Hoya Plant - climbing, but no leaves. (flowers, grow, vines)

[jacq63]

I should change my forum name to 'BrownThumbs'.

We have a potted Hoya plant, a climber/trailer/something that crawls around the room. Well, it's doing that alright, but without any foliage on the new vine stem. Its in a well-lit area, watered every couple weeks. It doesn't look under-watered, and in a small pot.
It has lots what looks like buds, so can we get out the cigars soon d'you think?
O Founts of CD Wisdom and People Who Know Much More Than I - I look forward to your opinions!

[Yardener]

Hey! We have a Hoya plant that is maybe 30 years old. This summer it was blooming in three different colors at once! (5 blooms total - I'll post pics later). The key for us is to give those leafless parts a firm anchor, like a hook. The parts between the main plant and the hook will then leaf out. The stalks after the hook will then keep searching for something to hold on to or wrap around. They grew up into our ceiling tile holes in our sun room! These plants do end up with a lot of leafless "arms," especially when they are happy, but the blooms are amazing - they give off an incredible aroma every evening, and when you have five blooms going at once, it is awesome.

[jacq63]

Thanks Yardner, we seem to be doing the right thing then. Looking forward to those pics. Maybe I'll print them and show them to Horatio (the Hoya).

[Yardener]

Here they are! These blooms were all on the same plant at the same time. The scent was amazing in the evening.

[Towhee]

Originally Posted by Yardener

Here they are! These blooms were all on the same plant at the same time. The scent was amazing in the evening.

Wow! That is highly unusual! I am envious. I have one Hoya carnosa that I have had for at least 35 years, and a variegated Hoya for not as long. The H.carnosa blooms every year, and it's blooms are all the same. The variegated one has never bloomed.
The long viney shoots are common espacially on my H.carnosa. I twine them around through the other shoots in order to keep the plant compact.
BTW, do not break off the 'stubs' that remain after the blooms fall. The next blooms grow on them.
Here is a pic of one of my H.carnosa blooms :



And a couple of the Variegated Hoya:





The new leaves are bright pink in more sunlight

[jacq63]

Wow...they're amazing. Horatio is apparently a Hoya Barina. Barina is also a model of car over here, made by GM. Hmmmm...
Thanks Yardner and Marian, it's nice to see what these babies can look like.

[TheDragonslayer]

I bought my hoya carnosa in 1985 in a 4 inch pot. It did not bloom till 2001 when I repotted it into a larger pot. I water it at least once a week and keep it fairly moist. It is not over 6 feet tall and the vine has repeated its trek up its armature and back down several times. If I were to un twine it, it would probably stretch over 30 feet. At one time last summer it had over 30 flower clusters blooming at the same time. The nectar that develops on the flowers is extremely sweet, one little drop tastes as sweet as a teaspoon of sugar or honey. I give mine plenty of east light in the summer and I put it in a south facing window in the winter. The old flower stems are called peduncles, do not remove them for they repeat on the same stem.

[Briolat21]

I love Hoyas!! I have one hoya carnosa that I inheirited from a plant sale my biology club had 15 years ago. It didn't sell - so I bought it. At the time, I was not into "foliage" plants... I was so happy when suprisingly, it bloomed about 2 years later. As the previous posters say - the blooms are the most beautiful fragrant clusters of little pink and red velvety stars. Since then, I have split the original plant 6 times, and now have 6 healthy plants, 3 of which bloom regulalry. I don't think the others have quite established themselves enough for blooming quite yet. Since we moved into our new house and put the plants into an east facing sunroom - the oldest/biggest of them has bloomed continuously from June - now. Amazing! Previously they would bloom once or twice and that was it. Now I get 2-3 clusters of 30blooms each at a time!

LOVE THESE PLANTS!

Oh-- don't throw out any fallen leaves, if you want more plants - they root very easily and you can quickly establish more plants.

[nativetogillette]

My mother-in-law brought me a cutting off of her 30 year old Hoya. I planted it in a small pot and there it was with its two lonely leaves for 3 years. When we moved into our new house we had an abundancy of light from the South and the West. We placed it in the South window and within a year I had a beautiful house plant with vines that reached over 10 feet. The growth was obvious as the vines reached to the passing sun rays daily and were always pointing in different directions. I now have the original plant, (over 50 years old), my mother-in-laws plant, (over 39 years old), and the starter plant that she had given me that now is monsterous! All bloom year round and the sweet smell from the flowers at night has at times been so powerful that we had to open up some windows!

[Ggschmerl]

I cannot wait to see mine bloom. I was given cuttings of some hoyas about 6 years ago, and I got them to root pretty easily. They are in smallish pots, that I heard they like, and are vining like crazy, but nay a bloom to behold as of yet. They appear to be very healthy.