it was a large wonderful looking plant at one time. Finally I took three small leaves and put them in a cool dish garden sort of thing. this does not have drainage so now I never water them for fear I will drown them. One of the leaves in this dish is starting to curl-it,s now twisted. Someone else hear wrote about this problem-I'm trying to follow that thread. By the by, when I wrote trifasciata questions I was trying to sound educated-rather than saying mother-in-laws tongue or snake plant. But then in a thread someone gave a link to an on line vendor....I was totally overwhelmed by all the different sans, trifasciatas etc. Holy smokes I had no idea about what is out there. The snake plant that mushed it'self to death was varigated with some yellow edges. I plan to transplant one of three remaining leaves into a small terra cotta pot-leaving room for second growth of course(is that how you say it) The tipless guy that's doing well has gorgeous green snake like patterns-some silver in there at times. Are these 2 different kinds? If so, that means my collection is up to three since I just bought a cute little rosette type sans that also has the label trifasciata

I have found that variegated snake plants will frequently require warmer temperratures, and more care with watering than the same non-variegated type. I have always been careful not to wte the leaves (and especially to keep water away from the crown), and to only water during the morning. The only problems I have really had since approaching things thgis way is in late fall before I bring my plants in- somethimes the variegated types will show some damage due to cooler weather before the others.

Good luck

Joe DeRosa

Hopefully, you've visited our photo gallery here also. I am amazed at the many, many different types out there!

I am not sure why your cutting did what it did. It could be the greenhouse; they tend to be warm, damp, with lots of fungusey type things growing there.

Don't worry about sounding educated. That is not what GW forums are about. It is to learn and visit with other people with the same types of plant 'crazyness' that you yourself have. It is tough talking plants with family memebers... they tend to roll their eyes, muttering "oh why did I ask???"

If you take a leaf cutting from a variagate plant, with yellow or white stripe margins, it will continue to grow if given the right care, but the leaf coloring will not transfer to the new growth that emerges. One of those Sanseviera mysteries. To get the same coloring, you have to wait until the plant vegetatively propogates itself, producing what is affectionately called a 'pup' which can then, after a certain size is reached, be separated and grown on.

And yes, it does sound as if you are up to three now. Congratulations!

I have been visiting plants at HD regularly. I find myself thinking about things people have said here. One very dangerous idea is that all plants deserve a good home. You see so much neglect along with incredible bargains. There were 2 pots of some sort of large leaf sans that were busting out of their pots. They were both over-watered, looked looked quite sad and were really calling out for me to rescue them. I looked around and hoped that some other gardenwebber would step up. (I felt kind of silly) I am trying to be somewhat selective but felt like a snob for not taking a shabby looking plant. One other thing I wanted to mention-It's November 14th in Southern Wisconsin and I still have Phlox blooming outside on the south side of my garage isn't that great!

Hi, sorry to intrude from someone who's so far away here in Indonesia, but I thought this forum is quite interesting.
If you're a fan of sans...you should all move to Indonesia...no, only joking he..he..
But honestly, try visit Indonesia once in a while and you'll really discover how many varieties there are so much available here (and mind you...quite cheap, at least for the moment!). I've only been serious about sans for the past year or so and I've got about 30 varieties already. That's not much considering that there are about 130 var (or so I've read from local books here).
I tend to use burnt peat/rice husks + compost + rough (large granuled) sand as media cause it keeps it from being too damp. Only water them when the media's pretty dry (being in the tropics, I water them once a week) and repot these beauties once a year. Also, I fertilize only when I remember, say once a year. The thing that I adore about sans is that the young ones have the ability to mutate and appear different to the parent. For me, the easiest sans to grow is S. trifasciata and golden hahnii, the hardest by far is the S. gracilis (gorgeous plant (at least to me), been with me for 3 yrs but no offspring yet) and the twister tsunami (lovely name huh...the leaves are similar to golden hahni but larger and they twist and turn..hence the name).
Bought myself a green jade yesterday (for a mere USD 1) and found out this morning that a pup has just broken ground. Ain't that grand (when the mother still looks way too young).
I'll try to post some pics once I got my camera going...