My Favorite Snake Plant

I've blogged about this amazing Sanseveria before, but I just found the pics which show the flowers in full bloom in the evening. They fade during the day, and a new ring of flowers opens up the next evening above the faded ring from the night before. The huge inflorescence is about a foot wide. These pics were taken a few years ago when I summered the plant outside, but for at least two years since I've left it in my classroom through the summer, since it is so now big that it is difficult to fit in in my car to drag it home. The one disadvantage of this is that I am not there when the flowers look their best, by the time I come in to check on the summer residents and my school gardens, the flowers are past their prime.

Its an enormous species with impressive foliage and massive rhizomes, even it its huge pot it is pushing on one side, so I will have to find something new to put it in this coming year--a bushel basket, perhaps?!

My source said he thought he collected the plant in Kenya many years ago, and he has it growing in the ground in his greenhouse for a long time. Sanseverias are great collector plants, they live forever, are hard to kill, very accomodating of less than perfect conditions (except cold and overwatering in combination, especially), and easy to prop (leaf sections). No one ever seems to admire their fragrant white flowers, but in this species they are a star attraction, easily rivaling any other flowering plant for bold effect and interest.

Pelargonium cucullatum white form

This slide brings back memories of this fine plant I grew from a cutting I got from a friend years ago. This unusual white flowered form had been making the rounds and was supposed to have been originally collected by Ellaphie Ward Hilhorst, if memory serves me correct. She is the famous (among pelargonium lovers) artist who painted the superb illustrations in the Pelargoniums of Southern Africa book series. I had the pleasure of meeting her on my trip to South Africa in 1991, she was a most gracious lady.

Pelargonium cucullatum is the principal ancestor of the regal geraniums P. x domesticum. It is quite common around Cape Town, when I saw it in flower the bushes of it remind me of azaleas in effect. Typically the flowers are pinkish-purple, but as with most plants diligent searching sometimes reveals a mutant with a different flower color. There are three subspecies or variants of P. cucullatum, most easily distinguished by leaf shape and texture. This plant was from the ssp strigifolium form. I no longer have this plant, nor does the NYBG where I grew it years ago, though I think I have seed of it stashed somewhere in the fridge. Seed of P. cucullatum (and other pelargonium species within section Pelargonium of the genus) is very long lived, even if stored at room temperature seeds can still be viable more than a decade later. Depending on the genetics of flower color in this species, if I could find the seed I might be able to grow out a similar plant, or perhaps they would come out more typically colored. In any case, it is hard to flower P. cucullatum without a greenhouse or cold sunroom, since it needs cool nights, preferably with short days, to set flower buds.

Pelargonium lanceolatum

I'm continuing to scan old slides, so forgive the black edges on the pic, no time to play with photoshop yet. Clicking on the pic may reveal more detail, I'm trying to upload pics with more "dpi" in them now that I figured that out. P. lanceolatum is one of the oddest pelargonium species, and one which I would dearly like to get some material of to grow again. When I did grow it, it was a good grower with a spreading habit and the most unusual succulent grey green leaves. Roots can sprout additional shoots, but it is self sterile, so one would need two clones to set seed on it. It is not widespread in habitat, nor, as far as I can tell, in cultivation. It is a beautiful plant, with lots of flowers in spring and would make an ideal basket plant or even a groundcover in a suitable climate--sunny, not too much rain, and with little frost.