For some people, the average leafy green houseplant can be a bit too mundane. This usually stops them from getting houseplants or giving the ones they have the care and attention they need to thrive.
If this sounds familiar to you, choosing a more unique houseplant that’s easy for beginners to take care of is your best bet, and there’s none better than the snow queen pothos.
Pothos are some of the most carefree houseplants out there; they offer a satisfying level of growth and foliage with minimal effort. Besides, what’s more special than an almost entirely white plant?
In this article, we’ll get to know what snow queen pothos look like, their care needs, and ways you could style your house with them. Let’s dive in!
What Is Snow Queen Pothos?
Snow queen pothos is a unique cultivar of the Epipremnum aureum, more commonly known as pothos. But the snow queen pothos is different from the traditional lime green golden pothos in more ways than just looks.
This nuanced pothos variety is a bit more specific in terms of how it prefers its environment and care to be. While this might make it more of a challenge to keep the plant happy and thriving, it’s still a pothos, which means it’s very unlikely to die on you while you’re getting to know your new white-green pet.
It’s also considerably easier to figure out issues your snow queen pothos plant is facing based on how it looks, and it’ll respond fairly quickly when you fix those issues.
A question that might be on your mind is, “How did the snow queen pothos come to be?” After all, Epipremnum aureum is just one species of plant.
All varieties of pothos, including the snow queen pothos, are cultivars, which means they’re a man-made variety of the original plant.
Cultivars are developed through selective breeding to single out a certain trait and get more of it. These traits can be anything from color to pest resistance or how much light a plant needs to thrive. Also, most cultivars are bred for a certain style of variegation.
In the case of the aptly named snow queen, its variegation is arguably the most mesmerizing of all the pothos cultivars out there.
What Does the Snow Queen Pothos Look Like?
Snow queen pothos got this name for its superior, bright white variegation. Its leaves are over 80% white, with specks of green scattered across each leaf much like a green field on an early winter snowy day.
The colors of snow queen pothos are a bit special, with a considerably light green and clear white variegation. Another feature that’s unique to the snow queen is its translucent leaves.
This plant has very little chlorophyll in it, which is the green pigment in plants. That makes its leaves a little bit see-through and tender, although they’re about the same thickness and texture as most other pothos varieties.
A lot of people would tell you that the snow queen grows the slowest in the pothos cultivar collection because of the low levels of chlorophyll in it. While this makes sense, as chlorophyll is responsible for photosynthesis, it’s not true in practice.
There are some cultivars that have slower growth rates, including the marble queen, which is a cultivar that is often mixed up with the snow queen.
Does It Have Different Care Needs than Normal Pothos?
Snow queen pothos might grow at a different rate than other varieties, like brazil pothos or their close cousin, marble queen pothos, but they don’t exactly have any special requirements.
Caring for a snow queen pothos is almost as easy as the traditional golden pothos, though it’s understandably not as hardy as the trusty green version.
Snow queens, for example, can often be more sensitive to root rot caused by excessive soil moisture. They’re also more susceptible to fungal infections.
Snow Queen Pothos Care Guide
On top of how easy pothos are in general to take care of, snow queens, in particular, come with the bonus of slower growth. The slower growth rate is perfect for those who don’t want to worry about pruning the plant very often.
Light Exposure
As a tropical ground cover, any pothos cultivar needs a bit of shade. They wouldn’t be able to handle strong or direct sunlight, and that’s paradoxically true for the snow queen.
On one hand, getting adequate sunlight is more important for snow queens than most pothos varieties. This is because it’s already pretty low on the agents responsible for photosynthesis. But on the other hand, its soft leaves, especially the whiter ones, get sunburned more easily.
It might take trial and error to find the right amount of sunlight for your snow queen, depending on your home’s setting. It may do well with just a couple of hours a day of direct sunlight if the weather isn’t too hot.
It’ll get more green and lose some of its variegation in order to compensate for the low light if it doesn’t get enough sunlight. Too much sun, particularly direct sunlight, and it’ll get sunburned and develop brown edges or tips usually on the whitest leaves.
Watering Needs
As a tropical plant, the snow queen thrives in moderately humid environments. The right level of humidity will promote new growth in your snow queen, giving it lusher foliage. It’ll also promote the growth of aerial roots, which means your snow queen will be able to climb around!
If the humidity in your region is lower than 50%, this might be a bit too low for your snow queen pothos. There are a couple of ways you can fix that, though.
The simplest way is to mist your snow queen once or twice a week. Since this cultivar is more on the sensitive side, over-misting can lead to fungus on its leaves or stem, so make sure not to mist it so much that it starts dripping.
Placing it in a room that has a humidifier also fixes this problem with zero effort. If you don’t have a humidifier and would prefer not to worry about misting it, a good—and possibly very aesthetic—solution is to place its pot on a tray with pebbles and a very thin layer of water.
If you opt for the pebbles, make sure that the bottom of the pot isn’t touching the water. That way, the soil doesn’t soak up the water, which would most likely cause root rot.
