Just came back from NZ where my friend keeps a H. carnosa outdoors ALL YEAR. Where she lives is fairly temperate...and they get frost in the winter...cool temps (downright cold sometimes)...around 40s and some dips into the 30s at night. While I was there her plant was blooming its' head off! She does hang it under an overhang, so the leaves themselves don't freeze...and she is "watering challenged' so the dear thing gets little water. It couldn[t be happier!!!
Just thought I would pass that on!!
Carol
Temperature Tolerance Footnote
Carol, you'd be interested to know I've just posted a shot of a Hoya carnosa In november blooms growing at Tamborine Mountain south of Brisbane, we don't get many frosts there but it is about 4 deg. cooler than Brisbane. As you will see it's relishing it's position.
Roy
This message was edited Nov 12, 2007 8:28 AM
This message was edited Nov 12, 2007 3:50 PM
And I posted a picture of my obovata bloom. It's been outside since I got it a couple of years ago. First bloom. The only time I brought the hoyas in was last January when we had two nights of definite freeze. They seem to love the cooler (but then it's much drier in the summer too, don't forget that part) temps. Last year they were hanging under the porch covering. This year they're out hanging in the trees. I'll keep my eye on them and won't let them freeze for sure.....and I still have to figure out which ones I got from the co-op that I can possibly treat the same way. They're still babies so in the house at this point. Let's see, I have my carnosas, pubicalyx and obovata out there for now.
Stella...I would reckon you would be safe...as long as the plants are 'Under' something that would protect them from a direct freeze. I have no idea about H. obovata...but the carnosas and pubicalyx should be just fine....and flourish!!! If you should get some coldish wx, I think I would let them go dry instead of watering them..... IMHO....
Hi Carol, from here on out until the rains stop I'll probably let nature water them. I only water heavily during hot, dry weather. Actually it never gets that hot here (maybe 75) but soooo dry. It's funny that since their move into the trees they've all started growing like crazy and I got my first bloom on the obovata. Me thinks they like it. If we have freeze warnings I'll bring them in; don't want to take the chance.
Although I have no thoughts to ever being able to grow my hoyas outside I'd did enjoy this detail about the temperature tolerance!
It is 10 degrees outside at my house this morning, yes ten! This means the inside of my house gets very cool at night. But never colder than in the mid 50's I would think. I was worrying that even those kind of temps might be too much for the hoyas but from this discussion I can see that they should do just fine with house temps in the 50's at times. Thanks!
~Brenda
All my hoyas (even tiny little just rooted cuttings) have been outside when nighttime temps have gone down into the mid 50s and done OK. In fact they prefer it out there as the light is better. Now...when it goes below 50...that is when I start to see trouble on some of them.
I leave all the carnosas and pubicalyx out ALL winter with nightime temps going into the low 40s and they have been fine. A few even survived the frost we got last winter by my wrapping burlap around them and pinning with clothspins. As soon as the frost danger was over...I unwrapped them & they were just fine.
I have a few other varieties that I leave out all winter. Obovata and Kerrii are a couple that also don't seem to mind, plus all the ones I have that David Liddle has listed as "cold" except the lacunosas as I lost a couple of those in the wintertime.
Marcy
This message was edited Nov 14, 2007 9:30 AM
I have a few Hoya outside all year long too, including a big pubicalyx that is blooming right now (I'll post a photo in the Nov blooms). I use David Liddle's list as a guide too. So far, the plants that have bloomed and grown happily outside are: H. arnottiana, H. carnosa, H. pubicalyx and H. serpens. Growing well but no blooms are: H. fusca and H. mathidle. Not growing so well as of yet are H. pauciflora and h. bella, though I think I might have sunburned those two, so might not be the temps to blame, but me!
This is such useful info everyone. Thanks, Carol, for starting this thread. I now have a short list of 'proven' hoyas for outside in my area ;)
I have outside in an open roofed pergola all winter (temps are 40 - 30),h. carnosa,
KQ, KP,h.pubicalyx, h. motoskei ,h. globulosa and h. coriacea.
last winter I left h. australis and h. obovata too, but the australis almost died.
When the wx was cool/cold, did you water? I think that may be one of the keys to keeping them out in cool wx. It would damage the roots if they were wet...tells me that the cool periods in their native habitat are the dry periods too....just a guess.
I'm gonna have to watch mine more as far as wetness goes this year. They had been under the front porch roof before whereas now they're under trees where they would get rained on. Good point Carol.
Yes Carol, you guess right, I kept them very dry, and watered maybe once in a month, and I didn't flooded the pot .
Carol,
I agree with your cold tolerance ideas. It seems that many succulents, not just hoyas, will tolerate lower then "recommended" temperatures if they are kept dry. While we certainly don't get what most people would call cold here in Florida most winters I see some temperatures in the mid 30's. As long as my plants remain dry I don't have too many problems. Tonight we'll be 45 - Brrr!:)
i notice that my odarata doesn't start blooming until the weather cools down. it's always blooming about december.
