Got mine today and boy was it small. In fact smaller than yours Awanda. They could have mailed it in an envelope,instead it came in a 4 ft tall box.
I potted it up into a 1 G pot and hope that it grows as fast as I was told it would grow.
dragea sinensis (AKA) wattakaka vine-hoya relative
Bumping this to see if anyone can offer up care info. I found some nice variegated ones at a nursery in Berkeley yesterday - OF course they jumped on my cart at only $5. But now what?
Not sure if I should treat them like a hoya or not. Any info is greatly appreciated!!!
The leaves on mine are looking kinda funky. Got speckles or maybe they are overwatered. Has lost a few, anyway, not looking too good right now, so I guess I can't offer any advise. Ha. Hey....does anyone know if these things are supposed to lose leaves in winter (like a deciduous tree)?
Marcy
Mine is doing what Marcy's is doing, losing leaves and looking speckly. I potted it in a one gallon pot in the same soill I pot my hoya's up in. I hope I didn't over pot it.
MIne isn't growing, but it's still healthy. I planted mine in the ground.
Blessings,
Awanda
This plant is so cool! I'm hoping to buy some seeds soon.
:) Donna
Awanda, I bet that plant of yours will take off when spring comes along - like wildfire!!!
Ann
Mine has grown about one new set of leaves since I got it. Still healthy but very slow to get going!!
Today I hit it with the beer fertilizer so we'll see what happens!
dmichael
dmichael, are you using the "recipe" discussed on the fertilizer thread? If so, keep us posted as to how it works out for you.
Ann
I'm using the beer fertilizer outside on a plumeria, brugs and some winter flowas. It's still around 80 during the day here, and most of my outside plants are still growin.
Blessings,
Awanda
Ann, that is the one i'm using. I picked a few hoyas that I had duplicates of to experiment with also.
dmichael
Ann, what fertilzer thread??? Beer recipe?????
:) Donna
Donna, the recipe can be found about midway down of this thread.
Good luck, obviously lots of people are getting good results!!
Ann
Someone mentioned (somewhere!) that this vine *IS*, indeed, deciduous....but I've found that many deciduous plants grown indoors don't necessarily lose *all* their leaves, so....??
Lali...this is a new plant to me, as well, so I'm 'winging it' myself!
Mine are still seedlings....I have them in a south window right now.
I'm more of a 'foliage fanatic' than a 'flower freak' (LOL!), but the flowers of this one caught my eye...as well as the variegation that many sellers' plants seemed to have.
The seeds were readily available and inexpensive, so I decided to give it a shot.
Thanks Nan, what soil blend are you using and how wet are you keeping the soil? Does anyone have 'Hortus' they can look it up in? If not, i'll look it up on Wed. when I head to the Arboretum.
p.s. Nan, the cissus adenopoda has gone berzerk! I just found it in the back of the plant stand, winding it's way to the top shelves! LOL.
Hey, Lali (DUH!!) I do have an older version of Hortus Third...I'll look it up tonight!!
I used ProMix to start the seeds, and the seedling are still in their original 3" pots.
So far, I've managed to (not necessarily on purpose!) let them get quite dry before I water again.
That C. adenopoda does like to climb, climb, climb!!
I had posted a photo of mine climbing up the apple tree last year.
How'd the C. amazonica do? I was wondering if you might have needed more 'woody' cuttings?
C. amazonica did great! I cut the cuttings into a dozen or more pieces - got roots in two weeks, potted mine up in a hanging basket and donated the rest to the arboretum as they didn't grow it and the vine gal loved it!! So they'll prop it for sales now. Just think your little cutting making it's way into hundreds of bay area homes!!!
I finally found a nice big pot of Kangaroo cissus too!
So would you say keep this Wattakaka vine on the dry side? I can't find pro mix in my area and the soil it's in seems rich and nice but not like a typical Hoya soil blend I use (1/4 potting soil, 1/4 orchid bark, 1/4 perlite and 1/4 hydroton) So any thoughts on what to do soil wise.
I found mine at a very cool Berkeley nursery and then googled it when I came home. Found it on the Annie's Annuals web site and oddly enough had just been to that nursery about an hour earlier. They didn't have it in stock. But lucky me to stumble upon it at the other place.
Girl, you're quite the propagator!
Imagine that...my baby 'mothering' all those new plants....guess that makes me the G-word, eh?! LOL!
My advice would be to watch your plant for any signs of dormancy and reduce watering if you see any signs. In the meantime.....my seedlings have done pretty well approaching dryness before watering....so that's what I'm going to stick to....this seems, to me, like other herbaceous plants that do better with less water rather than more.....I've been meaning to, so I'll try my best to look it up tonight in a few of my books and let you know what I find out.....if we could figure out it's native habitat and the conditions, there....that will help a lot.
Seems to me that Awanda had a friend who saw this growing outdoors but not sure if her friend was in AZ or where? Awanda? You out there?
Awanda mentioned above that she planted hers in the ground. please let me know what you find in your books. I really dont want to lose mine!!!
thanks ever so much!
Here is a picture of mine planted in the ground, as I stated it's not growing but it's still very healthy.
Blessings,
Awanda
This is a milkweed Telosoma Cordata that I got from Logees, aka Chinese Violet. It has beautiful wonderful smelling yellow flowas. This one is growing really well. Nan the lady that saw the milkweed growing outside lives in Tucson, AZ.
