Hanging Pothos: How To Display This Unkillable Houseplant

If you’re a fan of houseplants, you probably enjoy finding the best ways to display your lovely plants. For the vining pothos, displaying it as a hanging plant is often an excellent choice.

This guide will cover the best ways to display hanging pothos. We will also provide tips to ensure it thrives!

So, without further ado, let’s jump in!

What is Pothos

Before we discuss the beautiful ways to display hanging pothos, we’ll briefly provide an overview of this lovely plant. Pothos, Epipremnum aureum, is native to the Solomon Islands of the South Pacific. In their natural habitat, they thrive as understory plants that climb on trees. In their tropical habitat, these beauties can grow up to 65 feet high and grow stunning variegated leaves that can reach up to 3 feet long and wide. As houseplants that remain in their juvenile phase typically only reaching up to 10 feet high, and leaves that grow to a mere few inches wide and long.

Over a dozen cultivars of this plant are available with various leaf colors, variegation, and shapes. Known as an “unkillable” houseplant, pothos is notably low-maintenance and a great choice for beginner indoor plant growers.

Displaying Hanging Pothos

Since pothos is a vine, it looks incredible displayed in a hanging basket from which its vines gracefully cascade. Not only does pothos look great this way, but it can also keep the plant out of reach of pets who may munch on the leaves, as pothos contains highly irritating microscopic calcium oxalate crystals.

Displayed as a hanging plant, pothos livens up and adds depth and interest to your space. You can choose to hang your plant in a couple of different ways. The main methods are to either hang the plant from the ceiling in a hanging basket or to display the plant from a pot attached to a high-up place on your wall.

Hanging Pothos from the Ceiling

To display pothos in a hanging basket, you’ll want to secure the attachment for the basket to the ceiling. You can do this a few ways, but we’ve outlined a common method below:

1. Gather your materials. This will include your planting pot and basket with the attached chains, straps, or wires. If your basket doesn’t already include a ceiling hook, pick a hook rated to withstand the basket’s weight, your plant, the potting medium, a liner, and water. You’ll also want to ensure the ceiling hook works for your specific setup (i.e. exposed beams, drywall ceiling, etc.). You’ll also want to gather a step stool or ladder and a drill with an appropriately sized drill bit for the hook (usually around 5/8th-1 inch).
2. Mark the location for your hook with a pencil, drill a pilot hole and install the hook into an exposed beam, joist, or rafter. You may need a stud finder to locate a joist or rafter through a finished ceiling.
3. Once the hook is installed, line the pot with landscape fabric. This will let water flow through the fabric into the drainage hole(s) but won’t allow the soil or potting medium to leech through. Especially for pothos which does not thrive with soggy roots, you’ll want to make sure you’re using a well-draining growing medium and a pot with drainage holes. Of course, you don’t want the water to drain into your room. So, you’ll want to either add a saucer pan to collect and then remove the water, place a bucket underneath the plant for its weekly watering, or place a ground-level houseplant underneath the hanging pothos to catch the excess water.
4. Place your potted pothos into the basket and enjoy the trailing vines!

Hanging Pothos from a Wall Attachment

There are a couple of ways to display pothos from a wall attachment. Essentially, the two main methods are using wall plant holders or installing a bar that stands off the wall where you can hang basket hooks. Since we’ve already talked about hanging baskets, we’ll cover how to install wall plant holders in detail. One great method for displaying pothos from the wall is to use a wall ring planter. To install, follow these steps:

1. First, you’ll want to pick out your wall ring planter, a flat bracket with a metal ring attached, which comes in varying sizes to hold a range of pots. Make sure the ring and pot size are compatible, so the pot is held snuggly by the ring.
2. Once you’ve chosen the planter, choose a spot on your wall, and, using a stud finder, mark the point to drill your pilot hole.
3. Once your pilot hole is drilled, you can screw the bracket directly into the stud, and you’re ready for planting.
4. Again, ensure the pot has drainage for your pothos and it’s lined with landscape fabric. Add a saucer to catch excess water, temporarily place a bucket beneath, or let excess water run into a potted plant below.

Hanging Pothos: Tips for Success

If the vines of your hanging pothos are especially long, they may hang too close to the ground. One beautiful way to solve this problem is to train your vines to run up along your wall by installing small plant climbing mounts. Simply install the mounts along the wall at various heights and gently weave the pothos vines through the supports. Placing the mounts at varying heights creates a lovely, meandering appearance for your climbing vines.

Additionally, it’s important to choose locations to hang your pothos where they will still receive enough indirect sunlight (at least 8 hours a day) or enough artificial lighting (between 10,000-20,000 lux). Lastly, continue watering your hanging pothos about once a week. Ensure you water them when the top 2-3 inches of the potting medium are dry.

Up Next:

• 10 Hanging Plants to Consider in Your Home
• Types of Hanging Succulents
• 6 Monstera Houseplant Benefits

The photo featured at the top of this post is © Lifesummerlin/Shutterstock.com