Last updated on September 26th, 2022 at 12:06 pm
Do you tend your garden for the beauty it has? Most garden plants are grown specifically for ornamental purposes, and the ornamental part of most garden plants is their flowers.
You may want to plant pothos in your garden but aren’t exactly sure whether they will bloom. And being a flower-loving person myself, I can say that it’s a valid concern.
Pothos do flower, but flowering occurs only when they have grown fully into maturity. Flowering for this plant is rare to come across since they are mostly grown only to their juvenile stage. Mostly, when pothos grow to maturity, they grow in the wild, where they have the freedom to grow and climb up on closely located trees.
Do Golden Pothos Flower?
Golden pothos do form flowers. The flowers of this plant are formed from blooms, and the blooms are formed on the stalks of pothos. Nonetheless, the flowers of this plant are rare. In fact, many gardeners never get to see flowers of this plant because they grow it only for a short period without allowing it to mature.
Golden pothos is classified as a variety of the traditional pothos and is the most popular species of pothos, identified by its green and yellow variegated leaves.
Flowering for golden pothos is the same as for normal pothos: its flowers are formed only when grown to maturity with very long and variegated broad leaves.
In its entire life, golden pothos can grow to 66 feet tall and have flowers formed only when fully mature, just like normal pothos.
Being the most popular pothos, their leaves are easy to identify when they are mature. The leaves grow to 3ft long and become oval-shaped with holes along the midrib.
Will My Pothos Not Flower?
Pothos, in many cases, may not flower. There are many possibilities of growing pothos without them not flowering, as most people grow pothos without them ever flowering. The main reason may be that pothos in homes can grow only up to their juvenile stage without completing maturity; maturity takes longer.
To know that pothos have reached maturity, they must have grown to about 20 to 40ft long and 3 to 6ft wide. Also, when freely climbed and rolled over a tree, they use the tree’s leaves to make canopy covering.
When you do not allow your pothos to grow to maturity, they fail to bloom.
Primarily, like many other plants, pothos require sunlight and well-drained soil for proper growth. Also, aside from the requirements for growth, pothos have many other requirements for flowering, one of which is the formation of matured leaves.
So, some possible reasons why your pothos plant may not flower include as below:
1. Inadequate Sunlight
A major requirement for pothos to grow and make flowers is sunlight. Pothos will not flower when grown indoors or in places with direct sunlight.
Sunlight is necessary for growth by all green plants as it aids photosynthesis, a process that involves the production of energy for green plants. Pothos is a green plant. Therefore, it requires sunlight for growth.
This plant does best in partial shade conditions year-round, as too much sunlight will burn the leaves, causing them to lose their marbled quality.
This would affect the plant causing a delay in the formation of flowers, especially, when the parts affected contain flower buds.
2. Improper Soil Drainage
Soil drainage is another paramount requirement for pothos. A richly drained soil will aid flowering in pothos.
Without proper soil drainage, absorption of nutrients will be impaired the soil will accumulate as much water.
Lack of soil drainage will cause pothos not to flower as the nutrients in the soil will not be properly absorbed by the plant.
3. Improper Temperature
Temperature is very important when growing pothos. As a result, always ensure you keep your pothos in the healthiest temperature possible. The best condition to have them is between 60-85 °F all through the year.
Furthermore, pothos is capable of withstanding regular cold snaps up to 50°F. However, if the temperature goes below this, the plant will die.
4. Poor Watering
Water is essential for every plant, including pothos. With pothos, under-watering is often not an issue as pothos withstand high degrees of drought. Underwatering is often better than overwatering when pothos are involved.
Underwatering will cause stunted growth to the plant, and this will cause it not to produce flowers. Importantly, it would be best if you reduced watering during the fall and winter seasons.
This way, you can allow the top quarter-inch of soil to dry out totally before more water is added.
Consequently, pothos require watering only when the first quarter inch of soil begins to feel dry to the touch. If not so, you will end up overwatering.
Overwatering will cause the plant’s roots to rot which may lead to the inability of the plant to produce flowers and possibly may lead to the death of the plant.
Another reason why photos will not flower is based on the reason for cultivation, mainly for ornamental purposes. Pothos do not flower during cultivation.
Cultivators usually grow only the juvenile phase as a houseplant. Additionally, the plant begins to flower only in the mature phase.
Like forests, these plants produce several erect flower stalks in the wild. Also, they all have a cream spathe mark, and purple surrounds the spadix.
5. Wrong Pruning Method
When pothos are not properly pruned, the after effect will be bad. For example, when blooms of pothos are cut off during pruning, automatically, flowers will not be formed, especially when it’s summer.
The right way of pruning pothos is by cutting out bushy parts of the plants, especially leaves that are covered by shade. Pruning of pothos should usually be 2 inches or 5 cm above the soil line.
Can you get Pothos to make Flowers?
You can get pothos to make flowers as flowers of pothos are grown from their stalks. Often the flowers can’t appear when the plant is not fully mature. There is no natural way of encouraging flower growth of pothos apart from applying fertilizers to speed up the growth process but thereby increasing the maturity.
Pothos will generally flower under the right conditions, such as, the right soil type, well-drained soil, right temperature, right amount of sunlight, etc. Moreover, flowering occurs when the plant gets mature and big enough.
Fertilizer application increases nutrient absorption to pothos, as earlier stated, fertilizers work better when the right soil conditions are available.
Fertilizers generally are meant to speed up the activities of a plant. They contain nutrients that are sometimes lacking in the soil.
Apart from the natural means, getting pothos to make flowers is by applying fertilizers which speeds up the growth and maturity process.
Conclusion
Pothos is one of those plants that are often seen without flowers. The entire life of pothos and its ability to make flowers is dependent on the conditions made available and how patient you are with the plant, flowers are not a necessity for pothos, and they perform their functions even without the flowers.
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