Manage Your Unruly Vine Houseplants With One Simple Solution

If you want to bring the outdoors into your living space, vining plants are one of the easiest ways to give your indoor space a fresh look. From zebra plants (Tradescantia zebrina) to spreading English ivy (Hedera helix) to the ever-popular pothos plant (Epipremnum aureum), vines can add dramatic aesthetic appeal and improve air quality while reducing excess moisture that can cause mold. Many of them are also extremely low maintenance once established, bringing lush green, gold, and purple hues into your home without much fuss. But with too much neglect, the vines can grow to spindly lengths. You can manage your unruly vine houseplants with one simple solution.

Adding a 3-inch Vinyl-Coated S Hook to your planter can instantly get trailing vines off the floor. To use them, gather your vines together in the middle using one side of the hook. Then, simply clip the other side of the hook around your hanging planter edge to hold the vines in place. This is an incredibly easy hack to make your plants look fuller for just a few dollars. A 10-pack of the multipurpose hooks costs under $8. 

It's important to provide your vines with gentle support that allows them to bend as they grow. Houseplant helpers like Decoroca Soft Plant Ties can provide firm support for unruly vines, offering more control over your plants than an S hook. Avoid plant wire, which is more difficult to remove, especially from new growth, which can be damaged in the process. An S hook, on the other hand, can be removed from the planter and repositioned along your vines as needed.

If you're growing delicate vines, make sure you pick rubber or vinyl-coated S hooks to avoid damaging the runners. Heartleaf philodendron (Philodendron hederaceum), English ivy, and some other vines can grow more than 6 feet long, so if you have a particularly green thumb, you may need to use a slightly larger hook like HiGift's 4-1/2 Inch Large Vinyl Coated Non-Slip S Hooks. There are also several S hooks available in various colors, from bright red to pastel seafoam to prismatic rainbow, if you want to match your hooks to a DIY hanging planter you can make to liven up your home.