How to Deal with a Sick Mother-In-Law Plant

 

TheGardenLady received this question from Dawn:

Someone gave me a mother inlaw plant and said it lives outside and that I couldnt kill it, but it looks like its dying now…will it die in the winter and rebloom in the summer?

Plants that will grow outdoors all year long come from a place that has a similar climate to the one that you live in.  Sansevieria comes from Tropical Africa.

Zone 6, where I live, is too cold for the Sansevieria trifasciata (Latin name) or mother-in-law’s tongue plant (one of the common names for this plant) to leave outdoors in the late fall, winter and spring.  As tough as the plant is, it cannot tolerate very cold or freezing weather and in colder zones is used primarily as an indoor plant.

Since you do not tell me what temperature zone or area of the country/world you live in, I cannot tell you if the plant can be outdoors over winter in your area. Do you live in a tropical zone?

Besides not being able to live outdoors in cold weather where it will die, Sanseviera cannot tolerate overwatering or it will get root rot and also die. See TheGardenLady.org column Mother-in -Law Plant here.