Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Hoya carnosa potting dilemma, 0 by Kaelkitty

Kaelkitty wrote:
Finally, here is a peduncle to go with my question. As you can see it is of good size, showing that this plant has been flowering for a long time.

I want to repot this plant. It has been in this hanging basket without renewal for a very long time, possibly more than 10 years. All I have done for it in recent times is top up the pot with sifted compost each spring to replace soil washed out in the winter and give it a light sprinkle of slow release to replace any missing trace elements, but I think now the time has come to bite the bullet! Even in its current (trimmed down) state, the plant is very heavy and awkward to handle - especially because the plant all grows to one side because it has been hanging against things all its life. I would like to put it in a largish regular plant pot, one big enough for a good sized trellis. If I did that I would then be able to move the plant around if I needed to mitigate the effects of bad weather. Since it has been in this pot so long, do you think I should wash ALL the old potting mix off? Also, how do you think it will tolerate the transition from all stems hanging down, to all stems growing up - does anyone have an opinion on what H. carnosa prefers in this matter? Possibly someone in the forum has actually done what I am now considering.

Finally, it is now mid autumn here, we have had recent overnight lows around 7C/45F, but it won't get really cold for another 6 to 8 weeks, when the overnight lows will dip to around 3C/38F. Do you think I can get away with doing this NOW rather than waiting for spring. The plant was virtually dormant for the entire summer this year - no flowers, no growth, and a fair bit of die-back was observed - which is what got me thinking about repotting it. There are actually one or two points on the plant that look as if it is trying to grow NOW, even though that is wildly out of season for it. Our coldest month is usually June or July and this plant is normally showing signs of new growth around August. Personally I think it is just grateful for the rain last week - It was our first serious rainfall since August last year! Anyway I look forward to hearing your opinions,

Ciao, KK.