It really is not sinful to like Scindapsus. In fact, it can be very enjoyable to add some to your plant collection. These are a lesser-known houseplant, but are rapidly becoming very popular. They are very similar to the vining Philodendrons, and are most often confused with Pothos (Epipremnum). All of these aforementioned plants belong to the Araceae family. The Scindapsus come from Southeast Asia, Philodendrons from Central/South America, and Pothos from the Tropical Pacific. Although they come from different parts of the world, they all live in rainforest habitats, and therefore will do well when grown together. The thing that most stands out about the Scindapsus species are the unique colors. They are generally a gray or green color. Now that base color has, to more or less degree, some silver colors overlaid, except for some that don’t have any additional color at all.
The nicest part of Scindapsus is that they have very similar care to their look-a-like cousins. They generally like to have the top inch or two of soil dry out between waterings. The soil should be that used for aroids. If using a commercial houseplant soil, add some extra perlite and/or orchid bark to lighten it up a bit. The growth habit could be up a moss pole, or in a hanging basket. I prefer the hanging basket on these as I really like the look of the long vines hanging over the edge of the pot.
They are fairly easy to propagate. Take a cutting between the nodes – the place where the leaves grow out from. Trim this and put it in soil. Keep this in a moist and humid environment. Before long, there will be new growth tips emerging from the node. At that point, start adding some fertilizer to really kick things into gear. These plants adapt well to growing in our typical home environment, but they do not like it super dry. They tend to grow larger leaves in more humid environments, so think about putting one in the bathroom near the shower.
There are some fabulous new varieties of these plants, but because they are not as common yet therefore somewhat tricky to find. It seems there are new varieties coming to market more frequently now. Many of them are variations on the amount of silver in the leaves, or the pattern the silver coloration makes. There are two main species regularly offered so far in the trade. Scindapsus pictus, which has more of a round leaf, and Scindapsus treubii, which has more of an elongated, narrow leaf. There are more species, and I am sure we will see the “house friendly” ones coming to market in the future.
