Mother-In-Law’s Tongue

Dang it.  My week long vacation in the garden has come to a screaming end.  I will be heading back inside to a nice office during the bulk of the hot summer hours.  It’s not like I have a depressing cubicle or share a workspace with an annoying associate.  My office is pretty nice.  My big window looks out to native landscaping and a large pond with a variety of wildlife.  Everyone I work with really is great to work with; but it’s still not vacation where I can putter around the garden in my “jammies”  until I need to dress for work in the front yard.  And the weather this past week has been terrific.  It was so terrific that my planned activity of canning tomatoes was postponed until there is enough heat to ripen all the fruit on the vines.  I can wait if it means enjoying cooler weather.

To ease me back into the rhythm of work, I decided to fill an empty pot with a plant to take back with me.  Sansevieria trifasciata (per Sunset Western Garden Book) also known as Bowstring Hemp, Snake Plant, or Mother-In-Law’s Tongue is what I selected.  The first names comes from the use of the tough leaf fibers as bowstrings.  The second name comes from the mottled banding on the leaves resembling a snake.  The third names comes from the toughness of the leaves and the plant in general.  This plant is ideal for the filtered light location I have in mind.  It’s perfect for the empty vertical spot in desperate need of something.

The ceramic pot is filled about half way with large gravel to add some weight to balance the top heavy planting.  There’s a drain hole in the bottom so the 6” plastic pot that the plant is in is set in a thin, plastic saucer on top of the gravel.  A little moss was soaked and added to the top to help keep moisture in and make the whole planting look a little nicer. 

There will still be mornings and evenings to work in the garden; but I’ll sure miss my “jammies”.