It was not until I found the book on a cart being given away by my local library to make room for new titles that I even knew there was such a thing as The New York Times Book of Houseplants.  The copyright indicates a publication date of 1973. Its author Joan Lee Faust was, inter alia, the Garden Editor at the Times. The Garden Editor! What a concept.

The description in the book for the snake plant (Sansevieria trifasciata) called the plant “a favorite of yesteryear” even back in the nineteen-seventies. I keep several pots full of them. The text indicates that: “[m]ature plants in sunny rooms often send up spikes of white blooms.”  This spring, mine did; it was awesome.