Where to Put a Snake Plant: Light, and the Winter Minimum

Decide where in the room it will live

A snake plant will survive almost anywhere indoors, which is why it is sold as a plant for dark corners. Surviving and looking good are different things, and where you put it decides which of the two you get.

Position	Suitability	Watch out for
South or east window behind sheer curtain	The best	Thick, upright leaves. Direct summer sun scorches
Six to ten feet into a bright room	Workable	Slow growth but it holds its shape. Water much less
A hall or bathroom with no window	Only as a short display	Swap it with a plant from a bright room monthly
Anywhere below 50F (10C) in winter	Not suitable	It rots at the base. Move it into a heated room

More light gives you a firmer plant

The most common complaint about a snake plant is that the leaves flop outwards instead of standing up. That is almost always light rather than water or feeding.

Compare the width of new leaves If a new leaf emerging from the center is narrower and thinner than the older outer leaves, it is short of light. Move it three feet closer to the window and judge on the next leaf.
Leaves falling outwards means dark Leaves that splay and lean have grown soft in low light. Move it somewhere brighter, and stake it in the meantime if it needs it.
Look for scorch marks Bleached patches or brown spots on the leaf surface mean the sun is too direct. Add a curtain layer or move it back from the glass.

Keep it above 50F in winter

This is the one hard limit. A snake plant is a succulent from a warm climate and cold, wet compost rots it from the base within days.

Stage	By day	At night
Late autumn	A bright window indoors	Close the curtains to keep the cold off
Winter	A window in a heated room	Below 50F (10C), move it into the room. No water
Early spring	At the window for the light	Once mild nights are settled, leave it there

Kept dry, it takes a surprising amount of cold. It is cold and wet compost together that kills it, so the winter watering matters more than the temperature alone.

Summer outdoors

A summer outside firms the plant up noticeably, but only if you introduce it gradually and keep the rain off the compost.

Start in shade on a dull day Put it out on an overcast day in full shade, on the north side of the house. Move it to bright shade a week later.
Keep it under cover Prolonged rain keeps the compost wet and the roots rot. Stand it under an overhang or a balcony roof, and do not use a saucer.
Bring it in before nights cool Once nights start falling below about 59F (15C), bring it in. Check the base of the leaves and the bottom of the pot for pests first.

Pot weight and falling over

The tall varieties become top heavy, and a plant that falls over repeatedly ends up with creased and broken leaves. Match the pot to the variety.

Variety type	Tendency to fall	What to do
Tall upright types	High, leaves reach three feet	A heavy pot, and stand it against a wall
Small rosette types	Low	Fine on a shelf or a window sill
Cylindrical leaved types	Moderate as the leaves lengthen	Tie the leaves together or weight the pot

Problems caused by where it stands

Snake plant symptoms are unusually easy to read because there are so few of them. Almost everything comes back to light, cold or overwatering.

Symptom	Likely cause	What to do
New leaves thin and narrow	Not enough light	Move to a brighter window and judge the next leaf
Bleached patches on the leaf	Scorched by direct sun	Back behind a curtain. The marks do not fade
The base of a leaf goes soft and it falls	Cold and wet together	Somewhere warmer. Stop watering and pull the rotted leaf
Brown, dry leaf tips	The draft from a heater	Move it out of the airflow
An outer leaf dies off one at a time	Normal ageing	Cut it off at the base

Written byYasuGrowing vegetables and fruit in Chiba, Japan, and building Gadenin. Corrections are welcome. 15 years of growing.