The key to growing a syngonium – Neglect!
I’m not joking. This is a photo of the one that resides in my office at work and it has been with me for the past 9 years. I’ve never changed the soil or repotted it. It’s never had any fertiliser. It gets very little sunlight. And there have been many times when I’ve forgotten to water it.
Yet, it keeps surviving. I would be amazed if I could actually kill it as it seems impervious to any form of neglect.
But I do feel a little sympathetic to my plant from time to time. It has been so faithful and continually bears new foliage despite my lack of affection.
Syngonium plants aren’t high maintenance. This is why they are a common indoor plant that many home gardeners opt for and do well with. They enjoy a moist soil but can live in any medium even when it dries fully (though not for long).
Your syngonium does need light for most of the day for perfect growing conditions. However, they can extract enough sunlight from a room that is barely lit without needing to sit on a windowsill. This syngonium in its pot never sees the light so the foliage has climbed down and extracts what it needs.
Syngoniums can be propagated from leaf cuttings.
CORRECTION:
Gary from Plant-Care.com has picked up a wee error in my plant identification. In his recent comment he states;
I agree with the “neglect” aspect of care for this house plant or office plant I guess is more correct. Many plant owners give their plants way too much love and attention.
However, the plant in the photo is a pothos and not a syngonium. They are in the same family, require basically the same care but are two different plants.
I posted a few couple for reference. syngonium images and a pothos.
Keep up the good work and keep sharing your plant knowledge!
Thank you for being so polite in your correction Gary. This is certainly my bad and I apologise to my readers for getting this plant mixed up and leading you all astray. I must admit that I had never even heard the term ‘pothos’ until Gary mentioned it and now I’m wondering whether I’ve ever seen these plants marketed as such. I shall continue to investigate.
) But I’ve had several since, and they’ve lived through everything from me forgetting to water them to the cats digging them up, and they bounce back perfectly.
I used to have a plant like that in my office, too, and it grew like crazy even though I gave it little care. No fertilizer, no new soil, and not the best light. It’s kind of amazing how some plants need a lot of “fussing over,” while others can grow in near total neglect.