Sansevieria trifasciata 'Singer's Silver' – A very attractive variegated plant with relatively short leaves 10 to 12 inch long by 1 ½ to 2 inches wide with green margins and a broad central band of silvery white banded with green. Sansevieria trifasciata can bloom in summer with sweetly fragrant flowers but this cultivar does not seem to do so, even in greenhouse conditions.
Will tolerate low light levels but grows best and flowers if given bright light. Hardy to 30-32° F. Water sparingly and not at all as temperatures dip in winter but can tolerate going months between watering. If growing outdoors in frost free areas keep in a covered patio or under an eave where plants do not receive winter rainfall. A very nice container plant that needs little care and can be used in a raised bed under and eave as a foundation planting.
This plant is an older cultivar that was a sport of Sansevieria trifasciata 'Silver Frost' that was first sent to Sansevieria authority Juan Chahinian by the legendary Southern California plantsman Manny Singer with the name Sansevieria trifasciata 'Hahnii Striata'. As this is an illegitimate name we acknowledge this source by naming the plant after Manny and Bert Singer of Singers' Growing Things nursery in Northridge, CA.. We first received this plant in 2004 with a collection of Sansevieria from noted Stockton collector Alice Waidhofer.
The type plant of this species was collected in Nigeria and it was also found in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) but it has naturalized elsewhere and there are many selected forms in cultivation. The name for the genus was originally Sanseverinia as named by the Italian botanist Vincenzo Petagna in honor of his patron, Pietro Antonio Sanseverino, the Count of Chiaromonte (1724-1771), but the name was altered for unknown reasons by the Swedish naturalist Carl Peter Thunberg, possibly influenced by the name of Raimondo di Sangro (1710–1771), prince of San Severo in Italy. The specific epithet combines the Latin words 'tri" meaning three with 'fasciatus' meaning "banded" in reference to the many leaf markings. Long placed in the Agavaceae, the Dracaenaceae and by some in the Ruscaceae families, Sansevieria was most recently placed in the subfamily Nolinoideae within the Asparagaceae family.
Molecular phylogenetic studies have persuaded some to include Sansevieria in the genus Dracaena, which would make this plants name Dracaena trifasciata. Because of considerable disagreement over this change, the long standing use of its old name, and so not to cause our own and customer confusion, we continue to list this plant as a Sansevieria.
This information about Sansevieria trifasciata 'Singer's Silver' displayed is based on research conducted in our horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also will relate observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we receive from others and we welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share any cultural information that would aid others in growing it.
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