How to keep your pothos hanging baskets looking fresh and new

I Love having hanging baskets in my home because it fills in the empty corners of a room. A popular type of vine used for hanging baskets is pothos. The leaf colors will vary from all green, neon/chartreuse, green with yellow marbling to green with white marbling. In order to keep them looking new and fresh from the plant shop it needs to be pruned regularly and strategically. The key is being proactive and pruning before it looks like it needs to be pruned to stimulate new growth and maintain a full, lush look. 

If you keep up with pruning all you should need to do is periodically prune the longest vines back toward the soil line so at least one leaf remains. Prune about a quarter inch in front of the leaf so a new shoot has a little room to grow. This strategy allows new growth to start at the base of the plant so the entire basket will consist of full continuous vines. 

If you start to notice that there are gaps in the vine, especially starting back at the soil level, then the plant should be pruned more frequently to stimulate new growth. If allowed to keep growing, these vines with missing leaves will eventually make the plant look stringy and it will lose that fresh lush look. Additionally, if pruning only takes place in the middle of the vine there likely won’t be much new growth coming from the crown of the plant, and it will start to look sparse and flat instead of full and round.

Plants can be pruned vigorously while they are actively growing. This is generally in the spring and summer months, but don’t go by the calendar. Instead, start watching for new growth in late winter. This is also an indication that you can start fertilizing if needed.

Please let me know if you have any questions. There is a video on my IG page https://www.instagram.com/p/CKUH6fynqBw/
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💚 Lindsay

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Before & After
A third  of the vines were pruned back to the rim of the hanging basket. Once new growth has started more of the longest vines can be pruned.

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Look for vines that have large gaps where leaves have been fallen off and identify the longest vines to determine what to prune. A general rule of thumb is to  remove no more than 1/3 of the plant.

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Prune all the way back to just inside the rim of the pot, making sure at least one leaf remains. This will allow the vine to produce a new shoot and a new grow from the base of the plant. This allows the top of the basket to remain full of leaves and gives it that 'fresh from the plant shop' look.

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