cummingiana help please

I would appreciate any tips on how to grow this one. I've got thin scraggly growths with small leaves..... To be more specific, leaves are about an inch apart, and each leaf is about a 1/2" long narrow oval. Stems are really really thin - like string.

Yesterday, I found the original cutting and it has a fairly thick stem, so clearly I need help :D

I've been growing it shady but perhaps it wants more light?

It could be more light it needs, I have a small one grown from cuttings - started out as two cuttings and one died, now I just have this 7 to 8 inch long one. I noticed on the new growth that it is thinner and more delicate, but I believe leaves so far apart on any plant is a low light issue. The leaves are fairly close on mine, I have it in very bright indirect light. Maybe you could try moving it to a brighter spot?

Also, because this is a new hoya for me as well, does anyone know if pinching it back will cause branching? When mine gets just a little bigger, I would like to make a new cutting out of the top few inches- maybe this would work for yours as well.

This message was edited Jun 9, 2007 9:50 AM

thanks... and another question for folks.
Does it like to go dry between waterings or does it need to stay airily moist all the time? I grow pubicalyx and carnosa like succulents, and most other hoyas in a moister CHC mix. Which way should I go on the cummingiana? (or a third way, why not...?)

I keep my cummingiana in a north-west facing window - very bright light, and direct sun very late in the day. It was a cutting a year ago. Its growing like a trouper, even branching out, and I've never cut it. I water it on a "drench and dry" system - more like a succulent I guess, which is how I treat most of my hoyas.

Christine

thanks. More light it is.

Last year I found the upper light limit on half my houseplants so I am being a bit more cautious now.....

I do the same as Christine when it comes to watering, no one gets a drop until they use up what they have! The only ones I don't drench though are the Exotic Angel plants, those I water lightly until they are very well established. They ( the grower) use a stay wet agent in their soil and I don't find that to be a good thing for hoyas.

I was told that H. cummingiana was found growing in full sun...well, I tried that and it burned up. But I do grow it in very bright indirect light with morning sun in the summer and probably dry because I forget to water that side of the house!!!! It IS tough!!

Carol

Mine is in a South window, and with the deciduous trees in the way it gets about 4-5 hours of sun when the sun shines, which in VT is not very often. The plant is now much bigger than when this was taken a month ago and has two peduncles with flower buds. It is in a peat-based-soil, and I water when the top 1/2" is dry to the touch.

Mine is currently in full sun on my deck (but I am in Chicago, not Hawaii). It is blooming like crazy and I did the same thing last spring-summer and it grew like a weed and bloomed almost continuously. I let it go VERY dry before watering because it is in a very shallow pot and it dries out quickly.
I call this one my "octopus" hoya with its long arms reaching outward, but not really climbing on anything. I tried cutting it back, hoping it would get bushier, but found the only thing it did was send out one more branch from the spot where I cut it off....looks like it has a broken arm!
During the winter I put it in a southwest window and it blooms for a while but then stops in the late fall until I put it back outside again.
Sue M

Sue...that is one beautiful plant!!!

wow! inspirational photo!
Thanks for posting it.