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If you have just one houseplant, it’s probably a spider plant. That’s hardly surprising when you consider all the reasons why a spider plant makes the perfect indoor houseplant. These cheerful plants grow indoors (and outdoors in hot climates) in any soil, with little intervention other than infrequent watering and the occasional dose of fertilizer. If, however, you want to level up your spider plant growing game, you may need to amend the care instructions slightly. Bushy-ness is a sign that your spider plant is a thriving, not just surviving, and to achieve this, you’ll need to prune your plant in two ways: either by removing and, if you choose, replanting the offsets (the spiderlettes that grow off your parent plant on long runners) back into the original planter or trimming dead, damaged, or crowded leaves at the base.

The spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum), sometimes also called spider ivy or walking anthericum, among other common names, is a perennial native to tropical west Africa and South Africa. This grass-like plant is widely considered a foolproof houseplant for beginners and comes in a number of attractive cultivars, boasting variegated lime green and cream straight or curly leaves. A word of warning: Spider plants have recently been predicted to become invasive in Florida, so if you want one, keep it strictly indoors. It’s naturally clump-forming, so getting it to grow bushy and full in a hanging pot in your sunroom or large living room floor planter is a wholly achievable feat for even the most inexperienced house plant grower.

The rooting mini-mes that sprout from your spider plant are called pups, offsets, offshoots, plantlets, spiderettes … The names are nearly endless and all cute. If you pin the stalks they’re growing on into the planter’s soil using hairpins, bent paper clips, or wire, they’ll take root and fill out the pot. Once they’re well-rooted, cut the new plant from the stem. Alternatively, you can cut off and replant just the spiderlings, trimming the stalks they grow on at the base of the parent plant. Pin them down using sections of the stalk they were growing on or propagate them in water and plant them once they have a sturdy root system. Either way, allowing the babies to remain growing on their stems in mid-air steals energy from the parent plant, and that’s definitely not something that encourages bushy growth. Eventually, you’ll run out of space in the pot. At that point, you can start removing the pups for new plant propagation.

When the leaves on your spider plant are turning brown, trim them and make your spider plant bushier in the process. Prune away the entire dead, discolored, or diseased leaf at the base of the plant (not halfway up the leaf) to encourage new growth in that area. Sanitize your scissors or shears with rubbing alcohol before making any cuts. If you’re okay with drastic measures to revive a straggly plant, cut every last leaf down to about 2 inches tall; such aggressive pruning encourages rapid regeneration.

Cultivars of Chlorophytum comosum var. bipindense and var. sparsiflorum boast broader leaves than those of var. comosum, making them appear fuller. The curly leafed Chlorophytum comosum ‘Bonnie’ is also naturally bushy. Invest in an August Breeze Farm Spider Plant Variety Pack for about $25, and you’ll get live plugs of four varieties — ‘Ocean’, ‘Hawaiian’, ‘Green’, and ‘Bonnie’ — to try out. If you’re buying your plants from a nursery or big box retailer, check the plants thoroughly for evidence of disease or pests. Ill health will make your plant look less bushy before it even has a chance to grow spiderlettes, nor will it be able to produce more leaves to replace any you prune.

Other budget-friendly tips to make a spider plant bushier and healthier than before include watering your plant with rainwater or distilled water — spider plants are sensitive to tap water treated with fluoride — and occasionally fertilizing your plant with a balanced houseplant or general garden fertilizer like Back to the Roots Natural & Organic Indoor Liquid Formula Plant Food for about $9 a bottle. Do this as often as every few weeks to once a month during the growing season or two to three times annually, depending on how your spider plant responds. A little goes a long way with hardy spider plants. While these grass-like houseplants like being snug in their pots, repotting a large plant can help it grow even fuller; aim to repot into a planter just one size up from the previous pot every one to two years.