Hoya Shepherdii – Carla’s Hoya Haven

H. shepherdii was a must have Hoya for me. I love the string bean shaped leaves. Weird leaves are my kind of thing. I purchased H. shepherdii from Pistils Nursery in April of 2022. I initially had good luck growing this one in a west facing window.

There is an ornamental crabapple tree that provides nice shade and dappled sun for my window plants in the summer. Then I started moving things around so other new plants could get sun in the same spot. I moved H. shepherdii across the room and then over to the side of the room and then upstairs in one location and then another. It wasn’t happy. When you find a spot where a Hoya is happy leave it there.

This year I purchased a new chrome shelving unit for more Hoyas because I can never have too many Hoyas. I’m trying out the new Good Earth Grow Light with separate blue, red and white light. It’s 4′ in length and fits the chrome shelving unit perfectly.

I’m trying out the blue light for propagation and added a few Hoyas to that shelf. One of those is H. shepherdii and wouldn’t you know under the glow of blue light it’s finally starting to grow a dozen new little leaves and a half dozen new vines. Unbelievable! This plant has numerous vines and oodles of growth points so maybe this year I’ll get some good growth out of this one. Blue light! Who knew?

Okay maybe somebody knew. If you have the time here is a nice little article on GPN – Greenhouse Product News titled “Effects of Blue Light on Plants” by Erik Runkle.

The native range for H. shepherdii is from Assam to E. Himalaya. It grows primarily in the wet tropical biome. However, it survives just fine in average household temperatures and humidity during the Iowa winter. It likes quite a bit of light and you must let it dry out between waterings. If your leaves are turning yellow and dropping off then you probably need to cut back on the water. It’s important to provide enough water and fertilizer during new leaf production but be careful. Too little water and the new leaves dry up and fall off. Too much and the new leaves yellow and fall off.

If all else fails just give it some blue light.

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