Follow the post and learn How to Get a Snake Plant to Bloom! Yes. It is possible! Read ahead to know how to do it the right way.
You might have never seen a snake plant flower, as it’s quite rare. However, it is possible for you to experience it if you follow the right steps. Let’s have a look at some tricks on How to Get a Snake Plant to Bloom!
Do Snake Plants Flower?
The straight answer to the question is Yes! They do! This happens once annually, usually during spring or summer, if the conditions meet. However, it is still extremely uncommon but possible. You also have to bear in mind that if you have grown Sansevieria trifasciata ‘Hahnii,’ then it won’t bloom, no matter what.
Snake Plant Flower Appearance
Snake plant flowers grow around tall spikes or stalks. The stalks grow up to several inches or feet tall and are full of small, lily, or honeysuckle-like, tubular, cream, green, or white narrow-petaled clusters of blooms–all this depends on the type of snake plant.
According to the variety, some cultivars have white with a hint of mauve or lavender. Some species show off bright red blossoms. Some varieties of mother-in-law’s tongue do not have a flower stalk, and they directly blossom from the base in huge clusters.
Snake Plant Flower Smell
The snake plant flowers are highly fragrant and emit a spicy vanilla-like scent that you can’t compare with anything. The blooms also produce sweet-scented nectar, so much in fact that it can drip down the stalk!
Flowers close in the daytime and open up during the night. The fragrance becomes very strong after it gets dark.
How Long Do Snake Plant Blooms Last?
The flowers can last for a couple of weeks to a month. Make sure to prune the flower stalks from the base when they die back to preserve energy and display a neat appearance.
Do Snake Plants Die After Flowering?
No. The plants will keep on thriving once they have bloomed. The flowers will turn into orange berries and the stalks will die eventually.
How to Get a Snake Plant to Bloom?
There’s no guarantee that the snake plant you have will bloom. However, there are certain factors that might help it flower.
- The best way to make snake plants bloom is to keep them in a root-bound stage and expose them to a lot of sunlight. Most people keep this in extremely low light or shade, which will prevent the plant from flowering.
- Keeping them outdoors or near a window that receives some direct light can induce flowering.
- When the plant is watered less and is kept in good light, it grows quickly, thereby filling up the pot in no time. When the roots have no more space to grow and the pot gets filled with them, the plant flowers to propagate itself.
- Generally, new and young snake plants do not flower. You will have more chances of flowering with an aged specimen, so get a mature one.
- Keeping the plant in a slightly stressed state, along with low fertilization, can also trick it into blooming flowers.
- Avoid keeping the plant in the shade for a longer duration of time. Always make sure that the plant gets a minimum of 3-4 hours of direct sun each day. The best bet is to keep it near an east-facing window.
- Do not overwater the plant in any case.
- Avoid keeping the plant near an AC or heating vent. Make sure it is not exposed to sudden temperature changes. Also, take the plant outdoors only when the danger of frost has passed away.
- It is best to use a growing medium designed specifically for cacti and succulents.
The Bottom Line
These pointers will certainly help it bloom, but these serve no surety that doing this will make every snake plant flower! It seems certain conditions force this amazing houseplant to bloom, or you can say these plants have a mind of their own when it comes to blooming.
Thank you for this information.. I have had this plant many times and never knew that it produced a flower. Guess what I’m going to try!
I have had a mother in law tongue for years and never seen one bloom until this year. Apparently I set the stage for the blooms and didn’t even know it. They are very beautiful and fragrant almost as though they merged with my honeysuckle plant.
Awesome information
Thank you for the informations.
I want this plant
I picked one up at home depot for $15 .there more on the higher side for cost.i have my in indirect sun and growing great.now I have to change it to bloom. Good luck
Idaho here
please delivered me
My snake plant blooms ever year and it is beautiful.
I have asked several people if they have seen them and not very many of them had.
I put my plant out as soon as my gazebo is put up ands that’s the end of April and I don’t bring it back in till October.
And so far he seems to like it.
Carol Brubeck where do you live?
