Help for my Hoya

Hi everyone I am new to DG but can tell I am going to love it. Anyway, I got a cutting from a friends hoya nearly 17years ago now. It has done nothing. Not grow or die. She kept hers in a jar of water and grew till the "vines" covered her front window. Mine is in a jar of water also and is the same size it was 17years ago. I am almost afraid to put it in dirt now after so long.

I must say I am baffled by your maintaining a single cutting in water for 17 years! After 17 years, what have you got to lose by trying to pot it up, unless you have some personal attachment to this cutting after all these years.

BTW, single cuttings do not make good potted plants. Single cuttings will grow longer, but they will not branch or produce other stems from the root system. To mak a nice potted plant from cuttings, you need lots of cuttings (10 or more) potted together.

I'm amazed too, that a Hoya would root in water! Waycool. How long is the cutting in question?
The roots that form in water are different than those that form in soil, so if you put it up in soil the acclimation period will likely be as long as if you were starting out. I am not sure how Hoyas tolerate root pruning, but would consider it. They also go semidormant in winter and that might be a better time to make such a drastic change. You'd want to keep it pretty moist for a while during the time it acclimates. Do you know what species of Hoya you have? The one most usually seen, Hoya carnosa, has leaves perhaps 2" long, more or less by a bit and about an inch wide, and pointed. There may be little whitish flecks on the leaves, or it may be variegated.
If I had a single, well-rooted cutting of that one, I'd put it in about a 5 or 6" terracotta pot. A happy Hoya would fill out fine. I've never seen over 3 cuttings of this genus in a pot of small to moderate size.

Well my verbage may be off (I warned you I was new at this)LOL anyway it, (roots leaves and all) is about the size of a honeydew mellon. I will get a picture of it tonight and try to post it. I wish I knew what kind it was I would gladly tell you but I don't know much about it except hers had small white waxy flowers that smelled wonderful. Maybe the photo will help there too! Thanks you both for your input hope you have more when you see the picture.

Ok there is a picture in the plant ID forum ( could not figure out how to post a pic here). title is "my h2o bound hoya"

Well, I don't have an answer for your question, but I thought I could help by posting a link to your photo for those folks who don't have time to hop over to "Identification":

http://davesgarden.com/showforumphoto.php?imageid=2393

Thanks Kay I figured that was possible just could not figure out how. Thanks for your help.

That is quite a cutting! It likes as big as a full grown plant. If you haven't had much experience with potting up rooted cuttings, you might be better off just leaving it as is and adding a little liquid plant food to the water periodically.

If you choose to pot it up, use a very porous potting mix and a clay pot that is just large enough to contain the roots. Maintaining an evenly moist potting mix is critical as the roots adapt to soil. Even for someone who is experienced, this procedure is not a guaranteed success.

Thanks for you help Will I am really nervous about putting it in soil but really really want it to grow too. Oh such a delema. When you say porous potting mix what combination are you thinking. I really wish I knew what I was doing with plants. I garden mostly by the seat of my pants and have alot of luck most of the time. As you can tell I am quite attached to this plant lots of sentimental value but would really like it to grow and maybe even flower some day. I feed it regularly with liquid plant food so that is not it.

I would recommend about two parts peat and one part perlite. You can throw in some small bark chips and ground charcoal, if you can find it. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

mine is growing from cuttings-in miracle grow mix and there are new leaves every day!
sandy yours looks like it has great roots ready to plant!!
dori

I like Will's suggestion about popping in a LITTLE bit of fertilizer.
It looks like Hoya carnosa to me. What a nice looking one! I think it likes you a great deal. :)

Ok am going to clip a little and try to root it "the right way" and the rest I am going to leave in the water and change the feeding schedule. I will keep you posted. Thank you all for all your help sure gives a rooky confidence having friends like all of you (((((((((hugs for all)))))))) I figure I better start sometime if I ever want to have anything to trade. Maybe some hoya if the cuttings live thru my learning years.

Perlite I think you are right we have gotten quite close over the years with me pleading with it to grow ;)

Dori as my closest neighbor. If I run into trouble you may get an e-mail begging & bribing you to come rescue me :)

Why not try a hydroponic pot? If the root system has spent all it's life in water, and you don't want to risk potting it up, you could buy a hydroponic setup and not have to worry aout transplanting shock.

This suggestion may be too late, but here is another method you can use: take the tip end of the vine, go towards the center about 4 to 6 inches, remove TWO leaves, and pin it into a moist pot of soil. It will root in a month or so, then you can sever it from the mother plant. The secret to getting hoyas to bloom is: they MUST be pot-bound. My neighbor has one that blooms year-round. It is about 15 feet long, and in an 8 inch pot. She does NOT feed it, and even has it in what I would concider low light, and it blooms forever.

A good suggestion is never too late Kay and thanks for yours. I have already started a cutting in a pot of soil but see no reason why I can't try yours too with another stem. Who knows maybe soon I will have Hoyas all over the place.

Bucky I am looking into the hyroponic pot but have not figured much out about it yet.