Pothos

Few plants forgive as much as a pothos. It comes from the humid forests of the western Pacific, where it germinates on the forest floor and then climbs the nearest trunk, growing bigger leaves the higher it gets. Indoors it does the same thing at a smaller scale, which tells you most of what it wants. It will trail from a shelf, climb a moss pole, root from a cutting in a glass of water within days, and shrug off a missed watering or two. Its only real demands are compost that drains and enough light to keep the gold in its leaves.

Light

Medium indirect light is ideal: a spot across the room from a bright window, or a shelf that catches morning sun. It survives in genuinely dim corners, which is why it turns up in so many offices, but the variegation is the price. In low light the new leaves come out plain green and stay that way, and the pale sections never return on leaves that already exist. Too much direct sun is the other extreme and scorches the cream patches to brown.

Turn the pot every couple of weeks so the growth is even, and give a climbing plant something to hold on to. A pothos on a moss pole makes leaves several times larger than the same plant trailing from a shelf, because the aerial roots can grip and feed.

Water

Water when the top 4 to 5 cm of compost is dry, which is roughly weekly in summer and every ten to fourteen days in winter. A slight droop in the newest leaves is the plant asking, and it recovers within hours of a drink. Soak it thoroughly until water runs from the base, then empty the saucer.

The failure mode is the opposite. Compost that never dries turns the lower leaves yellow one at a time, and then the stems go soft and black at the base. If you are unsure, wait a day.

Feeding and repotting

Feed monthly at half strength from spring to early autumn, and stop in winter. Repot every second year in spring, one pot size up, into ordinary house plant compost with a handful of perlite. A pothos that has filled its pot dries out within a day or two of watering, which is the usual sign it is time.

Pruning and propagation

Trim long bare stems back to just above a leaf to keep the plant full rather than stringy, and do it in spring or summer so the cut points break new growth quickly. Every trimming is a cutting.

Propagation is as simple as houseplants get. Cut a piece of stem with two or three leaves and at least one node, the small brown bump where a leaf meets the stem, and stand it in water. Roots appear in about two to four weeks. Pot it once the roots are three to four centimetres long, and expect it to sulk for a fortnight while it swaps water roots for soil roots. Pushing cuttings straight into damp compost skips that stage and works nearly as well.

Ailments

Yellow lower leaves nearly always mean too much water; check the compost before doing anything else. Leaves losing their pattern is a light problem. Brown crisp edges point to dry air or a long dry spell, and long stretches of bare stem between leaves mean the plant is reaching for a window it cannot find. The ledger below has the rest.

Aerial roots and moss poles

The small brown nubs along the stem are aerial roots, and they are what the plant uses to climb. Left trailing they do nothing much. Pressed against a damp moss pole they grip and take up water, and the plant responds by making noticeably larger leaves as it goes up, which is the difference between a pothos that looks like a houseplant and one that looks like the forest climber it actually is. Tie the stems loosely to the pole as they grow and keep the moss damp when you water.