Devil's Ivy / Epipremnum aureum

• Easy care
• Copes with low light
• Let it dry back partway
• Climbs
• Toxic to pets

Pothos — also sold as Devil's Ivy — is probably the most widely grown indoor plant in the world. Cafes trail it along shelves, stylists run it up walls, and most people's first plant is one. It earns that by being forgiving: it copes with dimmer rooms than most plants, it tells you when it's thirsty, and it bounces back from a missed watering within hours.

But tolerance isn't preference, and that's where most Pothos goes wrong. Kept in a dim corner, it survives for years — getting leggier, smaller-leaved and plainer as it goes. Given good light and something to climb, it becomes a different-looking plant altogether. Most of that difference comes down to light, water and whether it has something to climb.

The Plant Runner Method for Pothos

Light

Copes with low light, grows best in bright, indirect light. Variegated types need the brighter end.

Water

Let it dry back partway. The droop tells you if you've waited too long; staying wet is the real risk. Judge by weight.

Mix

Aroid Mix — a chunky mix that holds air and moisture at the same time.

Feed

Every second watering while it's putting out new leaves. Stop when growth stops.

Light

Bright, indirect light is where Pothos does its best. It will tolerate medium and even fairly low light — that's a big part of its reputation — but in lower light you get slower growth, smaller leaves and longer gaps between them along the vine. On variegated types like 'Marble Queen' and 'Golden', new leaves come through greener, because the pale parts of the leaf make little or no food of their own, and in dim conditions the plant can't afford them. If your Marble Queen looks less white than the one you saw at the nursery, light is almost always the answer.

Gentle morning sun does no harm and can brighten the variegation on the paler types. Hot afternoon sun through glass scorches the leaves. In an Australian home, a spot near an east- or north-facing window is the usual starting point; a few metres back from the window is where it starts coping rather than growing. If your space is genuinely dim, it does well under a grow light.

The Shadow Test: hold your hand about 10cm above a leaf during the brightest part of the day for that spot — not midday, since an east-facing room peaks in the morning and a west-facing one in the afternoon — and look at the shadow. A distinct shadow means light the plant can use. A faint one means you're in the lower part of its range. Barely any shadow at all means it will survive, but with long bare stretches of vine, small leaves and fading variegation. You're not looking for direct sun, and the edges of the shadow don't matter. You're checking whether enough light reaches the leaf to cast a visible shadow at all.

Water

Let Pothos dry back partway between drinks. It handles drying back better than many of the common indoor aroids, and the dry end is forgiving: leave it too long and the whole plant droops dramatically, then perks back up within hours of a drink. The wet end is the one that does damage. A root zone that stays wet — most often in cooler months, or in a dim spot where the plant is barely using water — rots the roots. Yellowing lower leaves can be an early sign; stems softening at the base are the real red flag.

The Pot Weight Test: water thoroughly, let it drain, then lift the pot. That's your full weight, and it's the reference point for everything after — commit it to your hands rather than your head. Lift it again every so often until you learn how quickly that particular pot loses weight.

Weight is the test because the surface misleads. The top of the mix dries first and fastest, so it can feel dry to the touch while there's still plenty of water sitting further down — which is how people overwater while believing they've checked.

Pothos is one of the easiest plants to learn the test on, because the droop tells you when you've waited too long — useful feedback while your hands are still calibrating. Water thoroughly until it runs from the drainage holes, let it drain completely, and don't leave the pot sitting in water. The plant tells you when it's ready. The calendar doesn't. There's more on the cycle in our guide to how to water houseplants.

Mix

Pothos is an aroid, and like the rest of the family its roots want air as much as water. In the wild it climbs trees with roots pressed against bark, where water runs past and air never runs out. A dense potting mix that stays wet around the roots is the fastest way to set it back; a chunky mix that holds moisture while keeping air in the root zone is what it's built for. It will cope in standard potting mix — it's tough — but it grows noticeably better in something with more structure.

The Finger Probe Test: this one reads the mix, not the watering decision — weight tells you when to water, the finger tells you whether the mix can still do its job. Push your index finger in as far as it'll go. If it moves through and you can feel distinct pieces — bark, grit, fibre — with some give between them, the structure is still working. If it meets a dense mass that smears like paste and holds the shape of your finger, the mix has broken down and lost its air. Water running around it rather than soaking in means it's gone hydrophobic. A wall of roots with barely any mix left means it's outgrown the pot. A sour or swampy smell suggests the root zone is staying too wet and poorly aerated — investigate now, not later.