It’s also important to know that this doesn’t really increase humidity around the plant by much, so it might be a good idea to still mist the snow queen every other week.
Soil and Fertilizer
Pothos, in general, don’t have much need for fertilizer, although some organic stuff every other month in the spring will help it grow faster. They do require nutrient-rich soil to support growth, though, and do best in high-drainage potting soil.
Since the snow queen prefers acidic soil with a 6.1-6.5 pH level, consider just adding some coffee ground to the soil every other month or so.
Coffee ground can very moderately add to the acidity of the soil while also providing more nitrogen and phosphorus for your plant.
Pruning
Although snow queen pothos is slower than golden pothos in terms of growth, it can still grow five inches a month and reach somewhere around eight feet in length in the right conditions.
Whether or not you need to prune your snow queen depends on how big you want it to get. If you place it in a hanging pot, you won’t need to prune it unless you spot some yellowing or brown leaves.
The same applies if you want your snow queen to climb a nearby structure, though it’s important to consider that regular pruning makes pothos develop more new leaves in a concentrated area, which enables it to grow faster in general.
Can I Plant Snow Queen Pothos Outdoors?
No matter the variety of pothos you’re looking to plant in your backyard or patio, you’ll find many resources saying that pothos is best planted indoors.
What these sources seem to forget is that this plant grows like a monster in nature. All kinds of pothos can be planted outdoors, but choosing a type will depend entirely on the climate of your region.
Pothos can grow all year long pretty effortlessly in hardiness zones 10 and 11. However, pothos in general, including the snow queen variety, can’t survive frost.
So, if you live in an area where temperatures can dip below freezing point in the winter, it may not be the best option as your foundation ground cover.
That’s not to say that it isn’t possible to grow pothos in your region. Since pothos is very easy to propagate and grows very quickly in open soil, you could just replant it after the coldest time of the year has passed.
Are Snow Queen and Marble Queen the Same Thing?
Marble and snow queen pothos look so much alike that they’re sometimes mistakenly thought to be the same cultivar. Some people use the two names interchangeably, and there are countries that consider the two varieties one and the same.
The differences between the snow queen and marble queen pothos aren’t just in appearance; they’re also different in terms of length and growth rate.
How to Tell Them Apart?
The most noticeable difference is the amount of white on the leaves of the snow and marble queen pothos.
As mentioned earlier, the snow queen has light green hues and is predominantly white. The white shades on a snow queen are a more clear, bright white.
The marble queen pothos, on the other hand, has deeper shades of green and dimmer shades of white. More importantly, the distribution of green and white is more equal, so the overall look of the plant won’t be as bright.
Other Differences
The marble queen is thought to grow faster than the snow queen pothos because it has higher levels of chlorophyll, but in reality it grows slightly slower.
This is most probably because the growth of a marble queen is more concentrated on new leaves than longer stems. The marble queen pothos also tends to trail less and get bushier than the snow queen.
Using Snow Queen Pothos to Style Your Home
It’s no secret that plants do a better job bringing life to a room than most decorations you could use. Snow queen pothos are especially good at making a statement with their striking color.
Create Contrast
Grouping the snow queen pothos with plants that contrast its color and general look gives you a very visually pleasing result. Of course, it’s important to make sure the plants you pair with your snow queen have the same care requirements.
One of the best examples for the perfect plant to pair with a pothos is the spider plant. Its long, grass-like blades with darker stripes of green really stand out when placed next to a snow queen pothos.
Add Color to Dark Palettes
Another way you could use snow queen pothos to decorate your home is to place it in a room that has a dark palette, such as a room with grey walls, black or dark-brown wood, or even dark curtains.
The white of the snow queen pops out in rooms like this, brightening the room and adding a more fresh feel to it.
Test It Out
If you’re set on getting a snow queen because you love how it looks but still haven’t figured out where to place it in your home, here’s an exercise you can do to solve that.
Identify all the spots where this plant would thrive in your home. Look for any rooms, shelves, and tables that get bright, indirect sunlight. Then, after you get the plant, try it out in all the spots you found to be right for your plant.
If you choose to do this, don’t do it as soon as you buy the snow queen; plants often go into transplant shock when they’re moved from their original home. Instead, find the best spot in your home in terms of light and humidity, and place your plant there for at least a month before attempting to move it around.
Don’t change the place of your snow queen before you’re sure that it’s adjusted to the conditions in your home. If it’s looking weak in any way such as yellowing, wilting, or losing leaves, make sure to figure out the problem and fix it first.
Conclusion
Whether you’re interested in adding a snow queen pothos to your home for its looks, simple care needs, or resilience, rest assured that it’ll be worth the effort.
Once your new plant settles in its new home and you familiarize yourself with its watering needs and possible pruning routine, it’ll be easy to keep it looking healthy and gorgeous.
On top of that, having a white pothos in your home is very pleasing to the eye and will grab any guest’s attention. This makes it one of the best choices to bring more brightness and life to your living room.