Growing and Caring for Pothos

Some houseplants are just classics, and pothos has been wildly popular for decades in offices and apartments, homes and gardens. There are good reasons for this; pothos (Epipremnum aureum) is fast growing, easy to care for, and offers an understated beauty that both stands on its own and augments many types of home décor or houseplant arrangements. For those of us in search of a house or office plant, a starter plant for an indoor garden, or just a touch of green in a favorite room, pothos may be the answer. So let’s dig in and learn all about growing and caring for pothos!

A quick safety note: When ingested pothos can be toxic to both pets and to people. Cats and dogs are particularly susceptible, but both children and adult humans should avoid eating/ingesting this plant. For readers in the USA: if you think your pet has had ingested or eating some pothos, please contact an emergency veterinarian or the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center at (888) 426- 4435. If you think a human has ingested pothos, contact the National Capital Poison Center at 1-800-222-1222. If you’re in another country, please identify similar appropriate resources before you need them!

All About Pothos

One of the things we learned in researching this article is that Epipremnum aureum is a plant of many names, including pothos, golden pothos, devil’s vine, devil’s ivy, hunter’s robe, silver vine, Ceylon creeper, and Solomon Islands ivy. The latter hints at the plant’s origins; Epipremnum aureum is native to the Solomon Islands, New Guinea, and parts of northern Queensland. We’re using the scientific name “Epipremnum aureum” as that seems to be the current convention, but historically there’s been debate about the classification and nomenclature of this plant. Pothos becomes a popular home and garden plant in the late 19^th and early 20^th century as part of a trend towards tropicals and “exotics” in homes and gardens across North America and Europe. More recently, interest in pothos has grown due to its apparent contributions to indoor air quality, with research suggesting that it may remove some contaminants from the air.

Pothos grows fast—up to 18 inches/45 cm a day under the right circumstances—and there’s an interesting reason behind this. As a houseplant, pothos rarely reaches its full size, tending to max out at around 40 inches/2 meters in length. In the wild, however, pothos is a large climbing vine that can grow to around 65 feet/20 meters in length with 2-inch/5 cm stems and leaves up to 40 inches/100 cm long! This can be a problem in some tropical areas, where pothos has become an invasive species that crowds out native plants but it’s generally not an issue in the US and Canada. However gardeners in Florida and Puerto Rico may wish to take care, as pothos has become a recognized invasive in both places.

Growing Pothos as a Houseplant

As we said before, pothos is easy to grow. However it does have a few needs that should be met if we want it to thrive in our indoor garden spaces or as a houseplant. Pothos does best in well-drained potting soil. Just regular potting soil or a regular container mix will do, as will any draining container. It does prefer a slightly acidic soil pH, but will tolerate other conditions. Likewise, Epipremnum aureum is very tolerant of a variety of lighting conditions, thriving in shade, sun, or even florescent light. This in part explains its popularity as an office plant and among apartment dwellers. As a tropical plant, pothos does require temperatures above 50F/10C and prefers temps between 65-80F/18-27C. These plants also like high humidity, but will adapt to drier conditions if need be. Some indoor gardeners keep pothos inside an enclosure with other tropicals to increase the ambient humidity, or put it in a room like the bathroom or kitchen that tends to be more humid.

Let’s talk about watering, which is one of the things that makes pothos easy for plant owners and indoor gardeners. Under normal conditions, water pothos when the top 2 inches/5 cm of soil are dry or when the plant starts to droop. Drooping is a sign that pothos is getting thirsty and this behavior makes it easy to tell when it’s time to start watering. Typically pothos needs to be watered once a week or so, but as with all plants observation is key to giving it the best care.

One final quick note about pothos care: for reasons that aren’t fully understood, this plant very rarely produces flowers either in cultivation or in the wild. While it can produce an inflorescence, this doesn’t happen often; despite its popularity flowering in Epipremnum aureum wasn’t observed in the wild until 1964 and the most recent recorded case in cultivation happened in 2023. You can see photos of that rare occurrence in this Reddit post.  So if your pothos isn’t flowering, don’t worry—that’s normal!

We hope this encourages you to give pothos a try. Especially if you’re new to gardening or to houseplants, this one is easy to care for, accessible in most garden stores or nurseries, and just an all-around great starter plant. If you’re looking for an office plant or houseplant gift, pothos is a great choice. They’re fun plants and we have a few in our offices and homes and we’d love to see yours if you’d care to share pics! Gardzen is all about community and we love to hear from you.