The marble queen pothos is a stunning variation on the standard pothos plant that is sure to stand out in your home. I’d like to answer some questions about how to care for marble queen pothos.
Originally from French Polynesia, the marble queen pothos is now a plant commonly found in tropical and temperate regions. It can be recognized by its variegation pattern, which is green splashed with cream or white areas. Juvenile leaves tend to be primarily green, but as the plant matures, the leaves are almost entirely cream with only small patches of green.
Marble queen pothos grow in long, trailing vines. Because of this, this plant is perfect for a hanging basket. It can also be trained to grow up a pole or wall like it would climb up a tree in the wild.
I love that the marble queen pothos looks much fancier and more high-maintenance than it really is. It is a beautiful tropical plant that is just as easy to care for as any other variety of pothos. Of course, there are still some things to keep in mind when it comes to caring for your marble queen pothos. Let’s dive in and learn more about marble queen pothos care.
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Marble Queen Pothos Quick Care
Scientific name: Epipremnum Aureum
Common name: Marble queen pothos
Water: When the top inch or two of soil feels dry. Be careful not to overwater as root rot is common.
Light: Bright, indirect light is best. Avoid direct sunlight.
Soil: Any well-draining houseplant mix will work.
Humidity: Does not need extremely high humidity, but around 30-60% is preferable.
Temperature: Standard room temperature, 65 – 85°F (18 – 30°C).
Propagation: Place stem cuttings in water or moist potting mix to propagate.
Toxicity: If ingested, toxic to people and pets.
If you’ve ever looked up some information about your plant, and then forgotten it immediately, this care sheet is for you. Plants all have different needs. Keep track of the various requirements for lighting, water, and other things; as well as any other notes you want to take.
Print out copies for each plant you have, and create your own plant care binder! All of your information will be easily accessible in one place.
Check out this beautiful planter at Sproutandabout on Esty!
How To Care for Marble Queen Pothos
Water
I am a huge fan of the simplicity of watering my plants once a week, and my marble queen pothos is no exception. I find that this is the right amount of time that allows the water to be fully absorbed, but not so long that the plant dries out too much.
An easy way to tell if a plant needs water is by sticking your finger a few inches into the dirt. If the soil is still moist there, you don’t need to water. You can also use a moisture meter for a more accurate reading.
If you had to choose between under and overwatering your marble queen pothos, underwatering would be better. They are more tolerant to drought than sitting in constantly damp soil.
If the plant starts to look soft and squishy with yellowing leaves, it’s a sign that it is being overwatered. Cut back on your watering frequency, use a pot with drainage holes, and pour out any excess water if necessary. Root rot is one of the quickest ways to kill plants, so pay attention to your water!
Soil
You can get fancy and create your own soil mixture, but I use whichever brand of standard houseplant potting soil available at the hardware store.
The soil should be well-aerated enough that water will drain through it quickly. Pothos are prone to root rot, so the plant will have problems if it is constantly sitting in damp soil.
If you tend to overwater your plants, I highly recommend using pots with drainage holes. That way, it is much easier for excess water to drain, and the soil will only keep the amount of water that it actually needs.
Have pots without holes? You may be able to carefully drill your own drainage hole. Or, keep the plant in a plastic nursery pot and use the decorative one as a cover pot. This is the method I use to provide proper drainage while still using my cute pots.
Light
As with other varieties of pothos, bright indirect light is best. Marble queen pothos can survive in low light, but not as well as golden or jade pothos would. This is due to the variegation, so they need more light than other plants with solid green leaves.
Marble queen pothos will lose some variegation and revert to greener leaves if it’s not receiving enough light. (The white parts of the leaves can’t help with photosynthesis, only the green areas.) To keep the variegation pattern and encourage the leaves to grow with larger white patches, you’ll need to keep it in a brighter spot.
They can be exposed to direct light for no more than a few hours per day. If the plant is constantly sitting in direct sunlight, there’s a chance that the leaves will burn and get discolored.
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Humidity
A marble queen pothos is not too picky about humidity. I’d say that it’s not a plant you need to keep right next to a humidifier if you have one.
