I have a hard time finding planters I like too.

I have a bunch of thick black plastic pots I have saved. Periodically I take them to our botanical garden and they reuse them. If you have an inside track to someone at a nursery or a local garden you might ask.

I sometimes have good luck at wholesale flower shops or even Hobby Lobby if I am going to put a pot inside a larger pot. I too am picky about my pots. I put shredded bark mulch in the bottom to fill up to the height I need and then put the potted plant inside. That provides some insulation too if you will use it outside.

I think I'd leave the smaller leaves. As they get taller, it'll give the plant a variety of heights. Where I'm from, we call that Mother In Law tongue. :D

We have some at our office, some company comes in and takes care of them. They get watered about every 2 weeks. They don't seem to need much attention.

Yesterday I took my snake plant outside and hosed off all the dust and gave it a good watering since it was needed anyway.

I've bought planters from gardening stores and online. Don't water them weekly even if they're dry.

Water when the leaves start to soften. If they're nice and stiff, and the plant is dry, leave it alone but check on it daily. Same with most houseplants.

The problem I have with my plant is the leaves don't go straight up and I think it's because it's near a window and they go towards the window.

You can trim off any leaf that doesn't look good.

Pudge, the MIL Tongue has yellow stripes going up the center of each leaf.

ETA: After looking at them online, the leaves are outlined by yellow. :)

I'm going to plant it sometime today. Should I thoroughly water it right afterwards? Allow it to rest for a day and then water or not water for a while? I think I've read all three for this plant.

It will go in the living room and during the day it does look more blue and helps move the color around the room.

We're getting ready to buy some more outside trees so I'll check with them on those plastic planters.

I'm having a hard time finding a low light palm tree. All the ones I can find need high light. I don't think any of the nurseries carry them but I'm going to check about that too. I was looking online and thought I found places to ship them but they ended up being faux palm trees.

Oakley my last snake plant had some leaves that wanted to droop. I'm not sure how to get them to stand back up if a bunch start to get bendy. I know some people stake them and tie nylons around but I don't want to look at that. I saw a youtube video the other day where when a random outside leaf would fall over the lady would remove it, allow it heal over for a week, and plant it back in the pot. I'll try that if any outside leaves start getting weird.

I also bought a zz plant the other day. While looking for low light plants I saw photos of them online and liked the shape, but now that it's in my house it looks somewhat fake (from a distance) because the leaves are so naturally shiny. I'm glad the shape isn't perfect.

Shee, yes, water until it runs thoroughly through and drains out the bottom. You'll probably have to take it to the sink or do outside. It helps settle the new soil, then you probably won't have to water for a week or two.

A fun plant for the house is a Money Tree plant with braided trunks. My first one died after two years, the new one is on it's second year and doing great. It's grown so much I need to braid the top of the trunk! I ordered them from Amazon (they sell live plants) and I know I didn't spend more than twenty bucks for it. It doesn't get direct sunlight this time of year and seems to be doing fine.

OT: Welcome back IdaClaire! It's been ages. Many of us here have missed you.

How are things going?

I used to have that plant in my front (north facing) yard in Venice. I would put the plants in a rectangular planter and spread them out horizontally. I think they look better in a row than in a clump, but that's how I'm used to seeing them.

No trouble finding planters here in Los Angeles, as they are plenty of pottery stores. I bought some at the store where I bought my fountains, but some nurseries have huge selections of planters as well.

Every time I read the title of this thread my mind sees "How would you repoRt this?"

Based on the death of your first plant, I'd be looking for some society that prevents cruelty to house plants! ;-)

My mother always referred to them as mother in law tongue too. I just got a new pot for mine not too long ago at the garden department of the local home improvement store. It’s one of the few plants I’ve kept alive and for about 28 years. I have this and a Hoya that’s even more ancient. I always say these must be plants that require very little water as I’ve been extremely negligent in watering over the years. Mine is always droopy.

Snake plants are succulents and like to be kept dry. You will kill them with kindness and too much water : ) . Give it a good soaking after transplanting, then water it every week or two, allowing it to dry completely in between. In the winter water it even less.

They also like to be fairly potbound, so pick a smaller rather than larger pot.

You want a 2- or 3-gallon black plastic nursery pot, which should be pretty easy to find this time of year at most nursery/garden centers, or your local big box store,

https://www.homedepot.com/p/2-gal-Black-Thermoformed-Nursery-Pot-TFR002G1G18/300434566

If you have any friends who are keen gardeners, they'll probably be bringing some home right around now...

I remember my mother having a snake plant my whole life! I am not sure what happened to it after she passed away. I am not sure if the kitties would go near it, so I will not have one here in the house.

I have several and grow mine in large shallow unglazed clay pots and they love it. Have you seen them flower? the scent is amazing... the sticky sap not so much. :)

Becky - I don't understand why I can't find nursery pots around here but the places I frequent seem to really want you to purchase the decorative ones. When I asked that's where I get pointed. :( I did see two large, thick black pots they were calling that while at Lowes but they were too big.

Party - I've never seen one of these flower. I did have a shallow unglazed clay pot in my hand at one point because of reading their roots don't grown down far and they prefer those type of pots. It was the ONLY shallow pot that size there. I put it back because I really wanted something light weight for this.

