A dear friend just sent me a gift of 4 hoya cuttings from Ted Green in HI.
Among these were Hoya praetoria and Hoya lasiantha. I know that these 2 are closely related?
I am not a novice to hoyas, I have a lot of them and have been growing them for many years and they do quite well. But I KNOW how expensive this Praetoria was. I really want to insure that it does well (presuming it roots).
I would like to hear from anyone who is actually growing it, and your experience (please, only real, practical experience...not stuff that both you and I have already read in books and online). I want to give it the best shot.
Hoya gift: H. praetoria
Well, I hope I can meet your criteria. I consider myself quite an expert on this hoya as I have killed many of each. You should see the notches in my belt!!!
I have seen H. praetoria growing in the wild in Borneo...and it was dry, in the shade and growing on a tree stump in a public garden. It was not necessarily humid...it badly needed water but looked fine. I think I grow mine (what a lie...I have grown mine) too wet and if I tried to grow it again I think I would try to root it semihydroponically in Hydroton...and probably grow it in that mix as well. It (both) are prone to fungi as well....
Good luck.
Carol
Thanks Carol. I was hoping you would reply. I know that there are a lot of hoya folks out there who like to parrot stuff they read and hear who actually do not grow some of the more unusual or rare varieties. If I can get them to root, I will run them dry. So far I didn't even water it. I just dipped it in rooting hormone and placed it in some barely moist soil and set it inside the container of my Pritchardia pacifica palm in the greenhouse, where the overhanging fronds will shade it.
I usually have really good luck getting cuttings to root. The only plant I have lost in a great while was Hoya imbricata. It did great for a bit, then my pesky squirrel friend who lives in the greenhouse on and off unpotted it and threw it on the ground to plant a hickory nut in its container, and it never recovered.
Try growing imbricata on a log or a slab of tree fern...it likes to climb.
Be sure to keep the praetoria/lasiantha warm...that is critical. What I have sometimes done successfully is to keep the soil medium barely moist...water it from the bottom and mist the plant often... it makes the roots 'work' to get out there!!! I once grew H. praetoria really well...it was HUGE...and then, well, it went south and I simply couldn't recover it. Ted has a lot more breeze up there...and he grows almost all of his stuff outdoors which I am about to do. They really enjoy the outdoors.
When you say warm, is 55 at night too cold? That is the minimum I let the greenhouse get at night in winter. The rest of the year its 60-78 at night.
Another thing I am not really clear on....are praetoria and lasiantha the same? I got 2 cuttings, one labeled praetoria and one lasiantha. I had read that they were considered the same plant. The leaves do look very similar on the 2 cuttings, but the lasiantha leaves are larger. Of course, that could simply be because it was a larger plant to begin with.
The leaves of both are very thin.
If I can get it to root, I think I will plant it directly into the ground in a dry corner where the sprinklers do not reach when they are on. The soil here is very well drained, its just sand. Water runs through it like a collander. Maybe dig a hold and put some crushed lava rock in it?
Yes, H. lasiantha and H. praetoria are different. I will try to find the pictures to show the difference.
Also, you may not know that neither climb trees like most hoya. Their growth pattern is like H. cembra, H. cummingiana and those that grow like vines but rambling thru the undergrowth rather than straight up. They enjoy the filtered light and aren't climbing UP to get in the sun.
Do you grow other hoyas directly in the ground? I have experienced death and dismemberment with hoyas in pots that are too large...
I have quite a few in the ground. I have "SIlver-Pink", which has taken over the world, Archboldiana, Macgillvrayii, un unnmamed "Borneo", and about 10 more I can't think of at the moment. They attach directly to the greenhouse wall, some I gave trellisses and totems to, but eventually they all just meander wherever they want. I believe in the Chaos Theory when it comes to gardening, I don;t try to keep everything neatly contained. I planted a Multiflora and it turned into kind of a shrub. I'll try to take some photos if I get a chance.
Maybe I will keep these containerized until (hopefully cross fingers) I get larger plants, then take cuttings and try to root in the ground. I appreciate all your advice. So many times when you get something neat and unusual no one actually is growing or has grown it on a forum you are on so you can;t get real advice
Well, givent that my climate is completely different to you guys, this may not be helpful. However, I keep mine warm and dry too. My praetorii lives on the heat mat along with some of my other heat-loving plants. Funnily enough, it sits next to the lauterbachii. Given that one is sun loving, and the other is shade loving, you would think one wouldn't be very happy, but they both grow and thrive... and the lasiantha is trying to flower, I am so excited! Its first attempt ended in bud drop near the end (I hear this is common - they get close to flowering and the buds go all wrinkly and drop off) so I hope this time they are going to flower.
I feed mine on 7-33-32 (I think) fertilizer (half strength) with a dash of Superthrive in the summer every couple of weeks. In the winter I don't feed much, but when I remember I add a little 7-7-7 with Superthrive. During the winter i water once a week, in the summer maybe twice or three times a week.
Here's my praetorii last year. Have a look at http://www.flickr.com/photos/maimiti/683920668/ for a comparison of praetorii and lasiantha.
thanks for your post, hills!
Hmmm....my cuttings do not look anything like that. I will have to take a photo
Thanks for all the feedback on growing H. praetorii. I purchased this cutting from Mr. Green and received it at the end of November. Since then it has been struggling to root but I am optimistic that it will 'take off' soon.
