So I bought two Dracaena trifasciata from Ikea with gold margins. The new growth however is NOT varigated.

That's OK with me, but I was wondering why?........

Is it because they were a bunch of leaf cuttings from the OG plant stuck in the pot for propagation?




What do you think?
Thank you!

Yes, propagating variegated cultivars almost always results in non-cultivar rosettes. Here is an example. 3 rosettes formed, 2 were straight species and 1 was without chlorophyll and was not able to live very long.

This is the first time I've seen someone show a pic of propagated leaves for sale other than S. cylindrica. Because the new growth doesn't match the look that was purchased, I think this is akin to "false advertising" and not something anyone with a sense of right and wrong at least as strong as their need to make a living would do. Most people used to take pride in whatever it was they were doing to make $ but now it seems like a huge percentage are just scammers with no morality at all.

It is clinically interesting to watch what you are seeing, but if people want a plant with yellow striped leaves, they are being deceived because it is well known that this happens when propagating cultivar leaves. Some people begin to collect them if they see a leaf style they don't already have, so the seller may get some complaints. BUT, on the other hand, maybe not because those collectors are more likely to recognize that the pot is individual leaves and suspect the new growth won't have the cultivar stripes.

There are a lot of examples of this in this long-running discussion on this site:
https://garden.org/thread/go/6...

Although "they" have renamed these plants and lumped them with Dracaena, most plant lovers that have expressed an opinion that I have read reject this and refuse to acknowledge it, continuing to refer to their plants as Sansevieria. You can do what you want, no big deal on it, but be ready to be "corrected" by somebody when calling one of these plants a Dracaena. You'll be ready to tell them it's been renamed.

Pic I meant to paste above didn't get included.

purpleinopp said: Yes, propagating variegated cultivars almost always results in non-cultivar rosettes.

What I said there is incomplete. Propagating a single leaf usually produces that result. But dividing/separating rosettes does not. It's probably possible but I've not seen any reversion from the cultivars I've had. By division, cultivar propagation is possible and I would call it reliable.

Thanks so much for your response ☺️

Apologies for the botonical name confusion, I have no issues referring to it as Sansevieria from now on.

Would there be any other reason the borders are not yellow? Not sure what a regular cultivar will look like, but there is a faint border of lighter green.



Also I bought two plants like this 15/20 years ago from the same place (for a quarter of the price back then) and they were both fully gold bordered, pups and all and they grew 5 feet tall, no joke.
I just wanted to get them again because when I changed my drapes to dark brown from white linen, they went downhill. I think I watered them too much for the new amount of light they were getting. So the store didn't always use individual leaf cuttings. Oh well.

I wonder if it is individual leaf cuttings, if the cutting leaves will continue to grow or stay the same height? Probably the latter.....

I don't see any evidence that they were propagated from leaf cuttings, rather than the normal off-shoot. it would be very rare if a leaf cutting of a yellow edged cultivar produced the same yellow edge.

It's far more likely that either the all green leaves have mutated back to the original all green form, or they are a completely different plant and the all green is normal. Given that you seem to have a leaf midway between in coloring, I think the reversion mutation is most probable.

I'm so sorry if my comments made you think it's a mistake to refer to your plant as a Dracaena. Since that's the name "they" have given it at the moment, it's the technically correct thing to call it, according to them. I guess I didn't make it clear that I and most other people who have expressed an opinion about it that I've read object to the renaming. Since "they" don't care what "we" think, it doesn't do any good to object, but I still do just to put the objection on the record, so to speak.

Could we see some more pics of the plant from different angles? My first impression was that it's individual leaves, but Rick's comments make me wonder if it's just the angle of the existing pics.

Cultivar variegation is any appearance other than this basic form, the plain species. This is the plain species.


The younger leaves are a much lighter color and develop the deeper green as they age &/or fade.

A grand old, always-inside plant will look like this


Not sure how this was propagated, but it's another reversions away from the cultivar (non-plain) pattern


This plant looks like the older, original leaves had more distinct pattern, then some faded and darker looking leaves grow while it was taken inside for winter, then brought back outside and the increased light yielded some more distinction on the newer leaves.


Also sorry because I realize that we're focusing on the cause of why the new rosette doesn't have the same pattern. If it isn't just fading from low light, it can be ameliorated by unpotting, removing the parts that don't have the preferred pattern, and repotting just the desired parts. There are no guarantees that it won't make more "plain" leaves in the future after that, but that is the standard remedy to try to preserve the variegated parts of plants that are trying to revert to plain.

Hi Rick R, yes I am thinking along the same lines, I think they are just reverting. Thank you for your comment 😊

No worries Tiffany, it doesn't bother me either way with the name, I just didn't want to offend anyone haha.

That's interesting about the new leaves being different than the original plant. Thank you for all those examples!

So lower light could cause it to look like it's reverting? Could be the case because it is behind sheer curtains with a big tree shading the west window a bit. Dappled afternoon sun at best.

It's not really a big deal to me if they revert, I think I'm a bit over my head at the moment (I've been overwatering according to the potting mix my plants were in, that's another story!). So I'm going to just leave it be and see what happens. It's kind of interesting to see how things go.

Thanks to all for all the great info 😊

Happy to reply. I'm always anxious to gather more info too. : )

purpleinopp said: Could we see some more pics of the plant from different angles? My first impression was that it's individual leaves, but Rick's comments make me wonder if it's just the angle of the existing pics.

Sorry I didn't get these faster, but sure! Here are some of the plant on the left (we'll call her plant 1)
Plant 1








Plant 2 (plant on the right side of the window)










I think they weren't getting enough light to show the yellow borders. I've pulled the two pots away from the corners of the window into the center a bit and forward to hopefully help them get more light.

To get an idea of how much lighting they are getting. This window faces west.

The 2nd plant looks to me like it is mostly rosettes afterall, with an extra single leaf or 2 stuck in for whatever reason. I look forward to seeing the effect of the increased light at some point when there's an update to report.

It's hard to place dogs that symmetrically! Really impressive! : )

Maybe you'll come across 2 little tables that might raise the plants just the right amount to get a little more light but not bump into the cute hanging pots above, if the idea is of interest. The plant in the middle looks amazing!

Oh, I just picked up the plant in the middle, it's a zig zag cactus, my newest obsession. Let's face it, I get obsessed a lot lol. Thank you so much for the compliment!

I often see the dogs in the exact same position resting, it blows my mind! That's their little watch perch

No problem, I will update if I notice anything! I was wondering if I needed more light, like supplemented artificial light, I wanted to block the window with plants, so I can go crazy haha! There's a big maple tree that filters out a lot of afternoon sun, but I feel it should be enough for now for my pants (hoya, sansevieria and rainforest cactii)
We'll see.....

My pleasure! : ) Lucky, loved dogs.

I don't think these snake plants need artificial light. Don't know the others well enough to have an opinion. If it seems later like they need a bit more, you can use "S" hooks or whatever's handy to extend them down a bit.

I put so many plants in our windows over winter that we never need to close the blinds in some rooms. Can totally relate!

So I don't notice much of a difference yet with the new leaves, but I don't think they are completely green.

But look at this!





A snake plant flower!
Never saw one before indoors or didn't know they would flower.

Yes, congrats! That's always fun to see. It's very likely to have a great scent too. Enjoy!

Thanks! It's really nice to see for sure! I can't smell anything yet right now, but maybe at night it will have more scent.

My pleasure! : ) When the little blooms open, that's when the scent would be noticeable. It looks like it will be at least another couple of weeks before that happens.