I just can't keep this thing happy. It gets buds and always blasts them. Now the leaves are turning yellow. I'm wondering if a self watering or Oyama type pot would be best for it?
I keep seeing everybody's photos and comments about him being such a continuous bloomer...HELP me get there!!
ThreeG: The green leaves on your plant look nice, shiny and healthy! Do I see a bloom spur there in the middle at the top?
I had lots of problems with my multiflora when I first got it, the leaves would turn yellow and fall off constantly. Then someone told me it required lots of water and suggested I plant it in one of those ceramic self watering AV pots. It seemed to do real well and liked that pot but this winter it began to suffer and looks pretty pitiful right now. The leaves are looking very chlorotic. I'm going to repot it using fresh soil and start feeding it and hopefully in another month it will have recovered.
I had problems with my multiflora too. So i yanked it out of the pot and stuck it in some hydroton. Either that shocked it into flowering or it liked guzzling as much water as it wants. It finally flowered even though it dropped most of the umble it kept 5 blooms and is now finally getting "hydro" roots and getting bloom nubbies on some of the old spurs.
i just got frustrated with it and had to do something different. it still sulks, but the roots really took a beating when i transplanted. i think i might chop it in half and start over in just hydroton
jaci
Yes, lots of water is the key to keeping multiflora happy, and a very bright exposure. I drown mine every time I water - every 3-4 days. I don't lose leaves, I don't get yellow leaves and I don't get blasting buds. Just lots and lots of flowers year-round, and very green, happy leaves. Its planted in my regular hoya mix - orchid bark, perlite and cactus potting mix. Although I'm planning on taking a cutting soon and growing it out in hydroton as an experiment - which according to jaci will probably work well.
Christine
Thanks folks! Water seems to be the key ingredient. Christine, since you're so close to me...what are you using as bright light? east, south?
I'm curious about the light conditions too. I think I need to give mine more/brighter light. Wonder if this one could take some morning sun?
Mine sits on a table a few inches from a west-facing window that is full of other hoyas. So it gets bright all day, and dappled late afternoon sunlight. Yes, morning sun absolutely. Just don't let it dry out, ever. I think south would be too strong though LeeAnn, unless there's something else in front of it to protect it.
C.
ok...I can do west...that's the cat's window though...maybe I can rig up a hanger of some kind...
I can't do the west sun down here, it's way too intense and would burn them up. I guess I will stick with the morning sun location. I have some of my hoyas on the front porch, east side of the house, and they get a little morning sunlight and light filtered by trees the remainder of the day. I will try positioning multiflora out there after I repot it.
This might be one to try in the pond, LOL. I have 4 of these and the happier ones are actually planted in the ground. The one still in a hanging pot is the least happy, I am getting ready to plop it into my stream and see what happens. I'm willing to sacrifice it if things go wrong because it has been perpertually unhappy and chlorotic. I have fertilized it and given it micronutrient sprays with chelated iron. It blooms, but it just looks very unhappy.
Wow, you have a multiflora planted in the ground in Gainesville? How do you protect it from the cold winters, or do you dig it up every year? I might just try planting mine outside where the sprinklers will get it twice a week and see what happens. If after a week or two it doesn't look so good I can always put it back in a pot ... that is if the squirrels haven't eaten it.
I have to chime in on H. multiflora as well. I've had it now for over seven years, and this is my experience. The first few years it grew very slowly, because I knew nothing about this plant, and treated it like all my houseplants in that I fertilized every couple of months, and watered when dry. It flowered once or twice a year; the leaves never turned yellow or fell off. After finding this forum a couple of years ago, I learned that it really liked to be kept wet and started fertilizing every time I watered; it started growing like a weed, and never was without flower, sometimes having six to eight flowering peduncles at one time. I thought this was the easiest hardest to kill houseplant of all time and advocated that everyone who keeps houseplants should keep it. Then...
Late last Summer it started to go down hill; the leaves began getting chlorotic and falling off. It still was never without flower, but after finally getting sick of picking off yellow leaves, I pulled it out of the pot and there was considerable root rot. I tried cleaning off all the bad roots and repotting it, but after a few more months of yellow leaves, I lopped off all the stems and rerooted it in semi-hydro. I recently moved it from S-H back into my conventional mix along with most of my other s-h experiments, but that is another topic for another day.
Here is what I now believe: It is possible to over water a multiflora; the soil should be moist, but never wet; they like bright filtered light; it prefers warmth with at least a little humidity in the air, and finally the thing that I now know to be true more than anything else - never take your H. multiflora for granted; it can go south in a hurry, even after years of easy growing.
Doug
