All summer my H wayetii has been throwing out peduncles, then buds, then the whole stem dying before the flowers mature. It was a plant I bought..I usually start with cuttings, but thought Id treat myself as the plant was large. Ive ended up with a lot of rooted cuttings..each piece that was dying rooted I cut off, but I can only put it down to the mix it was in when I bought it.... The plant looks fine now still, whats left of it. I suppose its the old addage that a plant flowers under stress, or , well, death..Im hoping the new cuttings in a different mix do better, tho im tempted to knock off as much of the compost on the original plant as I safely can, and re pot it in a much freer draining mix, and pot everything together.new cuttings and all. Any thoughts?
Die back and flowering
You sound like you hit the nail on the head! H. wayettii must have been really really stressed to die back...Can you take the original plant out, rinse off the roots and repot it?
Carol
I probably can. I tried that once with a large variagated bella I bought that was suffering in what only could have been called thick garden soil..and the plant died very quickly after changing the compost...I got lots of cuttings ( again ) which are now thriving? The compost its in just stays wet and takes maybe 2 weeks to start to dry out after a watering.
Ill do it tomorrow....'gulp'
Dominic
Dominic...it sounds like the grower put wetting crystals in the soil...(isn't there an "h" in there????..I am the world's worse speller!) which hold water so the seller doesn't have to worry about watering. It is done here too... I have been VERY successful with a plant I got from a grower that does that (EA) by watering it about every 3 or 4 months!!!!! Our ambient humidity is fairly high...so it doesn't dry out very quickly!!! I always think that's why we were given figers....to stick in pots!!! A friend of mine is successful by putting the pot in a dish she keeps filled with water...and NEVER waters from the top. Since you have the cuttings going...why don't you try that????