A close up, getting a bit of sun

Hi Larry,

Might it be worth considering putting it in a smaller pot w/faster draining mix? That mix looks peaty & sandy from here. Any chance you can give it some sun?

Its in a small pot already, it just looks big. And theres nowhere really sunny I can put it thats safe from the cat. Ive had it in that spot since 2004, flowering each year. Soil is good

Larry...do you find C. woodii is slow-growing> Mine lost several stems, but thankfully kept SOH's..Didn't know they had tubers until, think it was you, who explained C. woodii had tubers..Glad I didn't toss mine.

I could kick myself..had a variegated String purchased 2010..leaves died back, so I tossed it. Darn!

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Want another..lol

Here's the STring I have now.

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It takes forever to grow..Was summered outdoors, in semi-shade...mostly east exposure.

How do you water yours? lol..Looks way up high..Toni

Yes they can be slow growing, but are very tough! I water it like most succys. Allow the soil to dry out ( or flush as. Al would say) then give a good drink. They can however go aeons between waterings thanks to those tubers. I also think this is s semi shade lover due to the small leaves that are tinged underneath, like some begonias.

Larry, you think SOH's is shade loving? Really? How much shade are we talking?
Indirect bright light? Full shade?

What about variegated types? Wouldn't they need bright light to keep variegation?

Yes variegated plants would need more light, now Im not saying that C.woodii normally grows in shade, only that it can do so. I messed up my last post- small leaves usually mean sun, big leaves shade, but this plant is different to most succys. Sure if I put a regular cactus up there it would be all stretched out and sick looking; not so the SOH.

HI folks,

Pls. pardon my crummy typing here, am on a new laptop, just learning, argh.

Toni, my dear your last plant shown is not a String (of Hearts, Ceropegia). It's a Hoya curtisii, I swear, an old friend & favorite of mine, which I currently don't have, recently lost a piece I was starting. Can be pretty slow, also grows well mounted on cork or bark. Its distinctive leaf shape (in design called an Ogee) made it memorable for me when I first learned of it.

Also, note the aerial roots on the Curtisii that the CW doesn't have.

I grow both of these, the C. woodii & the H. curtisii (when I had it) at west windows, at the edge, gives them some direct light, some dappled light too.

Larry...I'm now confused about C and H now that Karen pointed it out..lol..

Karen..you're right..Do you know if H. curtisii's common name is also called SOH's? Where did that come from? :)

Karen, first, happy you got a new computer..
Second, can you post pics of your Hoya and Cero? Thanks

Pirate, youre right, it is a different plant! I just noticed the leaves are slightly different to those of SOH!
The variegated one is tho Im sure.

Here's my CW variregate that's a very slow grower.

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Karen, your Cero is nicely variegated, and the lower leaves compact.

Guess I no longer have C. SOH's..

Ironically, in the past, I killed a good number of H. Curtsii's. This is a first.

Karen, I believe you grow Hoyas..or use to. Does curtsii need the same amount of light as other Hoyas? Thanks

Gosh this is difficult, learning to type w/out a mouse, thing called trackpad, I've lost this response twice now.

Thx for the congrats on the laptop, Toni, these pix are from '09, but still

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and another variation w/lance shaped (instead of rounded, heart shaped leaves)

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Sorry, I can't find any H curtisii pix at the moment, pls. check online or compare w/ yours, which looks healthy, so keep doing whatever you've been doing w/ it.

Toni Id send you some of mine if I could- a leaf would do.
Im swapping with a guy in england in the spring, he has a spare piece of an unusual ceropegia for me!

Never had one of these, no advice but would love to have one of these. Kudos to you for being so excited about those few pretty leaves and giving this tiny entity a chance. Good luck!!

PG, the pic from Oct 20, 12 at 13:03 really looks like Vinca vine. Is that possible? My fav is yours 2 posts up, with the penny. Those are the leaves I'd love to find!

Another pot I recently restarted of the lance-shaped leaf variant.

Let's see if I got the right pic, not the one I'd intended.

I got a string of hearts for Christmas last year, and it looked really sad. But this summer it took off like crazy, I swear it grew a good three inches a week and bloomed like crazy. But now that it's autumn, it seems like it's stopped growing.

It's one of my favorite plants, and so far I'd say it's a really easy going plant. I've had absoutly no problems with it so far...I have it as one of my top favorites, if not my most favorite plant. I would really love a variegated one someday...

GreenLarry- you shouldn't be surprised if it seems to not do anything during the cold months, I bet next summer it'll really take off for you. I have mine hanging in a west window with a sheer curtain and only watering when completly dried.

-FPT

Hey Toni,

Far as I know, there's no common name for Hoya curtissi. As to pix, I can't find mine, was small anyway.

For a current pic of H curtisii, pls. see Hoya Forum, thread called 'Feeding the Addiction', last post has a pic of a nice, larger H curtisii, for your viewing pleasure.

Larry, a leaf..lol. You could send an entire plant and I'd kill it. lol. H. curtisii doesn't live long here.

Karen, is the plant to the right, H. curtisii? It's beautiful..never saw such unusual colors.
How much and which direction is it facing?

FTP...how is your Hoya doing now that it's indoors?

Karen, I thought the common name was STring of Hearts, but not sure.

Wow, the curtissi on Hoya Forum is so full. I think one has to be a professional Hoya grower to keep curtissi's alive.

All this talk about SOH, I saw some in a nursery the other day and bought one - Ceropegia woodii.

The label reads: "One of the hardiest of all basket succulents. Hearts can be grown almost anywhere indoors or outdoors, sunny or dark. Long tentrils can grow a metre or more in a season and fill a pot very fast.......... Large number of potatoes form inside the pot to store food and water so plants can live for many months without water......."

So I split it in two and put them up in a tree about 2 metres above the ground. We're just in the middle of a tropical downpour at the moment, 29.2mm in the last half hour. Hope it doesn't get washed out of the tree as I didn't anchor it all that well. But I'm not going out in this to check, too much close hit lightning.

Nice pix of the C. woodii blooms above, I meant to comment earlier.

Toni, you're confusing yourself again. SOH is ONLY the name of the Ceropegia woodii, not the Hoya curtissi which has no nickname as far as I know.

Apart from "Wax Flower" or "Porcelain Flower", most Hoya don't tend to have common names. Growers usually use the scientific and/or cultivar names.

One of my local nurseries just got in three pots of Ceropegia woodii (String of hearts, Rosary vine, Hearts Intangled) and I bought two of them yesterday LOL....so now I have 3 pots of them. And the two new ones are covered in blooms... I just wish they had a variegated one.

Next spring I plan on repotting them all into one bigger pot so it'll be nice and thick...

They seem to do fine inside, but the lower light makes them a pale green with no purple/pink, so I need to figure out a way to get more light to them this winter.

I'll get some pics of them as soon as I get some batteries and post them so you guys can see the difference in color between my two new ones and my older one that needs alot more light

-FPT