Here is South Africa Winter starts in April
I have had many snake plants over the years and none have ever bloomed. This year, I have 4 identical plants in the same location and one of them is growing a flower. I can’t wait to smell it once it opens!! I believe it is probably root bound. Thanks for the info
Yes, they do bloom beautifully and mine did it because it was root bound. When this happens do Not repot the plant until the bloom has dried and gone. I was told it would die if it bloomed and this is not so. Thanks for sharing the information, it is helpful. Mary
I was given a sansevieria (snake / mother-in-law’s tongue) plant as a gift just over a year ago & it has grown so much. We just noticed last week this hard, clumpy, thick stalk, which is so unlike the leaves, that we assumed it was some type of bloom – so off to the internet I went to seek out information. All of the pictures of blooms are the thin, stalk type pictured above in the article, but I was so GLAD it mentions the cluster type! I am very EXCITED to see mine fully bloom now since it seems much less common! :) I wish we could post pictures here, I would come back & submit one of my plant once the bloom opens up.
I feel so stupid!! I thought the flowers were some type of weed or disease and I’ve been cutting them off!! Yikes!! I will let them grow now….. my plant is about 15 years old and it is beautiful and lush and healthy….and now it’s gifting me flowers!!
Hi….i had mine blooming.
Thank you for the info. Mine is blooming and I’m excited.
Mine bloomed for the first time this year!I’ve got it in my bathroom with lots of light!
Geez… Now I have to go buy a mature one 😂😂.
Thanks for the information.
I just got mine last year as a cutting. I had repotted it and put it outside this spring. It took off like crazy! I noticed this little cluster of balls and was talking to a friend and we Gogled if Snake Plants flowered. Low and behold, they do! I’m 57 years old and have never seen or heard of one blooming. I can’t wait to see it!!
I enjoyed your post as I never knew of snake plants blooming even though one of my plants has been happy in my sunroom for years accompanied by a variety of about 100 other plants. My largest snake is about as tall as I am (5’3”) and very healthy. I decided to dig a little deeper into my plant and oh my gosh, I DO have a stalk of white blooms. What a fun finding today!
I put a young one in my son’s room and it is blooming. I had no idea it did that as I have a big one in my room that has never bloomed. Can’t wait to smell it!
I have a snake plant that has bloomed two summers in a row. I was told when I got it that the more you ignore it the better it grows. So true.
Mine bloomed this year. It was quite a surprise!
I have had my snake plant for years and it actually sat in a vase of water for a few years (after cutting it off the mother plant and rooting it) before I planted it in soil 2 years ago. We moved and I stuck it in my south facing kitchen window a year ago and I’m getting blooms, I didn’t even know that they bloomed!?! 🌱🌾
I’m 80 years old and only found out 1 week ago these plants bloomed! I’m so excited I’m going to purchase another one and hope for blooms!!
join thr group! I am 83 & have never seen a snake plant bloom. I have one, and it looks pot bound so maybe it will bloom.
Jeanette
Thanks for the article. Yes, the fragrance is really a beautiful one! My snake plant had only 2 stalks, but they lasted about 2 months. Even after the flowers dried and died, the fragrance remained for awhile. Can’t wait to encourage the other snake plants to blossom! By the way, all the photos seem to be of the ‘Laurentii’ variety. Would love to see what blooms on other types look like!
Many years ago I had a Sanseveria and it bloomed. Unfortunately I had to give it away because I was relocating.
Bought this one in the spring and now it’s Aug. and blooming. No sunshine only light.
Love it.
hi my plant is in my bedroom window and I was greatly surprised as it bloomed now and this almost as I God said Ayear aill be ago you did not think you would still be alive after Covid, here is a bloom to tell you nohting is impossible” Thanks for your info very helpful.
Or, just set it on the front steps, west facing, in Cincinnati, OH and ignore it. Yes! I did this one summer and it bloomed! I didn’t know they bloomed.
I am wondering if anyone has any ideas for staking. My snake plant is growing so tall it wants to lean. I have to lean it against the wall.
I purchased one in the supermarket because it had flowered and I had never seen it it’s in the house it’s January and it’s still flowering in my dining room I hope it continues to flower thanks for the info
Yes! I’ve been eyeing my snake plants guilty for the past few weeks, meaning to repot them asap as the plants are very crowded. They’re in full sun in a pot in my front garden. I was so excited to see two beautiful stripy stems with flower buds this morning. I’m on Curacao in the Dutch Caribbean so they get lots of heat and light.