Normal household humidity is usually between 30 and 60%, and a marble queen pothos will be happy anywhere in that range. It’s not the most tropical plant in the world, and it will actually start to suffer if it’s in an overly humid environment all the time. Basically, you shouldn’t need to worry about the humidity for this plant.
Other Marble Queen Pothos Tips
- Dusting – Keeping the leaves dust-free is essential for a plant like the marble queen pothos. Because the white areas of the leaves can’t help the plant photosynthesize, they need to be able to absorb all the light they can get. Dust your plant’s leaves regularly with a damp cloth, or lightly spray them off with a sink faucet.
- Fertilizing – Use a standard liquid houseplant fertilizer. Dilute it as necessary and follow the instructions on the bottle. Fertilizing should be done every few weeks in the growing season and decreased or stopped during the winter.
- Rotating – If you want your marble queen pothos to grow evenly, rotate your plant by 90 degrees where it is sitting every week. I actually prefer not to turn my pothos because it helps them grow vines faster when the light is coming from the same direction. Totally up to how you want your plant to look!
How To Propagate Marble Queen Pothos
There are two main methods for propagating marble queen pothos: in soil or in water. Taking cuttings of the vines is a great way to make your plant look bushier and fuller.
I haven’t propagated my marble queen pothos yet because it is still a somewhat young plant. It has no vines and really no good growth points to cut off yet. But I will definitely take some cuttings once it has grown and matured a bit more. Pothos are some of the easiest plants to propagate.
Soil Propagation
Start by taking a few cuttings of your existing plant. I always suggest taking multiple cuttings in case they aren’t all successful. You’ll need to locate some root/aerial nodes – the little brown nubs along the stems – and make sure that each cutting has a node. If there’s no node, there’s no place for roots to develop, and the cutting will rot instead of growing.
Stick the cutting into the soil so that the root node is in the dirt. Then, water your cuttings a bit more frequently than you usually would. They will need some extra water as they work to develop the new roots.
I tend to struggle with soil propagation because I never know if it’s working. Since you can’t see the roots, you don’t really know what is going on with the cutting. That’s why I prefer to propagate in water.
Water Propagation
Again, you’ll need to take a few cuttings with root nodes the same way you would for soil propagation.
It isn’t a hard rule, but I like to leave my cuttings out in the air for at least an hour or two before placing them in water. Letting them dry seals off the cut a bit so that the plant doesn’t immediately become waterlogged and start rotting. Larger plants, like monstera deliciosa cuttings, should dry out longer, but a few hours is fine for smaller marble queen pothos stems.
Once the stems have dried out a bit, you can place the cuttings in your container of water. The jar should be in a spot that receives a good amount of light, most likely near where you keep your other plants. Empty the glass and refill it with fresh water at least once per week.
Plant the cutting in soil once it has a significant root system to support itself. I’m always a fan of leaving my propagations in water for longer than necessary because it won’t harm the plant, but roots that are about six inches long should be good enough.
Water propagation is great for seeing the progress of the roots. Pothos tend to root quicker than other plants, so you should expect to see some growth within a few weeks.
This beautiful pink pot can be found at Sproutandabout on Etsy!
Common Problems with Marble Queen Pothos
Root rot
Root rot in plants is caused by overwatering and/or poor drainage. Most plants will start to develop root rot if they are sitting in soil that is constantly too wet. This is why it’s so important to allow your marble queen pothos to dry out somewhat between waterings.
Signs of root rot in marble queen pothos include:
- Mushy stems
- Wilted leaves (not in a curled, dry way but a waterlogged kind of way)
- Yellow or discolored leaves
- Slow growth
It’s often hard to fix a plant with root rot once the damage has been done.
If it’s not too far gone, you can try to take the plant out and repot it in fresh dirt. The pot must have drainage holes to prevent the same problem from happening again.
If the whole plant looks too gross, it may be best to throw it away. Decaying leaves attract pests that can spread to your other plants. There may be a few stems that look okay, so you can try taking cuttings of those and trying to propagate them separately.