Here it is. I'm surprised heavy it is. I used all the leaves from both. I was concerned the pot would be too small but I actually think it's a little too large and could use more leaves. I do want to adjust the plant to center it better but I ran out of soil so I'll wait until I pick more up today. I had a smaller different style pot in my hand that I put back and wishing I would have bought that one now.

My cats won't mess with it but DS2 was in the dirt twice today. I thought we were at a point that I could put a plant in here but it may have to go in my bedroom for the time being.

She, that looks quite nice. The pot doesn’t look too small, at least in that pic.

Shee, looks good! Make sure the soil doesn't hold water too well -- I know, it's the opposite of what you usually want, but this is a succulent and it holds water on its own : ) .

the places I frequent seem to really want you to purchase the decorative ones.

Why sell you a $2 pot when they could sell you a $20 one?!

Watch your watering, that pot. IMO, is a bit large for the clump

Mine started from a small plant that somebody had thrown away in the alley behind work - it's a few decades old now and root bound. Because I don't want to divide it again nor do I want it in a larger pot, I'll put fresh soil on the top for nutrients. I also feed it during the spring/summer with a weak/diluted fertilizer

It's in a 24" plastic pot now and weighs about 40lbs and is 3.5 feet tall.

I water sparingly in the fall/winter, but increase it in the summer--sometimes daily, when it goes outside where it flowers every summer.

If familiar with the perfume Calyx - the flowers smell just like that.

So glad that I saw this thread. Mine really needs to be repotted but I have been afraid to try it. I think that I will give it a shot. I will use cactus mix I think.

If you put yours outside in the spring/summer how much sun do you put it in?

3katz - I like the look of your planter. I also like how you staked it up.

Chijim - Interesting, I thought you always had to repot or change the soil. What fertilizer do you use? When you water do you thoroughly soak it until water comes out the bottom? Even in fall and winter? In general heard you could get away with not needing to repot these for 3-6 years.

Nutsaboutplants & Becky - Thanks! I think it could use at least another half clump. There was one plant left but it had a leaf or two that was starting to get that nasty bloated look I believe from overwatering. If I purchased it, could I still use the other leaves? I'm assuming I could as long as the roots were ok though I probably shouldn't chance it since I'm not exactly a pro at this.

Hmm..will it wreck the plant if in a month or so I find another plant and pull things out and adjust to add more in the same pot?

Now I'm all concerned it's too much planter and soil for my clump of plant and perhaps I should pick a different one (planter). I wasn't able to get out to get more cactus soil today. The width of current planter is 13.5" across. The plastic pots they came in were 9" across. - I figured for TWO plants the size I bought would be ok but again, I think it could be fuller.

They had this style there and the inside width was 12". It's not all that much different in size but would that be better? The one on the right. (I would end up spray painting it btw.)

The blue planter I have comes in a smaller size but it looked a lot smaller IRL. Trying to find info. online (I find Lowes website frustrating.) I believe the size down is about 11" across.

ETA - Pic. I stayed away from it in the store because of the disk thing. I assumed I'd drown the plant for sure but I see there's drainage holes you can punch out.

Annnnd I'll note I potted with cactus soil but also added a bunch of perlite. I read somewhere you should do that but only saw it mentioned once. I figured it could help me out. Everywhere else said to add perlite only if you were using a regular potting soil. I added quite a bit, maybe 1/4 bag, to a 1-1/4 bag of cactus soil.

Just saw this,"Be sure to rinse the perlite, as it has excess fluoride in it which a lot of plants are sensitive to."

I certainly didn't rinse my perlite!

#latenightoverthinking

Sheeisback

3katz - I like the look of your planter. I also like how you staked it up.

Chijim - Interesting, I thought you always had to repot or change the
soil. What fertilizer do you use? When you water do you thoroughly soak
it until water comes out the bottom? Even in fall and winter? In
general heard you could get away with not needing to repot these for 3-6
years.

****************************************************

Not necessarily - if you want to keep a plant in the same pot size for a little longer you can root prune - it's where you cut an inch or two of roots off the bottom and shave along the sides and they add fresh soil to fill the void.

It's akin to bonsai.

Top dressing is another option , where your work out some soil from the top and replace w/fresh.

BTW -not the easiest thing to do with a plantlike a Sansevieria but can easily be done to other plants.

Yes, they can go a long time before repotting - min was actually send it's rhizomes(new growth) over the edge of the pot. I cut those off and rooted them.

I just use whatever I have on hand to feed it like Miraclegrow - just really diluted and only used during the growing season, Feeding is esp more important when the plant is quite pot bound

Fish emulsion or organic fertilizers are good and safe as they don't burn or get salt build-up

As for the watering yes, water well until water comes out the bottom even in winter, now depending, you may go a month or more before doing it again during fall/winter

BTW - what did you use for drainage?

I like a inch of pebbles because of the weight and keeps the plant from becoming top heavy

When mine summers outdoors, I keep it in dappled light for a week or so to acclimate, then it goes into the most sun I can give it.

Chijim - Thank you for the explanations.

BTW - what did you use for drainage?

:) Nothing . . . Perlite. :) Now I'm going to add some pebbles to the bottom. I thought the draining holes in the bottom and the cactus soil with perlite would be enough. I won't be able to get anywhere for more soil until sometime this week. I still haven't watered it since I need to make adjustments to the pot. It doesn't look like it's suffering so far.