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

plantladylin wrote:
Hi KK,
I have a very old H. carnosa Krimson Princess that some dear elderly friends gave me about 33 years ago. Originally it was a little plant in a little pot and after a couple of years I put it in a hanging basket where it remained for almost 20 years. It became so root bound that there was very little soil left in the basket, so I divided it between two hanging baskets where it remained for another ten or so years. Last summer I decided I wanted to plant them climbing up so I went rooting around in the shed for something to use as a trellis and found two old 8' aluminum railings and got my husband to saw them in half to use as trellises. I got two large pots and re-potted both of the Hoya's and they seem to be doing fine growing up instead of hanging.

I have always had the habit of rinsing all old soil from plant roots when I'm repotting. I don't know why except maybe in my mind I thought it was like me taking a shower to get all the muck off after gardening! I recently I read somewhere that it really isn't necessary to remove all soil from the roots when repotting but it's just habit with me.

I don't know if it would stress your plant to re pot it during cold weather or not, hopefully some of the pro's will pop in with some advice. My preference is to do it in spring or summer when there's no chance of chilling temperatures. We don't usually have real cold winters where I live but occasionally we have nights that do get into the 30's (F) and it's not unheard of to sometimes even get into the 20's, but fortunately the cold doesn't last for too many hours, it usually warms up considerably as soon as the sun rises.

My Krimson Princess seem to be reverting back to solid green, which at first I didn't like but I've gotten used to it. Here's a picture of my "Twin" K P's.

.... oh, I wish you could send us some of your rain, we need it!