Blessings,
Awanda
Awanda, I have one of those Chinese violets form Logee's that i grow in my tropicals house. It is huge and stays covered with flowers all the time.
dmichael
awww geez Awanda, now I have to add another plant to my 'Cant live without it' list! LOL.
Logees site says it sits still all winter so come spring I'll be ordering!!! TFS.
Awanda's good at that, ain't she? (Ü)
So good! Dmichael do they smell incredible?
Begonia, you know i've been growing this vine for almost 3 years now and cant say that i've ever really put my nose to the flowers. If I remember i'll check tomorrow as its still in bloom.
dmichael
Oh sure tease me again....lol. I had to look up what the flowers on the Telosoma Cordata look like. They are very pretty! Now I have to find seeds for this one to. Did a google but can't find anyone who sells the seeds. Flora Exotica website says that they have it but doesn't say seeds or plant. I'm off to send them an email.
:) Donna
This plant was *not* listed in my copy of "Hortus Third", nor was it listed in "Botanica" or "Exotica"!!
I did find this in the " RHS Encyclopedia of Houseplants", by Kenneth A. Beckett:
DREGEA:
Origin, tropical and Soth Africa to China. A genus of 12 species of climbing plants very closely related to Asclepias. Only 1 species is cultivated, and this makes a ery decorative plant for the Conservatory.
Propagate by seed in Spring or by cuttings in late summer.
Dregea commemorates Johan Franz Drege (1794 - 1881), a German botanist who collected plants in South Africa.
DREGEA CORRUGATA - (Wattakaka sinensis) China - Stems woody, twining, 2-3 m (6.5-10') in length - leaves more or less evergreen or deciduous after long-term hard frost, in opposite pairs, ovate-cordate to 10 cm (4") long, densely grey velvety downy beneath.
Flowers 5-petalled with a small corona, white or cream with red speckling, 1.5 cm (5/8") wide, fragrant, born in axillary stalked umbels during summer.
In overall floral effect, there is a strong resemblance to Hoya - Occasionally the intriguing seed pods form. These are paired, incurving spindle-shaped follicles, either smooth or corrugated and 5-7 cm (2-2-3/4") long.
Fairly hardy - suitable for conservatory.
Requirements: Cool - minimum 5-10C (50-60F) full sun to part shade. Water requirements medium to heavy.
This RHS book uses symbols to indicate a plants growing requirements, and oddly enough, it sometimes lists 2 watering requirements, but never indicates WHY! So I'm assuming the heavy is when in active growth or in bloom, and the medium is 'otherwise'.
I haven't found much as far as *complete* growing information on the 'net, so thought others besides Lali might appreciate this information being posted.
Edited to add (and I haven't tried yet) maybe there is more info out there under the name Dregea corrugata.
This message was edited Nov 8, 2006 10:49 AM
Wow, Thanks Nan! good to know it's deciduous. I wont panic if I lose leaves! I'm going to grow it inside to be safe.
thanks again!
Wow ...if minumum temp is 50 degrees, I guess I better go out and bring them inside. I wonder now if Awanda's will survive being in the ground? Didn't someone say there is one growing outside in Houston? I think it gets quite cold there.
Marcy
I'm guessing that it's minimum temp to retain it's foliage might be 50 degrees?
It does state 'Fairly Hardy'....(whatever that means?!!) LOL!!
You know how those reference books are....they all seem to have a little information that's different...but this was the *only* book in my posession that listed the plant at all.
I picked up a couple of those "wall of water" thingy today and I'm going to try it on my dragea sinensis if the weather gets too cold.
Blessings,
Awanda
How did everyone's vine survive the winter? I potted mine up in a gallon pot and kept it down in the basement and watered it when I remembered. I pulled it out and put it in the GH a couple of weeks ago and it has put on 2 sets of leaves. I guess I should think about getting it on a trellis.
Tami,
funny that you should bring this up!!! I was just looking at mine today and it has grown about 2ft over the past month. It sat for a long time and did absolutely nothing and now all of a sudden it is growing nicely. It has gone from 2 sets of leaves to at leat 6 or 8 sets.
dmichael
My seedling struggled indoors during the winter, and I lost a couple of them, but since this was listed as 'nearly/almost hardy', I placed them on the sunporch for the warmer portions of the winter.
They appear to be growing now....time will tell, I guess!
I had potted mine up into gallon pots and left them outside in a protected area. They lost all their leaves last fall and just looked like sticks all winter. I wondered if they were dead. However, now they are leafing out and have several leaves on each one. Looks like they made it.
Marcy
I noticed today that the one I planted in the ground AND went through our freeze is alive and starting to grow back! This is one hardy plant!
Blessings,
Awanda
Just wanted to bump this up again.
My dragea spent the winter in an unheated gh and lost all of it's leaves and I wasn't so sure if it was going to come back or not but it has and has tiny clusters of buds at almost every new point of growth.
Wow! I had never heard of this plant- Thanks for 'bumping' this thread up! If it worked in your unheated gh, it should work in my unheated sunroom! Hmmmm.....might be another one to add to the collection!
Oh, yeah, glad you did - mine spent the summer on the sunporch (where they did last year as young seedlings) and ~oops~ I'd better check on them!