Pothos tolerates a snug pot, so resist the urge to size up. Repot when the signals say so — the Finger Probe Test hitting a wall of roots, water running straight through, or a mix that's broken down — and go up one pot size at most. If the plant is still happy in its pot but the mix has collapsed, refresh the mix and put it back in the same pot. Spring is the window, not the reason.

Feed

Feed every second watering while the plant is putting out new leaves. When growth pauses — through winter, or in a spot with less light — stop feeding altogether. A diluted "keep it ticking over" feed doesn't help a plant that isn't growing; it just builds salts in the mix. And food won't fix growth that light isn't driving: if a Pothos has stalled, look at the light first.

Trailing, climbing and pruning

Pothos is sold in hanging pots, but it's a climber. In the wild it scales tree trunks, and it changes as it goes: climbing stems produce bigger leaves, and in the tropics mature plants on trees carry leaves the size of a dinner plate, sometimes split like a Monstera's. You won't see those indoors, but the direction still makes a difference. Give it a moss or coir pole, or train it along a wall, and the leaves get noticeably larger. Let it hang and they stay small.

Pruning is how you get a full plant rather than a few long strings. Left alone, Pothos tends to grow as a handful of long vines, bare towards the pot. Cut a vine just above a node — the bump on the stem where a leaf and aerial root emerge — and it will often branch from below the cut. The pieces you take off are your cuttings.

Propagation

Pothos is one of the most satisfying plants to propagate. Take a cutting with at least one node using clean, sharp pruning scissors, and sit it in water or straight into a damp, chunky mix. Roots usually appear within a couple of weeks in water; move it into mix once they're a few centimetres long. Several cuttings in one pot, or pushed back into the mother plant's pot near the base, fill it out quickly.

Cleaning the leaves

The broad, glossy leaves collect dust, especially on vines trailing from high shelves where nobody looks. A heavy layer of dust cuts the light reaching the leaf surface, which matters for a plant that's often already at the dim end of its range. Spray Neem Oil Leaf Shine onto a soft cloth rather than the foliage and wipe each leaf, supporting it from underneath. It helps lift dust and grime and leaves the foliage clean without a heavy residue — and it's a good moment to look the whole plant over.

Common problems

Yellowing lower leaves, soft stems at the base: Together, these point to a root zone staying too wet — soft stems are the stronger sign; yellowing on its own is only a clue. Lift the pot — if it's still heavy long after watering, that confirms it. Run the Finger Probe Test and check for a sour smell, and let it dry back further before the next drink.

Leggy growth, long gaps between leaves: Light. The plant is stretching towards it. Run the Shadow Test and move it brighter, then prune the bare vines back to get it branching again.

Variegation fading to greener growth: Check light first — the pale parts of the leaf need more light than the green. Better light helps variegated forms hold stronger patterning, though how much white or yellow appears still varies from leaf to leaf, and existing green leaves won't change back.

Leaves dropping or edges blackening in winter: Cold first — especially near single-glazed or south-facing windows at night. But lift the pot too: cold and a wet root zone often come together in winter, and a plant that's cold and sitting wet is in more trouble than either alone. Move it in from the glass and let it dry back.

Brown leaf tips: Check the root zone first — a root ball left to dry right out, or one staying wet, both show up at the tips. Dry air from heating comes after that.

Common pests

Mealybugs: White, cottony clusters in the joints where leaves meet the stem and along the undersides of leaves. Remove what you can see with a cotton bud, keep the plant apart from others, and check again at each watering until none reappear.

Spider mites: Fine pale speckling on the leaves and, in bad cases, fine webbing along the stems and undersides. More likely in warm, dry rooms. Move the plant away from others and give it a thorough shower, undersides included, then keep checking at each watering.

Why does a climbing Pothos grow bigger leaves?

Pothos has two lives. The plant you buy is in its juvenile form: small, heart-shaped, entire leaves on thin stems. In the wild, once a stem finds a tree and starts climbing, the plant gradually shifts into its adult form, with much larger leaves that eventually split and perforate. Botanists call this change in leaf shape across a plant's life heteroblasty, and climbing aroids are some of the most dramatic examples of it.

What triggers the switch isn't fully pinned down. Climbing clearly matters — stems hanging down stay juvenile, stems going up grow bigger leaves — and light, size and the plant's hormone balance all play a part. The logic makes sense for a plant that starts life on the dark forest floor: small leaves are enough while it searches for a trunk, and big ones pay off once it has climbed up into the light. Indoors, a pole and good light are enough to push it partway along that path. The split, dinner-plate leaves of the adult are a jungle thing.

Good to know