I just wanted to share my experiences on here this fall for those who move their plants in and out of the house and worry about low temps. I had every one of my hoyas outside in my greenhouse for the spring and summer. I cannot keep them there as I cannot keep the little greenhouse at 50 or above each evening, too much electricity and too much money. Instead, I just pulled back the plastic so they could get watered when it rained and covered the top with shade cloth, sort of a little shade house. Well, at the time I normally move all the hoyas in, about the last weekend in October, I had every problem in the book. Family issues, school exams, my time was taken up and then some. So the plants did not get moved in. Then came the cold. We dipped into the low 30s to 40 at night, in fact the coldest temp I believe was 36F. All I could do is pull plastic back over the greenhouse and close it up and hope for the best. The lows were this low for about 5 days. A little over a week later I was finally able to move them in. None of them are worse for wear. The only effect I saw was the yellowing and dropping of some leaves, but they have all since recovered and look fine now. So, for everyone worried their hoyas will mush if it hits 49, I say relax. As long as it isn't for long periods, and the plants are dry and protected, they will make it through. It is important to point out that here the lows only hit for a couple hours each morning usually, but the 36F night got low early, so it was that chilly for a good portion of the evening.
Kim
thanks kim.
Really interesting, Kim. I think that covering them helps and keeping them on the dry side definitely helps. Hoyas are tough!!!! Tougher than we think.
Our weather here has been crazy. One week it would be in the 70's and low 80's here in the daytime, and the night in the 50's. The next week we would have daytime in the 60's and night time temp of high 30's to low 40's. I have not brought my Hoyas in, and they are doing well. I also have a couple blooming. I left them out, because out temp change some much I am so tired of bringing them in and out. It is amazing how tough they really are.
Patti
Patti, what part of the world do you live in? Just wondering at least which zone. Our weather's been very similar. Two days ago it was 75 and sunny, today it's 55 and windy. It' not unusual for the weather to vary like this, but usually it's fair weather for a week and then cool weather for a week, not up and down like a yoyo. Very strange. It was 36 here last night. Since I had no warning that it was going to get that cold I didn't bring anything in. The hoyas look just fine. The pubicalyx especially seem to be thriving in the cool, all kinds of new growth on them.
I live in Houston Texas zone 9b here.
This past year I've used David Liddle's catalog to try to keep away from those Hoyas he has marked with a W for warm. I just noticed the other day that he has marked H. cumingiana with a W, but this Hoya is one of my most successful plants. I've tried to stay away from "warm" Hoyas because my house is kept very cool for most of the year. It averages anywhere from 60-68 degrees for most of the winter. I'm starting to wonder if I am excluding some very nice Hoyas that might do well for me just because of this temperature rating. I'm starting to believe the only way to really tell how a Hoya will do under your conditions is to actually buy it and try it out.
Doug
H. cumingiana does quite well for me here outside in cool temps.
Marcy,
I guess there is the possibility that David mismarked this particular species or that it comes from a warmer area, but does well in the cool. Does anyone have any other Hoyas that say they like it warm or very warm, and they do well when kept on the cooler side.
Doug
Hi there
It depends on your definition of "do well". At the moment this, to me, means "not die"!!! It's very cold here at the moment, and I have lost a couple of my hoyas (mostly due to my ineptitude), but I have hoya lauterbachii that is doing fine on the heatmat. I also recieved a cummingiana cutting that i finally got to root, but it is still on the heat mat. I think i might leave it there all winter after reading it likes it warm!
Quite a few of my "intermediate" species are doing well, including australis, curtisii, multiflora and especially my lovely retusa!
Hope that helps, Hills
Thanks Hills !
Let me explain what "doing well" means to me. I want a plant when growing in a temperature range of 60-68 degrees fahrenheit, to not stop growing completely when given proper lighting conditions. I don't want to fight leaf yellowing or leaf drop. I want it to stay healthy looking. All of my Hoyas are cool to intermediate growers according to David Liddle's List with the exception of H. cumingiana and the erythrostemmas. H. cumingiana does great and puts on new growth and in general couldn't be in better health. My erythrostemmas aren't so hot looking. It is obvious to me that they would be far happier with warmer temps. I'm wondering how something like an H. lambii or H. megalaster would fare in my cooler growing conditions.
Doug
This message was edited Dec 10, 2007 10:27 AM
My erythrostemmas lose a LOT of leaves in the winter & look poor in general. every year I had thought I was losing cilata every winter until I realised this was a pattern with it. Come spring they all start putting on new growth & look fine again. I think they are hardy in spite of not liking the winter time. It seems to be a sort of dormantcy period for them.
Are we talking about Eriostemmas - like H. coronaria/H. sussuela? Or, are you talking about H. erythrostemma?
Eriostemmas DEFINITELY like warm...resent the cool.
My H. erythrostemmas (I have 3 clones) do well outdoors...temps into the mid 50's at night in the winter.
I think that SO much depends on how they are growns, where they are. Doug, I would think that indoors most hoyas can take cool temps at night... If you don't give them suplemental heat and light, they may go dormant.