I followed Ted's instrctions "Plant the all together and give them a lot of sunlight and fertilizer - then step back!" I aslo kept them inside my home thru our unusually cold November/December so the temps did not dip below 60 degrees. I now have it outside on the screened lanai where it gets about two hours of am sun and one of pm sun. I hope that helps you gothqueen...since we're both in the sunshine state.
Now my question the actual spelling of this one?
Joni
This message was edited Jan 7, 2009 10:02 AM
You have the spelling right, Joni...just no uc P...H. praetorii. Species names are never capitalized/capitolized!! I have not heard of many able to receive a cutting and root it...I don't know why it is so hard. I don't tell you this to discourage...just to keep you company.
I may try again with it...this time in semihydro medium. My other 'fussies' seem to like it alot!
Carol
Joni,
glad to know someone else has one from the same source. We will have to compare notes. You guys scared me with your "keep it warm" so I brought the lasiantha and the praetoria in from the greenhouse and put them in my sunroom. Its been really mild out at night for a while, our low was 63 last night, but a cold front is moving in tomorrow and we have a few nights of about 40-45 on tap, so I will be turning the heater on to keep the GH at 55 at night. But I figured 72 in the house was even better, LOL.
Mr. Green sent no instructions with mine. Possibly because they were a gift, bought by someone else. I'm glad I have rooted lots of hoyas before, otherwise I might have been in the dark completely. But they were labeled, which is good!
I have never grown anything in semi-hyrdo, Carol. I wouldn't even know how to begin. I know its big for orchids nowadays, but I have always just mounted everything. I laughed when I read what you said about growing the H. imbricata on a slab of treefern or cork...mine was climbing a small treefern totem. The darn pesky squirrel pulled the whole thing out of the pot and just threw it down, in the bushes between a dwarf tree fern and my Jade Vine where I didn;t immediately see that it was gone. I only discovered it some time later when I was going around fertilizing plants and the tag was in an empty pot. I found it then but it was a goner.
Here is a photo of my cuttings. The lasiantha is the larger one.
They may just look different because I have different growing conditions.
Does anyone have any tips on cutting and rooting? I took a cutting and the whole branch died back. I don't want to do that again and lose my whole plant :(
Hi all, hope you don't mind me joining in with a couple of questions.I have a few hoyas ( basically a newbie though ) and I have them all hanging out on the pool deck unless a cold front is coming in. Hoya curtisii that has never seemed to do well and it 's leaves yellow and it dies back.Does anyone know if it likes different treatment to the others?
Also I have a nice size hindu rope which has or had some sooty mold and aphids.Banished to the great outdoors for now!. It is the devil of a job getting in all the crinkles to see if it is clean, would dunking it in a bucket of soapy water help?
Thanks for any help
Gothqueen,
I am attaching my cutting...looks like you may have your labels flipped. See for yourself! I would like to keep in touch to swap infor being you are in basically the same climate and location.
Carol,
It makes me feel better knowing I am not alone with rooting some of these hoyas. I've had quite a few requests to send 'unrooted cuttings' to collectors. I have refused for just this reason. My success rate, from my plants to rooted plants is just about 100%! My success from cutting received is 16 purchased...11 rooted...5 went onto Hoya Heaven. Maybe you can introduce me to Hydro during my visit in June?
Joni
I had a H lasiantha arrive from Thailand...it was 3 weeks getting here, and very dry and more or less dead looking....however, surprisingly it came back, and quickly threw out 2 more leaves and a peduncle, so it does seem to be able to avoid very dry periods
Hmmm...these were labeled by Ted before he sent them. I wonder if he did switch them?
Yours looks exactly like the first one posted to me?????????
Good idea, Joni... I will also post a thread here about it...step by step. I think it really has solved a lot of my problems, especially with really fussy fussy hoyas.
H. curtissii likes a lot of light, bright indirect light, and it does NOT like to be dry... It is one hoya that really likes to grow ON something...I don't water my big pot all of the time but I mist it alot...and make sure the roots have moisture. Another good one for semi-hydroponic.
Good recovery on your lasiantha from Thailand, Dom. How did you perform first aid when it arrived?
Funny you are talking about Ted Green....I am at their house as I write this. Tomorrow I am sneaking out with my clippers and....
Soaked it and prayed a lot Carol.:)) Tough little thing.
Finally...after 3 months I have roots on my H. praetorii. I decided to go full blown Hydroponics with it and yesterday when I pulled it out of the Hydroton...a few pieces came out with it. ROOTS after three months of hoping. I never lost a leaf just always looked quite pitiful. Now I can only hope to get new growth. I did remove it from the system so I could start a bunch of H. Linearis plants.
Gothgueen,
How about you...anything good or bad to report?
Joni
Both my praetoria and lasiantha are hanging in there. I have them in aliflor (the comparable to hydroton available here) and they have not seemingly gone one way or there other. The new leaf coming out of the tip of the Praetoria is still on there but has not grown. I have not checked for roots, I am just leaving them be. I mist them several times daily.
I started a Hoya magnifica cutting that I got as a trade from this forum by setting it on top of a bed of moist orchid bark. It rooted IMMEDIATELY and is now doing very well. Hope these 2 finally get the idea as well.
If it took yours 3 months, then I know at least what I am in for on the time frame, LOL