How big a factor do you guys think humidity is in successfully blooming a hoya?? I just read Chris Burton's 'The Hoya Page' and she indicates that "high humidity" is key to flowering, and says it's unlikely most hoyas will flower in a living room...but I know I've read elsewhere that some hoyas not only don't need, but actually dislike, high humidity...I'm thinking about getting a little room humidifier for my kitchen where the majority of my plants are....but if grouping and misting would work just as well, I'd rather do that...any thoughts? Thanks...
Shelley
humidity?
Mine grow outside and the humidity , being a small island, is quite high.......everything being damp in the morning, tools left outside rusting, and mine seem to flower well......However, in Sweden, where they have a hugely succsesful flowering rate, they are all grown inside with central heating which dries air out......so ..... completely different humidity levels there and all flowering
Dominic
Good question Shelley! I live in Florida which is a peninsula surrounded on three sides by water and we have high humidity the majority of the year but I don't really know if humidity has a hand in whether any plant will bloom a lot. Mine don't bloom very often and I attribute it to not feeding on a regular basis. I think misting is fine as long as there is really Good Air Circulation, which I think is very important, or you might end up with a lot of fungal infections.
Dom---You're RIGHT!!! I'd completely forgotten about those Swedes, who can apparently bloom anything, anytime, anywhere...and I don't think that even those Swedish summers are particularly humid...you've given me hope :-)
Lin---I'm so jealous of your warm, humid Florida weather I can hardly stand it...especially as I get older and crankier I find I'm dealing with cold and/or hot forced air heat, less and less well....I'll keep misting, I'm not sure how good the air circulation is, but the air is so dry everything evaporates literally within a half an hour or so...
Shelley
LOL Shelley ... and the older I get, the crankier I get during the awful heat and humidity of our summers down here! As I age, I really don't like the 90º heat and 85 - 90 % humidity levels! But, I know my body couldn't take the cold so I'd have to hibernate indoors during winters if I lived in a northern climate. I have extremely dry skin and in our winters when the air is a "little" drier, my skin gets bad. Gee, I can just imagine how I'd look in a northern climate with forced air heat ... I'd probably have to live in a bathtub of baby oil, or I'd really look like an old prune!
There are always going to be some that are going to need particular requirements.....just steer clear of those that specificaly need the high humidity even to grow. I think those that are from lowland areas with higher temperatures and high humidity are going to be tricky if you cant mimick their environment, but, there again, those Swedes seem to have the nack...:)) Im convinced its light levels and day lengths more than humidity for some species, but Im just a novice..:)) All I try and do is keep the cooler speies in areas where theres more breeze and feels cooler, and the ones requiring more heat sheltered from the wind, but , invariably, they are all subject to the same humidty levels. A lot of people seem to get success with stubborn plants by moving their location in the house, bit more light, warmer situation, cooler situation etc and aften the plants respond...Its all trial and error really experimenting with what variations you have in your environment
Dominic
Being in Hotzona, I don't think my hoyas would last without humidity in the greenhouse. During the summer months I keep the humidity around 60%, the winter months I don't worry about it too much. I've had a few hoya bloom inside under gro-lights, but the majority bloom in the greenhouse with the high humidity.
Blessings,
Awanda
I think some humidity is definitely important for hoyas to grow well, and in growing well, a hoya will bloom when its particular conditions are right. I've had some hoyas 7 years that have never bloomed; some that bloom as cuttings. I have recently started being more diligent in my record keeping regarding each plant's blooming cycles and maybe something insighful will come out of that ... in 10 or so years...lol.
So, I really have no concrete answers, but I'm hopeful that what I do is right and some of my hoyas are always flowering and some never have, but I have hopes for all of them.
Christine
I've only recently been keeping records of my plants and hope this will bring me a better unserstanding of all these issues. I also like to try and learn about and understand the habitat the plants come from. And that's why I post about plants I find in the wild. That sort of knowledge is valuable, rather than trivial.
Tropic: That sort of information is very valuable! I know a little bit about plants in general, and always want to know something about where in the world it grows, and what it's natural habitat conditions might be.
It has always amazes me when I hear someone who has an Epiphyllum that isn't doing well and because the common name is "Orchid Cactus" they think it can be grown in blazing hot sun with little moisture, like the desert cacti. Some people are surprised when they learn an Epiphyllum is not a cacti. So, I think it's very important to know a little about a plants natural habitat.
So, please keep reporting on what you find on your travels into the wild, it's educational for all of us!
Shelley,
I think for most Hoyas, humidity is key to getting them to bloom. There is absolutely no doubt about it. Sure there are a few exceptions, but not many. For an example, just look at lacunosa. When I have this Hoya in a window in the regular house, it just languishes. As soon as I give it some humidity in my plant room, it flowers continually. Not only does humidity aid in blooming, but it spurs on huge growth spurts. People who live in tropical places, don't really understand how dry the typical home with central heat gets in the winter. Most of my plants just sit there for months with all new growth shriveling up until humidity levels improve. If you read more about the Swedes, you will see that they are keeping their homes and growing areas with an RH above 50% even in the winter. They obviously have better more favorable type heating systems. My plant room has humidity levels at a low of 40% in the day to a high of 75% at night, and guess what; there is continuous growth and quite a bit of flowering. It is our bad luck to fall in love with a plant that loves plenty of warmth and humidity and live it the Northeast! You can do well with them, but you have to make plenty of adjustments.
Doug
Doug
adjustments like the "Hello Kitty" humidifier!
LOL - You got it Lin!
