How to care for a pothos (and grow it huge)

If you've never had a plant, start here. Pothos (Epipremnum aureum) tolerates low light, irregular watering and being forgotten for two weeks, and it keeps on growing.

The basics

• Light: medium to low, indirect. With more light the leaves are more variegated; with little, greener and smaller. Never direct sun.
• Water: when the top few centimeters (an inch or so) of soil are dry. Once a week in summer, every ten to fifteen days in winter.
• It tells you: when the leaves start to look a little droopy and soft, it's asking for water. It recovers within hours.
• Temperature: any indoor temperature. Below 10°C (50°F) it suffers.

How to grow it huge

A pothos left to grow freely ends up as one long, bare vine. To make it full and bushy:

1. Prune it. Cut the vines just after a node. Two new shoots will grow from there. It's the only way to fill it out.
2. Replant the cuttings in the same pot. They root on their own and the plant looks twice as full.
3. Give it something to climb. With a moss pole the leaves grow much bigger: in nature it climbs trees, and leaf size increases with height.
4. Rotate the pot a quarter turn every week so it grows evenly.

Propagating it in water (for free)

It's the most satisfying thing about this plant:

1. Cut a section of vine with two or three leaves, just below a node (that little brown bump on the stem).
2. Remove the lowest leaf.
3. Jar of water, indirect light.
4. Change the water every three or four days.
5. In two or three weeks there will be roots. When they're five centimeters (2 in) long, move it to soil.

One pothos turns into ten. It's the best homemade gift there is.

Important warning

Pothos is toxic if chewed, for people and pets. It contains calcium oxalate crystals that irritate the mouth and throat. It's rarely serious, but if you have a cat that bites plants or a small child, hang it up high. A hanging pothos is the natural solution to this problem.