How does everyone grow this hoya? Are they fast growers? Do they like lots of water?
Dianne
Serpens
Small pot. Moist, but not soggy or too wet. Fast draining.
Mine is on the front porch. Cooler there with just a dash of early morning sun. Shade the rest of the day. It looks best in the cool months of winter where I leave it outside on that porch. But I don't water it much in the winter either.Just enough to keep it from going completely dry.
Mine bloomed one flower last year and a bunch of them this spring.
Now that the REAL hot weather is here, it looks frumpy. I think it would be happier in the fridge. Ha. Maybe I will put a fan on it. :-D
Marcy
I first hung mine outside, under the bamboo stand and it flourished...with rain every night. Now it lives in the shade between my propagating house and the greenhouse. Common denominator: shade, lots of water, lots of airflow. Accent on the airflow, I think. She grows towards the dark...and has bunches of peduncles but have never seen a bloom. Still hoping!!!!
Carol
Mine is grown in a 6" basket and is full. It grows like a weed for me. I grow it on the shady side of the gh which by the way is the west side. My dad's work shop butts against that side of the gh so that's why it is the shadier side.
It is grown in the tropicals gh rather than the hoya gh because the hoya house gets too much bright light and very little shade.
I keep the plant moist but not sopping wet and it gets plenty of airflow. The sides on my gh roll up to almost 6 feet from the ground and I have 2 -36" high velocity fans that blow all the time.
One on a back corner blowing in one direction and the other being in the opposite front corner blowing in the opposite direction. So the plant is getting very good air circulation.
My potting medium is fast draining and consists of and excellent potting mix that I buy from a local nursery to which I add perlite and an orchid mix that I get from Lowes.
My plant must have 50 or more peduncles on it but i've only had flowers twice and both times it's been full clusters. Once last year and once again this spring.
I also have a very nice plant of H. mathilde. The leaves look the same to me but are about triple the size of serpens. The blooms on mathilde also look like serpens blooms to me but mathilde is much easier to bring into bloom.
I also find that like serpens,mathilde is a very rapid grower.
dmichael
Wish I could help ya out Diane, but this is another Hoya I stay away from.. It seems to be to hot for that one here. Although Awanda has good luck growing them, or is that curtisii?
Great info, everyone, as I've had trouble with this little sucka too!
Mine's mounted on piece of cork covered w/sphagnum, and I have it outdoors right now, where it will get air circulation, humidity and cool nights.
That reminds me....Awanda...how is your new EA basket of Curtisii doing? Heather and I have both killed a couple/few!
Does everyone get theirs from Logees? That is where I got mine. They put them in very rich soil and it stays wet for a while.
I found that they did better after I transplanted them into a little looser soil. I am now using that same mix that Awanda uses and find it is working out very well with everything I have put into it.
Marcy
Nan,I left my curtisii growing in EA basket it came in and it is now huge! it stays wet,before this one I had killed 4 of them so keeping fingers crossed!
Dianne
My curtsii is growing like a weed, unlike Dianne I re-potted mine into my potting mix. I only water when dry. I am serpens challenged:-), can't seem to make it happy.
Blessings,
Awanda
LOL!! Well, then, what the heck am I doing wrong?
I've tried everything for that stinker, and it's one of my favorite foliage plants *ever*!!??
My serpens came as cuttings from a fellow DG'er.....it was several....it's down to one....but that one is growing!