Plant in a bright light in a well-drained soil. Can be grown as a crevice plant outdoors and seems to be able to cope with our winter rainfall, but probably best suited to container or in a hanging basket.

Sansevieria ballyi is native to the Coastal Province of south Kenya where it is found growing in the shade at around the 300-foot elevation. The name for the genus was originally Sanseverinia as named by the Italian botanist Vincenzo Petagna in honor of his patron, Pietro Antonio Sanseverino, the Count of Chiaromonte (1724-1771), but the name was altered for unknown reasons by the Swedish naturalist Carl Peter Thunberg, possibly influenced by the name of Raimondo di Sangro (1710–1771), prince of San Severo in Italy. We originally received this plant as Sansevieria Bally 12681 and it has long been in cultivation so named but was officially described by Len Newton in 2004 to honor the Swiss botanist Dr. Dr Peter René Oscar Bally (1895– 1980). Bally was a chemist and self-taught taxonomic botanist and botanical illustrator who worked and resided in Tanzania before moving to Kenya in the 1930s to become the botanist at the Coryndon Museum in Nairobi. He traveled widely and was the leading authority of his time on succulent plants of east and northeast Africa. He was awarded an honorary doctorate degree by the University of Basel in 1973. Bally first collected this Sansevieria in 1963 at Kivuko Hill in southeast Kenya on a rocky ridge on a private ranch in Taita District, where it reportedly remains plentiful to this day.

Sansevieria have long been placed in the Agavaceae, later in the Dracaenaceae and by some in the Ruscaceae family, but most recently has been placed in the subfamily Nolinoideae within the Asparagaceae family. Molecular phylogenetic studies have persuaded some to include Sansevieria in the genus Dracaena, which would make this plant's name Dracaena ballyi. Because of considerable disagreement over this change, the long standing use of its old name, and so not to cause our own and customer confusion, we continue to list this plant as a Sansevieria. We first received this plant from John Bleck in the 1980s and later from Sansevieria collector Alice Waidhofer. We also have in our collection a plant called 'Minnie' that also came from John Bleck and it is thought to be a small form of this species. 

The information about Sansevieria ballyi displayed on this web page is based on our research conducted in the nursery's horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also include observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments we receive from others and welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share cultural information that would aid others in growing this plant.