Reverting to green leaves
A marble queen pothos losing variegation can happen in two ways – the existing leaves can have the light areas turn more green, or new growth can come in with less variegation until they are completely green.
In both cases, the cause is the same: the plant is not getting enough light. Plants use the chlorophyll in their leaves to photosynthesize and get energy from the sun. Chlorophyll is only present in the green areas of leaves, so plants with heavily variegated leaves have less chlorophyll. If the plant is in a lower-light area, it won’t get the light and energy it needs. Therefore, it will grow leaves that are greener in an attempt to absorb more light.
This doesn’t mean you should just go stick your reverting marble queen pothos into direct sunlight. That can scorch the leaves and actually cause more damage to your plant. Instead, move your plant to an area that receives bright but indirect light. There, it will get enough light without burning the leaves.
Sparse, leggy vines
Plants like marble queen pothos will grow long vines as they mature. They are sprawlers and will readily grow along the ground or up a tree or wall. This can be a stunning addition to your home, but sparse, leggy vines don’t look as great. A pothos vine tends to look leggy when there is a lot of stem space between the leaves or when the leaves on the vines get significantly smaller.
Leggy vines are kind of unavoidable, but there are ways to remedy it. One tip is to make sure that the plant is getting an adequate amount of light.
Another way to encourage bushier plant growth is to trim back the vines every so often. This can feel like you’re losing progress, but it will actually make the plant grow in fuller. The vine will start from a new growth point. Plus, you can propagate the cuttings and add them back to the mother plant or create a totally new plant!
Other Pothos Varieties
- Golden pothos – This is the most common variety of pothos. The golden pothos has medium green leaves with small areas of variegation that are yellow or cream-colored. I have a separate post dedicated to golden pothos care.
- Jade pothos – They’re exactly what the name describes! Jade pothos leaves are a solid medium to deep jade green with no variegation. It is very similar to the golden pothos in leaf size and shape, just without the variegation.
- Pearls and jade pothos – These can be identified by the variegation pattern, which occurs in more distinct sectioning than the marble queen. Their leaves are smaller than most other pothos, and the variegation is often cream instead of white. I am not 100% sure, but pearls and jade pothos are very similar to N’joy pothos, a patented species. From what I can tell, pearls and jade leaves will have random variegation, while N’joy leaves have green centers and variegation on the edges.
- Satin pothos – While often called a satin pothos, this plant is actually a member of the scindapsus pictus genus. Its leaves are dark green with speckled silvery gray variegation. To learn more about this stunning plant, check out my scindapsus pictus care guide.
- Cebu blue – The Cebu blue has leaves with a silvery blue tone. The shape of the leaves is more narrow and pointed than the heart shape of other pothos leaves. This is a great option for something that will stand out from your other plants!
- Neon pothos – A super fun one! Neon pothos leaves grow in as a bright neon yellow-green color. They darken slightly over time but remain a beautiful neon shade. These plants are sure to stand out against other more typical green foliage you may have in your collection.
My Marble Queen Pothos Collection
Pothos is the dominant species of plants in my apartment (lol), but I only have one marble queen pothos. I picked it up at my favorite local nursery at the end of February, so I’ve had it for less than two months. It’s in a 4-inch pot, and I thought the price was reasonable for how healthy the plant looked. There were also multiple new leaves growing in when I bought it.
My marble queen pothos has been super easy to care for so far. I haven’t had any issues with pests, and the new leaves have been incredibly variegated. They’re almost entirely cream-colored with small splashes of green. Its care needs are also very similar to all of the other pothos I have.
I love getting new pothos because I know they will be low maintenance. They’re not plants that I have to worry about. I think they’re satisfying to own since they grow quickly and are easy to propagate. There’s a reason why they’re on my list of my top 5 beginner-friendly plants!
That wraps up everything you need to know about marble queen pothos care! I hope you are all ready to enjoy this beautiful plant.
What is your favorite kind of pothos? Have you owned one before? Let me know by leaving a comment!
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