Upright silver-green leaves that thrive on neglect, hand delivered same day in Brisbane
Sansevieria Moonshine (Snake Plant)
Pale silver-green leaves standing straight up, watered once a month
The softest-coloured snake plant there is, broad leaves in pale silver-green edged with a thin dark line. It stands upright without any help, takes a month between watering and holds its shape in a corner nothing else will grow in.
One sansevieria in the range at the moment, and it's the softest-coloured form of the genus. Moonshine carries broad, blunt-tipped leaves in pale silver-green with a thin dark margin, closer to grey-green than to the banded dark green most people picture when they hear snake plant. Every leaf comes straight up out of the mix, so the plant holds its shape without staking or trimming.
Send a snake plant when you can't see the room it's going into. It works on an office desk, in a reception, in a hallway with no window, and in the home of somebody who travels for work and would rather not come back to something collapsed. Those are the conditions it prefers rather than ones it puts up with.
It's also the plant for a person who says they don't want a plant, which is what makes it a sensible Father's Day plant for a man who has never watered anything on purpose. The upright shape and the 200mm size make it a solid housewarming plant gift for a place that's still mostly boxes, and it holds up as a thank you gift for a colleague. For a reception desk or a staff gift run, our corporate plant gifts page covers how larger orders work.
Mildly, yes. The leaves carry saponins, so a cat or a dog that chews one can end up drooling, and off its food with an upset stomach for a day or so. It's not in the same bracket as the calcium oxalate in a pothos or a philodendron, and the stiff, fibrous leaves are far less inviting than a soft trailing vine, but a kitten will still have a go at anything standing upright.
If the household has an animal that chews, three of our genera are non-toxic to cats and dogs. Peperomia obtusifolia is the closest match for neglect, thick-leaved and content on a desk with no window nearby. Calathea brings patterned leaves with purple undersides and copes with a dimmer room. Fittonia plants stay small and low, netted in pink, red or white veins. Ask before you order if you don't know the house well.
Every three to four weeks, and less again through winter. The honest answer is always less than you think: the leaves hold their own water reserve the way a succulent does, so the plant runs for weeks on what's already in it. Let the mix dry out completely, water it thoroughly, then tip out the saucer and leave it alone.
Overwatering is the one reliable way to kill a sansevieria. A pot kept damp rots the rhizome at the base, and by the time the leaves show it the damage is done underneath. If you're not sure, wait. A snake plant that's been left a month too long looks exactly the same as one watered on schedule, which is not true of anything else we deliver.
Same plant. Botanists folded the genus into Dracaena in 2017 after DNA work showed the two weren't distinct, so a plant label, a care guide or a search result can read Sansevieria trifasciata or Dracaena trifasciata and both are current. Nothing about the plant changed.
We use Sansevieria because that's what growers list it as and what people ask for, the same way almost nobody searches Epipremnum when they want a pothos. Treat any care advice written under either name as advice about the same plant.
Low to bright light, and it's one of the few indoor plants that will also take a few hours of direct sun without scorching. Grow it in a free-draining mix, let the soil dry right through between watering, and keep it out of a saucer that stays full. Don't mist it: dry air is the natural condition for a plant from tropical West Africa and humidity does nothing for it. A heavy pot matters more than it sounds, because a 200mm plant carries its weight at the top and a light pot tips.
Rot, from water. A leaf that goes soft, yellow and slightly translucent where it meets the mix has been sitting wet, and the rhizome underneath is going with it. Pull the soft leaves out at the base, stop watering, and let the pot dry completely before you go near it again. Firm leaves that are unmarked below the soft ones usually carry on fine. Leaves that stay firm but flop outwards from the centre are a different problem, and that one is low light.
It survives in very little and it grows in more. A sansevieria will hold in a windowless hallway or a corner lit only by a ceiling fitting for months without complaint, which is why it turns up in so many offices. It just won't do much. Give it a bright room and you get new leaves pushing up through the year and stronger silver in the colouring, so treat low light as a condition it tolerates rather than the one to aim for.
Here's the short version of what the plant wants and where it comes from.
Choose a pot on the product page before you check out, along with any giftware or a greeting card. A snake plant stands tall out of a 200mm pot and carries its weight up high, so the heavier and wider sizes in our indoor plant pots range are the ones that keep it steady. The card message is one you write yourself at checkout.
Order before 12pm on a weekday, or before 10am on Saturday, and your sansevieria goes out the same day. Our own couriers start their run in the early afternoon, and we aim to have business addresses delivered by 5pm and homes by 6pm, Monday to Saturday. Delivery is a flat $19.95 and there's no Sunday run. Check the address against the suburbs on our Brisbane delivery areas page before you order. We cover the inner east out through the bayside and into the Redlands, so a snake plant can land in East Brisbane, Carina Heights or Wakerley on the day you order it.
Delivered by our own couriers
Flat $19.95 delivery
Gift wrapped as standard
Same day before 12pm
