The plant to start with. Golden, ‘Marble Queen’, ‘N’ Joy’, ‘Green Jade’ and the big-leaved ‘Giant Hawaiian’ on a totem, plus ‘Cebu Blue’ and ‘Mint’ — seven pothos, all with the same easy care.
If you have never kept a houseplant alive, buy a pothos. It grows in almost any light short of a closet, tolerates dry air-conditioned air, forgets about missed waterings, and roots in a glass of water when you want another one. It trails from a shelf, climbs a totem, or fills a hanging basket, and it does all this in a Queen Creek house without asking for humidity or special water.
We commonly carry seven: the classic golden pothos, cream-marbled ‘Marble Queen’, compact white-and-green ‘N’ Joy’, solid ‘Green Jade’, and the huge-leaved ‘Giant Hawaiian’ on a totem — all Epipremnum aureum — plus two E. pinnatum forms, the silvery-blue ‘Cebu Blue’ and the variegated ‘Mint’. The rest of the bench is on our Houseplants page.
These are the pothos varieties we commonly carry. Availability changes week to week and season to season, so call (480) 987-3308 or stop in to see what’s on the bench today.
the classic pothos, in baskets and on a totem
The original: heart-shaped green leaves splashed with gold. The most shade-tolerant of the variegated forms and the fastest-growing.
Leaves heavily marbled in cream and white. Slower than golden pothos and needs brighter light to keep the variegation — give it an east window.
Small, compact leaves with clean white and green sectors. A tidier, slower plant for a shelf or desk; wants bright indirect light or it greens up.
Solid, deep glossy green — no variegation to lose, so it tolerates the dimmest spot of any pothos. Fast and lush in a basket.
Golden pothos grown up a moss totem, which lets it make the huge, hand-sized leaves it never produces when trailing. Keep the totem damp and it keeps climbing.
Narrow, arrow-shaped leaves with a silvery-blue sheen on a fast vine. Climbs or trails; mature leaves on a pole eventually split like a small monstera.
A variegated pinnatum with mint-green and cream marbling on the narrow leaves. Brighter light keeps the variegation; slower than ‘Cebu Blue’.
Looking for one that isn’t listed? Ask — we can usually suggest a close match or tell you when it tends to come around.
The care tag was written somewhere else. This is the Queen Creek version.
Pothos grows in bright indirect light, medium light and even the dim end of a room — but the variegated forms need brighter light to hold their pattern. Golden and ‘Green Jade’ manage in a north room; ‘Marble Queen’, ‘N’ Joy’ and ‘Mint’ want a spot near an east window or they revert to green. Direct sun through west glass in summer scorches all of them.
Pothos tolerates our dry indoor air about as well as any houseplant. Brown, crispy leaf tips point to a plant sitting right in the airflow of an AC or heater vent, or to being chronically underwatered. Move it out of the draft; that is usually the whole fix.
On a moss totem or plank, kept damp, pothos produces progressively larger leaves — that is how ‘Giant Hawaiian’ gets its size. Trailing plants keep small leaves. Either way, pinch or cut back in spring to keep the plant full. Cuttings with a node root in water in one to two weeks.
Water when the top two inches of mix are dry, then thoroughly, and empty the saucer. Weekly to every ten days in summer indoors, every two weeks or more in winter. Soft, yellow leaves with wet soil mean overwatering; limp, curling leaves with dry soil mean it is thirsty, and it bounces back within hours. Flush the pot every couple of months to clear hard-water salts.
Any well-draining potting mix with some perlite, in a pot with a hole. Repot every two years or when roots fill the pot. Feed a balanced liquid fertilizer at half strength monthly from March through October. Trailing stems get long and bare toward the pot; cut them back to a leaf and stick the cuttings in the top to refill.
All pothos are toxic to cats and dogs if chewed. Mealybugs and spider mites turn up in dry winter air; rinse and treat with insecticidal soap. Outdoors, a fully shaded, covered patio from March to May and October to the first 45°F night; summer heat and any sun burn it.
Yellowing, spots, no new growth — snap a photo of the plant and its window and we’ll diagnose it at the bench. Advice is free.
We stock indoor potting mix, orchid bark and perlite for the chunky blends aroids and epiphytes want, balanced houseplant fertilizers, insecticidal soap and neem for the usual mealybug and mite visits, and moss poles, hoops and saucers. The pottery yard has terracotta, glazed and lightweight pots from 4-inch up, plus hanging baskets and cache pots.
Not enough light. Variegated forms — ‘Marble Queen’, ‘N’ Joy’, ‘Mint’ — revert to green in dim spots. Move it closer to an east window (not into direct sun) and new leaves will come in variegated. Cut off all-green stems, which grow faster and take over.
When the top two inches of mix are dry: weekly to every ten days in summer indoors, every two weeks or more in winter. It tolerates drying out far better than staying wet.
Yes — it contains calcium oxalate crystals that irritate the mouth and cause drooling and vomiting if chewed. Keep it out of reach of cats and dogs.
Soft yellow leaves with damp soil mean overwatering; let it dry out and check the drainage. One yellow leaf now and then near the base is normal aging. Yellow with crispy edges in a bright hot window is sunburn.
Cut the long stems back to a few leaves from the pot, root the cuttings in water for two weeks, and plant them back into the same pot. Pinching tips regularly keeps it bushy afterward.
‘Green Jade’ and golden pothos handle the least light. ‘Marble Queen’, ‘N’ Joy’ and ‘Mint’ need bright indirect light to stay variegated; ‘Cebu Blue’ sits in between.
Pothos live on the houseplant bench; any staff member can point you to them. Locally owned, and a short drive from San Tan Valley, Gilbert, Chandler and Mesa.