Hoya Nicholsoniae – Carla’s Hoya Haven

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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