March 2023

Neon Pothos is a lovely plant with bright yellow and medium green leaves. I bought this one from Lowe’s. It was in a 6″ pot and was all leaves with no vines. Now it’s in a 10″ square self-watering pot and it’s hard to find a spot to get in there to water. It doesn’t grow as quickly as golden pothos. I tend not to water this one very often. When I repotted it the roots were long and thick and soft like giant earthworms. Much of what’s in the pot are roots. It’s a medium light plant and does well under a grow light.

It grew two vines almost to the floor. I learned from past experience not to let them grow down to the carpet because this plant will attach itself to the carpet and grow across the floor towards the window. So, I cut the vines off and rooted them in Fluval Stratum. I tend to forget about watering the cuttings so it’s time to pot them up.

I carefully removed them from the cups. Many of the roots were dried to the sides. This is such a resilient plant and nearly impossible to kill so I’m going to pot these up anyway. I divided them into four bunches and potted them up in Fox Farms Happy Frog potting mix.

I love these little T4U pots. They are the perfect size for potting up cuttings and young plants. I watered them with Bio Root and let them soak a bit since the potting mix was dry. Alright, four more plants. I have to figure out a way to get rid of these before they need shelf space. For now, I’m putting them back in the grow tent where it’s warm and humid.

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Fernwood Mikado is a wonderful little plant that grows and grows and grows. Late last summer I divided the one in two and both have been popping out new pups all winter long. It’s time to divide these up in separate little pots for office window plants.

Once I got the larger plants out of the pots and removed most of the soil I gently peeled them off in batches of three. This gave me 11 plants to pot up. I lost a few roots along the way but most of the roots survived and that’s what matters. They’ll grow more roots soon enough.

I potted them up and these 4″ white plastic planters and now I have a whole Fernwood Mikado forest. I watered them with Bio Root (1 tsp per gallon of water). This will help them get a new start in their little pots. Here’s another set of plants ready for rehoming.

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I purchased two small H. linearis plants from Hirt’s Gardens in April, 2022. I put them together in a small hanging pot and hung it from a shelf in a bedroom about 8 feet from a west facing window. The two plants were clipped close to the soil when they arrived but much to my surprise they did grow over the summer months. I struggled a bit to get the watering down. It was either too much or not enough. I killed the roots of one longer vine through overwatering so I chopped and propped and started a new plant. As fall approached I repotted all the linearis plants in one clear orchid pot with the ABG/coconut husk mix and stuck it in the grow tent.

The repotting was a mistake. These little plants did not have enough root system for repotting. I was watering every other week in the grow tent and that wasn’t enough for linearis. Eventually all the roots died and I had to chop and prop all my vines. There weren’t many. I rooted them in Fluval Stratum and watered with Rapid Start solution and eventually most of them grew new roots.

I hung them back in the grow tent under a carnosa for shade. I water once a week and I’m getting new growth. I’m very excited about that. We’ll see what happens with this one over the summer.

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This was one of the last batch of Hoyas I purchased in October, 2022. I put this in the grow tent and had it up too high too close to the light. I wasn’t watering enough so new leaves were turning purple/brown and falling off. I moved it down a little but still wasn’t watering enough so the new leaves were still browning and falling off. I thought it might be happier out of the grow tent on a shelf in the window but it wasn’t happy there, either. So, I put it back in the grow tent on the floor next to callistophylla and kept a little water in the tray and now it’s pushing out several new leaves. They look healthy and the they’re remaining attached to the plant.

I keep callistophylla in the shade and elliptica out in the open where light from the grow light can reach it. It’s surprisingly happy down there on the floor. It’s covered in growth points. I think both elliptica and callistophylla will have to go in self watering pots at some point in the future. For now I’m leaving them as they are until they are root bound.

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Hoya brevialata is a plant that does well inside the grow tent in the shade. I have it directly under one of my carnosa varieties which provides nice shade for more delicate plants. I took this one out of the tent for a few weeks and had it in a west facing window but it has been slowly turning a bit yellow. So, back in the grow tent with this one.

This one remained in its grow pot most of the winter and I only recently potted it up in a clear orchid pot with my chunky coconut husk/ABG mix. I water this one once a week and then back in the grow tent it goes. It might come out for a while in the summer when humidity is high.

I purchased this one from Steve’s Leaves in September, 2022. I look forward to seeing some good growth on this one this year.