Funny you should mention lacunosa Doug---because that's EXACTLY what my stupid lacunosa is doing...languishing, dying off at the tips, and generally being miserable...and yet I keep hearing about how easy it is to bloom, it's a great beginner's plant, seldom out of bloom, etc. etc.....GRRRRR....and now I'm depressed about the Swedes too---they must have full house humidifying, which is doable, but very expensive...looks like I'll be getting a humidifier this weekend....if you ever want to get rid of your Hello Kitty one---let me know :-D.
SR
H lacunosa hasnt been too easy for me, but this year, after 3 years, all 4 plants have been blooming and growing.....no idea
Dominic: They just finally got used to their new surroundings and decided they wanted to stay awhile! ^_^ Congrats on the blooms!
I've had a few lacunosa's the past three years, they live about a year and then decide they don't like it here anymore.
That's why it's important to know where you hoya is from...Australia or Thailand or Malaysia or China. For instance, H. australis and all the other hoyas from Australia like humidity and lots of water in the summer months and in the winter when it is cooler and the days are shorter, they like it drier (lack of rain in N. Queensland in the winter...right?) H. lacunosa is from the Philippines which is usually humid(where it is from)...In dry houses H. lacunosa likes living near the sink in the kitchen, or in the bathroom if there is enough light.
Air movement is VERY important.
Mrs. Burton has lots of opinions about how to grow hoyas. You would never get some hoyas like H. subquintuplinervis to be happy in a constant humid environment...nor the other succulent ones. I water some of those hoyas perhaps once a month!!!!
Hi Shelley! I live in NY, you are close in PA, so we have similar growing seasons.....I keep my hoyas outside from earliest spring to latest fall before bringing them back inside my designated "plant room"--they love the warmth, air movement and humidity that the outside provides--and it is here where I get most of my new growth. In the winter I try to create that same environment (which isn't easy) by creating a sort of "greenhouse"....I use a space heater to keep my plant room warm and toasty without heating the entire house...I put them in a south facing window, shades open fully---winter sun is not as intense as summer sun.....however, with the dry heat, one must provide humidity. I do this with a light spray bottle misting every morning and they appreciate this. In addition, I have a large 20 gallon fish aquarium in the room bubbling away, which adds to the humidity as well. If it gets "too toasty" during the winter I put a small fan on to circulate the air....Granted, it's not the same as the outside conditions but after several years of relegating the plants to "house plant" status during the winter (which does NOT work)---this method seems to work nicely for me. Of course it would be easier to just build a "real greenhouse", but my husband put a deck on the best location in the yard, so there goes that idea! =)
I know this is an old post, but I feel a need to update! All my hoyas were doing great, up until about a month ago. Some of them started to have shrivly-like leaves.....They were getting enough water and light but NOT enough humidity---even my stemmas were showing signs of unhappiness! I had to move them to an indoor greenhouse "tent" with plenty of humidity (around 80%) and now they have plumped up and are doing fabulously......I've never noticed this problem before, but maybe since it's been an exceptionally chilly winter in the NorthEast, perhaps the heat was a little too much!?! Just a thought. I can't wait until the frost has cleared and all the little ones can move outside and enjoy a natural environment!! On the up side was that I managed to rid all of my plants of the dreded mealies!
Congrats on getting rid of the mealies hq, they're nasty beggars. I fought the war a few years ago and won too. I find the key to keeping them away is to isolate any new plants for at least a month no matter the reliability of their source.
Yes, I too believe that moisture is important to getting hoyas to grow and to bloom. For the most part, I have my plants in large groupings that keeps the moisture level higher simply by virtue of density of foliage. When I remember I'll mist them every day, but the memory doesn't work as well as my intentions unfortunately. But I have lots of new growth and lots of new buds now, so something's working just fine.
Christine
Indoor heating can be dry and humidity levels low in the winter... It amazes me to see people in Nevada growing hoyas!!! They do best, I find, with 40-50% humidity around them...even localized where they are. Don't forget circulating air!!!
Just a note on movement of humidity levels in the air. Here during the wet season the humidity rarely goes below 75 - 80% but it's mostly over 90%. Night times it's mostly between 95 - 100%.
Dry season the humidity has an extreme range. At night it's still often over 90%, usually never below 80%. However, during the day it can drop down to the low 20's. This is because the night temperature is very much lower than the day temperature. The amount of water in the air tends to remain fairly constant but the higher the temperature goes the more it is capable of absorbing water, hence Relative Humidity (RH) drops. And plants have the water 'dragged' out of them.
In a cold climate the outside air would have a higher RH because at lower temps the air can't absorb a lot of water. Move that air inside a house and heat it without adding extra water and the RH plummets, and plants suffer. (Don't know how it works below freezing point, no experience there.)
Down south when people use heaters they often put out bowls of water. They say it's healthier for people if the air isn't too dry. It's also good for timber furniture which can crack when it's too dry. This is usually furniture that comes from tropical areas. But all the same, it's a fine balancing act, fungus likes high humidity and still air. Ask any one living through a wet season in the tropics.
I hear you hoyaqueen121---it's been an unusually long (read hot and dry) winter heating season here in the northeast....Here's how I've been dealing with it: I stopped trying to grow all those hoyas that really seem to require high humidity (that's right, I'm talking to YOU H. bella..grrr)...this leaves me with a lot of the harder textured, more succulent, hoyas and that's just fine with me...I group plants together, mist frequently, and, finally, I take advantage of the microclimate right next to badly sealed old house windows...right near the glass you get circulating air (per Carol), higher humidity, and cooler temperatures...some of my hoyas, like H. thompsonii, seem to really thrive there, others go dormant but stay healthy and start new growth early in the Spring...
I see from my earlier post that I was having trouble with H. lacunosa...I would like to update that this plant FINALLY settled in, and near the cool glass in the kitchen has been blooming steadily for the past month...:-)...Spring is coming---hang in there!!!
Shelley