IMHO Carol
Carol,
My problem lies more with not being able to give them enough warmth during the day. For 16 hours a day the temperature hovers around 62 degrees because of the cost of trying to heat an old house in VT with fuel oil over $3.00 per gallon, I just can't raise it much above 68 and then I only have it that warm for a few hours per day. I will have to say though, for the most part, my Hoyas look pretty good even with temps that low. The ones growing under the lights are looking fantastic with plenty of new growth - I think the warmth given off by the lights helps them some what. Also, Carol that Horticulture article went into the mail today. We'll see how long it takes to get to you.
Doug
Doug...thanks so much for the article!!!!
Unless you try to grow plants like H. patella or others that need WARM/HOT...you should be OK...just fine. Keeping them out of drafts is important too.
Carol
Doug...I want to tell you how smart you are for choosing to grow hoyas for YOUR conditions and not try to grow the impossible. Smart move and you will never be disappointed. H. polyneura should do well for you too!!!
Thank you Carol. I've always tried to do that. When I kept fish, I was the same way. I always said I would rather keep a common fish and see it thrive, than keep a very exotic one poorly and see it wither away. As for H. polyneura, I'm still trying to figure that one out. I recently started mine over from cuttings, because it looked so poor. I have it in an empty aquarium right now, and it looks pretty good. If I had to guess right now, I think my problem with this plant was trying to keep it in too low humidity. In my house, in the winter, the relative humidity will often drop below 20%
Doug
Doug,
I don't know if you would want to spend the money, but I went to target and bought a warm mist humidifier by Holmes. The initial cost was pretty steep at $40. However, after about three weeks of running the humidifier in my house the humidity never drops below 50% in my house, even on the coldest days when the heat is running constantly. I also think the heating is much more efficient also when there is humidity in the air to hold the heat. My electric bill has actually dropped about 10$ a month since I began running it about two months ago.
Duncan,
What you say is true about the humidity, and I may try another humidifier. I have had many of them in the past and they are hard to keep up with. The wicks crust up from minerals, and they have to be constantly filled. I have however never tried a warm mist variety so I may try that. I currently have two 2X4 boot trays filled with water and a fan blowing air into them. I have to pour at least a gallon of water a day into them to stop them from drying out. In the Northeast where I live it gets much colder outside than where you are, and we can go weeks where it does not get above freezing. These conditions cause it to get extremely dry in a house with central heating. Right now with my boot tray method, I am maintaining a RH of about 37%, but when it gets really cold out I'm sure that will drop considerably.
Doug
It is true about the conditions affecting the humidity greatly. I remember when I used to live in the foothills of the Appalachians where it got much colder in the winter, our house used to get so dry you couldn't keep you're skin from cracking. I love the warm mist humidifier. There are no wicks to continuously buy, and I only have to fill it up once daily, sometimes twice if I have it turned up pretty high. The tray does have to be cleaned every other day or so, but it is so easy because I just dump the water and throw it in the dishwasher. If you turn it up on high it will evaporate three gallons of water into the air in about five to six hours. My plants are doing much better this year than they did last year.
Duncan,
I will definitely give that model a try.
Thanks,
Doug
a question for you cold growers. i'm not running a heater in the gh this year and we have started to get cold. lately, it's been in the 40s w/ probably high 30s here and there. the nice thing about tucson winters is that we can bounce back from cold nights and get in the 60s and 70s during the day. here are some of the hoyas in the gh. hmmm...odd leaf colors because of the cold but some of them look normal.
https://www.quickbase.com/up/baaeyrrxn/g/rgn/ej/va/_DSC8552.jpg
https://www.quickbase.com/up/baaeyrrxn/g/rgp/ej/va/_DSC8554.jpg
https://www.quickbase.com/up/baaeyrrxn/g/rgr/ej/va/_DSC8557.jpg
https://www.quickbase.com/up/baaeyrrxn/g/rgs/ej/va/_DSC8562.jpg
https://www.quickbase.com/up/baaeyrrxn/g/rgt/ej/va/_DSC8567.jpg
should i bring them inside??? we'll have some high 30s this week. i usually try and push my plants to see how they'll grow for me. however, i realize that there are some general rules. and i might be breaking them right now. LOL
detrick
I would check the cold tolerance list. Some hoyas will flat out croak...some will not...and some will relish it. I would take the tender ones inside.
I thought reddening of leaves was more a symptom of higher light intensity? Perhaps I was wrong?
It's very cold in my house at the moment with my lounge, the place where I and my plants spend most of their time, seems to be one of the coldest in the house (boo!), even with the heating on all night, I'm hot up in the bedroom and freezing in the lounge. I've all ready lost a couple of plants and am hoping the others will last out through the winter. I am worried I'm going to lose more of them :(
I guess, when it comes round to spring, I shall be glad for the ones I still have!
carol, thanks for the tip. i don't have tags so it might be hard.
hills - now that you mention that, i remember awanda saying something about that. i recently took the shade cloth off and then a layer of bubble wrap fell from the ceiling. there is definitely more light coming in now. i guess some are more sensitive than others. how did you hoyas start looking before they croaked? just curious so i know what to look out for. i think mine are on the dry side. if i water at them point i'm more than sure i'll be moving them inside.
detrick