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Hoya sunrise is not looking it’s sunniest best right now even though it’s been in the grow tent for months. This plant was closer to the grow light but I moved it down the grid. It has grown 14 new vines and quite a few new leaves. Many new leaves were yellowing and dropping off. Periodically, I give the plant a good soak to rehydrate the potting mix. I put it back in the tent. I forget about it for a couple weeks. The humidity in the tent was over 80%. I needed to vent it a little better and turn down the little humidifier. It didn’t need to be set at 75%. This plant does just fine in 27% humidity in my living room.

Check out this root growth. This is one of the first plants to be repotted in the ABG Mix/coconut husk chips. I like these clear pots. I can see what the roots are doing without brutalizing the plant by ripping it out of the pot and getting rid of the dirt. Just because a plant isn’t doing what you want up top doesn’t mean there is anything wrong down below. Maybe it’s taking time to grow a fabulous root structure.

When I first purchased this plant from Land of Alice it had 8 vines. Upon taking it out of the box it looked really healthy. But, two of those vines failed to thrive. The leaves were increasingly floppy and super thin. There were very few roots when I repotted the plant so I took those two vines and potted them separately in a grow pot. I hung them under the larger plant in the grow tent and left them there to die. Oh sure, I watered once in a while but not very often. Much to my surprise these vines are now thriving. One of the vines grew two offshoots. The leaves are thick and lush. They just needed a little TLC.

Look at these roots! I love a good set of roots! I potted this one up in the amended mix: ABG and coconut husk chips with smaller coconut husk chips, fir and pine bark fines and pumice. This is the second small plant potted in this mix and I notice it dries out quicker. I’ll have to work on the proportions.

Each pot was soaked in lightly fertilized water for 20 minutes. That seems good enough to rehydrate the potting mix. Right now I’m using Miracle Gro Water Soluble Tomato Plant Food. I use 1/4 tsp. per gallon of water. I’ve been using the Flora series by General Hydroponics, 1/4 tsp each of Flora Gro, Flora Micro and Flora Bloom per gallon of water. I use fertilized water each time I water.

I’ve been happy with the Flora Series especially since it doesn’t stink up my home. I’ve tried other products that stink to high heaven and there is no way I’m using those a second time in my house. I don’t even want to use them outside. The wind blows in from the West so anything with a scent I put on my HOA approved bushes will blow back through an open window.

Here are my pair of Hoya sunrise up on a shelf basking in the glow of the midday sun in February and a Sansi grow light with a little heat coming off the fireplace to make it feel like summer.

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This Hoya has amazing leaves. They come in soft and fuzzy and purple before hardening up like a thin crispy green wafer. The more light they get the more bespeckled they become. The vine looks dead but it’s not. It’s truly a marvelous plant to behold. I love this one. It is definitely one of my favorites.

I purchased this plant mid summer 2022 from Land of Alice and it grew well under a GE Seeds and Greens grow light hung from a chrome shelving rack. A little afternoon sun shining across the room from a west facing window helped it along. At that time I was turning off the central air and opening windows during the day. Temperatures inside were reaching up to 84F with 77% humidity. It was a bit balmy inside to say the least. I turned on the ceiling fans to create air flow. My caudata was pushing out 4 leaves at a time.

My plant arrived in coconut husk chips and I kept it in the grow pot until early fall when I moved it to an orchid pot with additional coconut chips mixed with ABG mix. This is sufficient for this plant. I water periodically with lightly fertilized water. Getting the watering down can be tricky with caudata. It doesn’t like to soak in water to rehydrate the chips. Misting the surface of the chips and adding a bit of water to the tray seems to be enough. Watering has to be done at just the right time. Too soon during new leaf growth and it drops the baby leaves. Too late and the baby leaves dry out and shrivel up.

Throughout the summer this plant thrived more on humidity but my caudata didn’t like the grow tent. I’m not sure why. It was warm and humid albeit humidity was closer to 90% when I first started using the tent. It may have been the watering schedule (every other week) and soaking the plant too long to hydrate the potting substrate. Maybe there wasn’t enough air flow although I run the fans 10 minutes on and 20 minutes off 24 hours a day. It is possible it went through a dormant phase.

I took it out of the grow tent and placed it under another grow light on a table near the fireplace. One day in January I went off to work and forgot to turn the fireplace off. By the time I got home it was 74F. I thought all my Hoyas would be wilted but no. They were thriving. They thought it was summer. Within days many of them started pushing out new leaves including this caudata. It doesn’t mind the dry air. It doesn’t mind the shorter days and lack of sufficient natural light. It LOVES the heat.

Now I make sure the heat is set at 72F during the day and I run the fireplace for a while at night. This caudata has continued to steadily put out new leaves. A little heat, a little grow light, a little mist, a little fertilized water and this is a lovely plant and steady grower. I can’t say I have this one all figured out but for the most part I think we’ve grown used to each other.

