I've decided that if complaining about a Hoya in a thread can make it grow, the reverse seems to be true as well. I apparently killed my H. memoria just after I recently bragged about how nice it was doing. Jinx, is what I say. It mystifies me how a plant can be doing so great one minute and crap out the next minute. One thing is for sure once you notice the dreaded limpness in the leaves, it is all over. I'm pretty confident that I can re-root the thing, but I shouldn't have to. Apparently it got over watered, because the roots acted just like Carol described - you could scrape a layer of mushiness with your finger nail. The funny thing is I've done nothing new in how I was caring for the plant. If I had to guess what happened, it is that the peat in my mix broke down in the five or six months that the plant has been in the pot. After the peat broke down, it held too much water and rotted the roots almost over night. My mix is getting lighter and lighter, and after this incident, the peat based potting soil in my mix will be almost entirely eliminated.
Doug
Candidates For Slowest Growing Hoya
OH NO! Doug, that was my fault! I got you talking about that hoya. I'm so sorry it died on you. And it was so gorgeous. It really is crazy that one day our hoyas look amazing and then they just go downhill all of a sudden. That happened to a few of my hoyas. My memoria still looks like it's on its last leg - I'm wondering if it's a tough one to keep in general. I have that "limpness" you are talking about - I guess I'm just waiting to see if it will get better in the Spring, but I know it won't :(
You're really not going to re-root it? I am thinking of re-rooting my huge 4 foot multiflora (it's been limp for awhile and hasn't improved much since repotting). If I can re-root that monster, you can re-root your memoria! Come on, let's do it!!
Gabi
Gabi, yes I guess it is your fault for getting me talking about my memoria LOL! I am re-rooting it, and I would be surprised if it does not reroot. It truly is incredible though how quickly it is possible to kill a plant that looks wonderful one day and is on its last legs the next. Some of these Hoyas seem to be pretty darn delicate, and I don't think that we are the only ones that these mysterious die offs happen to. I was reading some of the Swedish sites and apparently it happens all the time to many of the best growers. I think that it is far more prevalent in the winter than in the summer.
The dreaded limpness - we can pretend it is not there, and try to ignore it, and keep telling ourselves that it is not there, but I'm afraid that the plant won't grow out of it. Starting it over is about the only option at that point. I also don't have much of a tolerance for plants that don't do well for me. I just threw out my erythrostemmas. They never had the limpness, but they just kept getting yellow leaves, and I would never be able to give them enough warmth or give them the conditions to get them to bloom, so death to them! I'm not going to give a plant valuable shelf space and have it limp though winter just to perk up for our short VT summer. It either does well all the time, or I don't want to fool with it.
Doug
Doug,
I couldn't agree with you more about plants that don't do well for us. They take up precious room that could be given to plants that will actually GROW. I am starting to think that my archie has one more chance. Same with memoria..and my mindorensis has gone into decline also. So out they go unless they shape up. I will definitely be ordering another mindorensis in the DL fall order - I just NEED to see those blooms in person.
And your whole quote on limpness is EXACTLY what goes through my mind when I look at my multiflora and feel the limp-ish leaves. I do "pretend it is not there" and I do "try to ignore it". I even try to convince myself that it IS getting firmer. Ugghhhh. I guess it's better to re-root it than to lose it. I don't know, I might need a little more time - I know what the end result is gonna be though. RE-ROOT.
Gabi