It became necessary for me to remove one of the two rosettes from the newly potted Caesar Jr. I had begun to smell that sweet graham cracker-cinnamon fragrance from the drooping plant, and this time I had the benefit of comparing the odor to the other two pots. Only the earthy smell of dirt from Caesar II and III. After scooping out the slumping leaves, attached roots, and adjoining soil, the rest of the saccharine scent faded from Caesar Jr, thus supporting my theory that the aroma is decay related.

The at-home autopsy revealed the large sagging leaf to also be victim to the mysterious ‘wet-looking’ splotch spreading from the base.

I cut away the damaged section – always with sanitized shears – to see if I could propagate the remains. After a couple days in water, it too developed a blemish, spreading from the bottom center. When held up to a background light, the patch was dark brown at the center and rather transparent along the edges of the mark, before connecting to the rest of the healthy green opaque plant.

I cut again, and laid out the ‘healthy’ tip on a paper towel to ‘callus’ – a strategy recommended at least for soil propagating snake plant leaves, wherein the leaf is not immediately put in soil or water after pruning from the parent plant. The few days left to aerate allow the wound to heal and scab in a way to prevent entry of harmful bacteria. Unfortunately, a couple days after this final cut, with no introduction to water and left in a low-lit area so as to not scorch the plant, this cutting too succumbed to the mysterious ailment, albeit spreading from a bottom side rather than center. RIP

I also accepted defeat this week with another snake plant cutting, which had shriveled up severely in it’s cup of propagation water.