I have lots od snake plants i’ve never seen them bloom. I cant wait to see them start blooming am so excited
I have lots snake plants i’ve never seen them bloom. I cant wait to see them start blooming am so excited
Last year, I put one if my snake plant outside on the west side of my porch. It received a lot of sunshine for most of the day. To my surprise, one day I spotted something growing in the snake plant and decided to just wait and see what would happen. Eventually it started to flower. I had no idea a snake plant flowered, what a surprise. I plan to try it again this year as soon as it warns up in the spring. Thanks you for your article.
Is this plant the same as mother-in-laws tongue?
Yes thank you for this is information. I have had snake plants over the course of the years and mine have bloomed. They started blooming and in the evening after supper we would smell there fragrance. I have mine in a south window in a corner, so it gets sun later on after 4:00.
Our snake plant bloomed this month for the first time and has white flowers. It had been an indoor (master bathroom) plant in 2 pots in our house in KY. We moved to FL 5 years ago and it became an outdoor plant in a single pot. It is definitely root bound it a 12” pot and is on the east side of our house.
I’ve had my plant for 25 yrs. & split it 3 times. It’s in the corner of a bathroom with glass block windows around it, so lots of sun. My plant has bloomed every year & especially since it is so root bound now that we can’t move it & must wait for it to literally break the pot it’s been in for years. They are amazing plants!
I inherited a 2’ high, free and nearly dead plant, repotted, fertilized the soil and stuck it in the south window. Watered it occasionally and a year later it was root bound and 4’ tall.
I had no idea it bloomed until one day I started to water it and smelled the beautiful fragrance from somewhere. I had to dig into the foliage to find the source and found multiple sticky stalks with white blooms! What a delight!
Neglect and root bound is definitely the secret! Lol!!
I rooted mine from a cutting almost 50 years ago. It has been root bound for a very long time and produces several blooms every summer. They smell heavenly. I always look forward to the blooms but they do drop sticky, sweet nectar and can make a mess but it is worth it. I have it in a large pot sitting in a corner of windows. It receives lots of eastern sunlight.
I didn’t realize it needed more sun. I’ve been keeping it in the living room for decoration but I just read it’s one of the most effective air purifiers and to keep it in the bedroom. I have a very sunny window in there and now I look forward to better sleep. I think it will bloom in there, too! :)
I have a snake plant that bloomed- it lasted about a month or more. My snake plate sits high in front of a south facing window, in a small pot for size of plant. (It’s now about 4-5’ high and has grown like crazy. I water slightly once a week. It loves where it is for sure. My blooms were furry/fluffy whitish color.
I have never water my snake plant, I was told they are succulents and dont require water. It is growing and am afraid to water it with fears that it will rot since other one have rotted. how much water do they need for them to flower,
I had mine flower for the first time and I was surprised cos I had never seen it do that before. But it was a beautiful blossom, brought a lot of joy.
Oh my gosh! Thank you for the article. My plant is on my deck in mostly shade. The plant is in a large pot with several other plants given from when one of my boyfriend’s parents pasted away 6 years ago.
The plants have been watered periodically by nature. Much to my surprise, three weeks ago I saw two stalks with an abundant with of flowers. Anxious to see them bloom!🥰
I have a plant that I’ve had for over 40 years. I divide it up and keep going. It never bloomed. I gave a group to my son for his first apartment. It bloomed for him on his deck. Geez. He just had the perfect conditions. I still have it and keep dividing when the pot is stuffed. I give plants away all the time. I wonder how many others have had them bloom. Thanks for the suggestions. I might have too much water and not enough sun.
This 83 year young newbie owns a Mother-in-Law’s Tongue , that is 4 feet tall and has bloomed, to my surprise! I bought it about 50 years ago on sale at my local Garden Centre, when it was about 6” tall,I have mine,beside the front door,facing east and I water it occasionally and one day noticed a tubular stem with white flowers coming up between the leaves,what a nice surprise!
I live in the desert and have my mother in-law plant on a covered porch. It is in the hot, bright sun for about 5 hrs a day and it is also root bound. Any suggestions getting it to flower in my area?