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Let’s face it. This one is a bit of a biatch. I bought this one from Land of Alice in October, 2022. This is probably all it will ever be. I’ve seen some pictures of beautiful specimens online. This plant will never be one of them.

I had it in the grow tent all winter. I moved it around to get more light or less light. I gave it bug killer. The original leaves it had when it arrived are still there and they grew darker and stiffened up in the grow tent. Every new leaf it grows eventually yellows and falls off. I moved it to a new location near the fireplace. Maybe it will be happy there.

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H. nicholsoniae is one spectacular plant. This is definitely one of my favorites and ranks up there with H. caudauta. I purchased this plant from Steve’s Leaves in August, 2022. It was just a sprig of a plant when it arrived. This is another plant that benefits from it’s close proximity to the fireplace. It doesn’t might the dry winter air. Heat and light inspire this one to grow. I have it under one of the GE Seeds & Greens grow lights. As the days get longer it is getting some afternoon sun from a nearby window – when it’s not still dreary and snowing. I mist it daily and put a little water in the tray a couple times a week.

The thing I love most about this plant is the beautiful sun stressing. The leaves on this plant turn a dark reddish bronze color with soft gold veining. By the end of last summer they were a deep bronze. It is such a gorgeous plant and this one is so easy to care for. It wasn’t so fond of the grow tent and dropped the few leaves it grew. This is a plant that can take the 27% humidity of winter and still be fine. The leaves tend to stiffen up a bit over time and it tends to retain more water than a thinner leafed Hoya.

I started watering my Hoyas a bit more now that we’re moving into spring and they’re getting more light light and putting on some leaves. H. nicholsoniae is putting on 6+ leaves at a time and I expect this one to grow quite a bit over the summer. I had it on the small green trellises from Amazon for the past few months. This is fine when plants are small. I had them stacked 2 high. Once one of the vines reached 24″ in length I knew I had to do something different because stacking 3 trellises in a 4.5″ pot wasn’t as sturdy as I had hoped. It was a little too heavy on one side.

So, I built my first SuperTrellis 1×1 tower. This is nice and sturdy. I was able to wind the vines around counter clockwise and keep the ends pointed up. I haven’t yet run out of room at the top. I can still add a couple more levels to the tower with the packages I purchased. I did consider getting some of the YardGard fencing and using it to make round trellises but 50′ of wire fence seems impractical for a person living in a condo. I’m just not sure where I’d store it. The SuperTrellis works well, is sturdy and was fun to put together. I’m really looking forward to seeing this one put on new growth over the summer.

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This is such a gorgeous plant I have two of them. This one was sold to me as Rubra which is the old trade name for Krimson Princes. I didn’t realize this at the time. I just thought it was beautiful so I bought it for $24 from Lowes. This plant is still in the original planter in plain potting mix. I took the hanger off it and set it in a more decorative planter now obscured by leaves. It’s a fairly large plant and it’s grown steadily over the winter sitting in front of a west facing window. I’m hoping to get some blooms off this one this summer. It’s hard to find peduncles through all those leaves but something in front of that window bloomed late last summer. I could smell it.

To the right is the first Krimson Queen I purchased in October 2021 from Pistils Nursery for around $30. I knew nothing about Hoyas at the time. I kept reading posts online and people were using a wide variety of mixes and methods to pot and grow hoyas. They were using everything from Leca to Orchid mix to cactus soil. I decided to pot this in 1 part potting mix, 1 part cactus mix and 1 part orchid bark with enough Bonsai Jack’s Gritty Mix thrown in to make sure it drained well. If anything this speaks to the resiliency of of Hoyas. Carnosas in particular are hardy plants and easy to grow. This makes for a great beginner plant. You can make mistakes and as long as it gets light, moisture, a little fertilizer and you let it dry out between waterings it will grow for you. I bought this plant in a 6″ pot with just a few vines peaking over the edge of the pot.

It did okay under a Sansi grow light but it does better if placed in a window. Like the one above labeled Rubra this one grew all winter long in front of a west facing window. Some vines are around 3′ long. Both my Krimson Princesses have a couple vines that reverted back to just plain carnosa. I rather like the mixed look but this is the reason I stopped buying carnosa varieties. I’m not spending $100 or more on a grey ghost just to have it revert back to $12 carnosa.

Overall, I love this plant. I love it so much I bought two. Each leaf looks hand painted. The touch of pink on new leaves is lovely. If you’ve never owned a hoya and you’re not sure where to start then buy this one. It’s gorgeous. It’s easy to care for. It’s a good strong grower. And, it’s really very lovely.

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