Fort Lauderdale landscape designer Luis Llenza puts sansevierias through their paces, using them for a wide range of landscape needs, from groundcovers to edging to focal points. Opposite: Low-growing 'Futura Simplex' around a contemporary fountain, backed by tall S. thfasciata. Below: Snake plants are also ideal textural foils for other plants, like the dramatic swords of laurentii Compacta' (sometimes called 'Black Gold Extreme 1 ) woven among feathery muhly grass. Right: A heavily white-striped cultivar called 'Bantel's Sensation'. There is even an International Sansevieria Society, with members from some 37 countries. Alan Butler, chairman of the society and a partner at Brookside Nursery, which specializes in sansevierias and other succulents, says the surge in sansevieria popularity is based on converging trends in architectural and succulent plants, and plants with low water needs, "which benefits the pocket as well as ecology." For Bill Boyd, owner of Boyd Nurseries in Loxahatchee, Florida, the big draw is their ease of culture, and he calls them a "guilt-free plant," citing that many <strong>garden</strong>ers feel like they've failed when a plant dies. The "sense of satisfaction and success" with sansevierias is essentially a given. Though sansevierias are the most undemanding of plants, surviving isn't the same as thriving, and if you want them to be in their prime, there are a few factors to keep in mind. Good drainage is paramount — these are plants that evolved in hot, dry locations. Butler says to water them very infrequently in winter and regularly in summer, but the drainage needs to be near perfect; overwatering is one of the only ways to kill a sansevieria (also, never watering it). And they don't like extended periods of cold, so in Zone 9 and warmer they can grow outdoors, but cooler than that and they're houseplants. While they can endure low-light conditions, they prefer bright, indirect light. Some can take full sun, with the risk that they can acquire a burned look. And though seemingly content to be pot-bound, their thick rhizomes can eventually bust through a container; fortunately dividing them is as easy as growing them. While their name is distinctly Old World (from Count Pietro Antonio Sanseverino, an 18th-century patron of horticulture in Naples), sansevierias are not only thoroughly modern, they're space age, having been named one of the best plants for cleansing indoor air of toxins in a NASA study — you might even see them tucked into a corner on a space station some day. After 200 years of cultivation, their persistence has paid off, like the tortoise in Aesop's "The Tortoise and the Hare." Emerging from dark hallways and country porches, they've hit the catwalk, r SEE SOURCEBOOK FOR MORE INFORMATION, PAGE 88 55
Designer Davis Dalbok strived for a diverse plant palette paired with nearly monochromatic hardscaping. Opposite: Dalbok and his client celebrate the completion of the two-year ject of building the <strong>garden</strong>. nake the lemongrass mar- Taste caterers
- Page 1:
E COOLEST, CHICEST HOUSEPLANTS-EVER
- Page 4 and 5:
CASE STUDY* INDOOR/OUTDOOR Made of
- Page 7 and 8: contents APRIL 2009 FEATURES 48 Sna
- Page 9 and 10: contents DEPARTMENTS 8 FROM THE EDI
- Page 11 and 12: Patios, Driveways and Landscape Pro
- Page 13 and 14: QlUMtSwhwi» www.bovstudios.com 888
- Page 15 and 16: imiщррряи №'•РЙР ung g
- Page 17 and 18: Ш' ' ~^
- Page 19 and 20: fresh in France], the more excited
- Page 21 and 22: fresh Outdoor Living COLORS OF HAWA
- Page 23 and 24: fresh Sculpture STEEL CACTUS We've
- Page 25 and 26: fresh Secret Gardens WHEN IN PHILAD
- Page 27 and 28: plant palette COOL CALLAS Jewel-col
- Page 29 and 30: plant palette 26 GARDEN DESIGN APRI
- Page 31 and 32: plant palette 28 GARDEN DESIGN APRI
- Page 33 and 34: plant palette NATURE, NURTURE Care:
- Page 35 and 36: CLEVER & COMPACT This spring, tidy
- Page 37 and 38: 34 GARDEN D E S I G NlAPRIL 09 (STY
- Page 40 and 41: swatch watch ZEN SALON Create a san
- Page 42 and 43: See garden displays by the best des
- Page 44 and 45: Щ III SPECIAL PROMOTIONAL SECTION
- Page 46 and 47: SPECIAL PROMOTIONAL SECTION 2009 Pa
- Page 48 and 49: .iving green LONG ISLAND LUSHNESS A
- Page 50 and 51: From left to right: Looking toward
- Page 52 and 53: 4^ t ^ f* " BULLETPROOF PLANTS FROM
- Page 54 and 55: Opposite: Sansevierias make ideal c
- Page 56: тС\ 4 - зхл .
- Page 61 and 62: DAVIS DALBOK is dressed in a pale l
- Page 64 and 65: street." To that end, he planned an
- Page 66: f> r-^s^T-v *.■"- ■-■■
- Page 69 and 70: The jungle of Rio de Janeiro's hill
- Page 72 and 73: таи^№*.-^ ^ . hen Sao Paulo-ba
- Page 74 and 75: An Indonesian daybed in the owner's
- Page 76 and 77: V / growing regional plants, to pla
- Page 78: signer маае Wijaya creates a ro
- Page 81: 78 Above, clockwise from top left:
- Page 85 and 86: groundbreaker JAMES CORNER A closer
- Page 87 and 88: A little piece of heaven. I leaven
- Page 89 and 90: landscape NOW AND ZEN The Portland
- Page 91 and 92: Endless I Summer* COLLECTION For yo
- Page 93 and 94: Viboove*, tko woM Ц GARDEN DESIGN
- Page 95 and 96: Schreiner's Iris Gardens Our family
- Page 97 and 98: Transformation Butterfly Rachel Tri
- Page 99 and 100: --V - ■ New 19" cut, 750-watt ' m
- Page 101 and 102: Julie Moir Messervy (right) designe
- Page 103: Stone. The Foundation for Memorable
Change language