Diane-I hear ya'!!! I have been out of town for 10 days. Left in a blizzard and returned in one too. We have had 2 power failures and although my husband did everything I asked him to do-the hoyas are not at all happy. I have placed the sickest ones in my little infirmary with heat pad, etc., but my hopes are not at all high. Happy New Year anyway. susan

Diane and Susan , these are two sad stories. Taking 'rescue cuttings' sounds like a very good idea. I am presently trying to save a Hoya ,which a friend just gave to me. My friend is excellent with gardening and houseplants , but she did not have this little Hoya in the correct location , outside. There is only one 6 inch vine left. I took a cutting. It's in the east window , with a baggie over top of the pot. I don't feel very confident , because of the time of year. Mine live outside and 'everyone' except for an australis , is 'sleeping' . If I get this plant to pull through , then I will need to ID it. It's a miniature , and variegated. The leaves are tiny , half to one inch long. The colour is very pale green , with a white margin. It is not bella.
Good luck and Happy New Year to both of you.

Florajilly

Flora---

I would highly recommend taking the bag off of the cutting!

Hoyas are very succulent and are quite capable of retaining water(through their waxy coating called cutin).

Your cutting will be better off if watered well, with no baggie!

Of course I dont know how good of condition the cutting was in--but I really believe if it was semi-healthy it should pull through!

Best of luck!

Ryan

PS--It is sad to me when tradgedies like this happen! Plants become our best friends at times! I hate to lose them!

Ryan , Thank you very much for sound advice. I will explain the situation further , incase you are interested , ( and it seems like you care ). I ran into my friend tonight , at the monthly bonsai meeting. She told me that the Hoya got full sun , too much water , and when they had to leave because of the hurricanes ,( mandatory coastal evacuation ) it got tossed with a carnosa under a shrub. Just before the plant was given to me , ( just before Christmas ) something started "lunching" on it. A 6 inch piece ,and also a one and 1/2 inch piece were left. The plant looked healthy - no rot , visable insects , discoloured leaves etc. I repotted , leaving the longest portion in the 4 inch pot , which is hanging in the screened-in porch ,( with 6 Hoya "friends" ). The 1 and 1/2 inch vine is indoors on the desk in the east window. The tiny cutting is right beside it. My previous post was not descriptive. This baggie is the largest you can buy. It is propped up like a weird square tent , and the only purpose is to minimise temperature fluctuations !! Just a simple experiment where I can make continuous observations. Today is Day 22. All 3 are holding their own - no growth , but no deterioration at all :)

Thanks again,

Florajilly

AWE OK---gotcha-----how did your houses fair out the storm?

Well--sounds like your doing alright then!

One more question--does your tiny cutting--the one in the bag, how much stem compared to the leafs are there? If you have one solid leaf and some stem that can be buried--I think it has a standing chance! If you start to notice some wilting--I might go for a water rooting situation considering that it is such a small cutting! I would take a glass fill it to the top with water, strech across some syran wrap--poke a hole into it--stick the stem in it!

I would reort to this if you start to see wilting! But I like soil rooting best---but that would be my advice for such a small cutting!

The cutting was planted into a 4 inch pot , containing rich well draining potting mix , [ from a local garden center ]
peat ,perlite and Schultz potting mix for cactus and succulents. No recipe or measurements. Everyone has their own personal way of rooting cuttings , based usually upon precedence. Besides...when you are a gardener/plant nut , you are allowed eccentricities. I probably just enjoy the idea of mixing the contents of assorted bags together....enough people root successfully with tap water !!!!!! :)
Anyway , there are 15 tiny leaves above the soil , and about an inch and 3/4 of stem under the soil, [ 2 nodes ] .
I made a very slight and gentle scarification , and added a little rooting hormone , before planting . When I say tiny leaves I do mean tiny. Mature leaves are only an inch and a 1/4 . Thankfully the plant isn't wilting.

Ryan, you asked about how the houses fared. My friend's house was fine. Just ruined landscaping and some brown areas of grass , from standing water, due to storm surge.
We just put on a new roof on our bungalow [ did it ourselves ]. The house needs to have new insulation put back into the attic , new gutters , [ old ones are 23 yrs. -same as the house ] replacement of missing or bent soffit and fascia . We painted some interior ceilings that were stained from water intrusion ,and our 12 year old daughter needed a new bedroom carpet. Another task is to replace a piece of drywall in the garage ceiling. The whole garage could use paint anyway. The outside wood garage trim needs to be replaced , because I caught it with the bumper ,while attempting to park the Toyota as tight as I could , alongside the garage door. Our house faces east , and it is open and unblocked by other houses. For all Geography Buffs , that means we welcome breezes of all strengths right from the Atlantic Ocean !! All this is trivial damage compared to so many Floridians. Many of my friends lost homes or businesses. Now don't anyone ask " Why do you live there ? " It has been 75 to 80 degrees and sunny , all week. What's your weather when you step outside your door ? :o
My personal disappointment ,is that we lost so many limbs off our oak trees that surround the house. Their canopy provided shade and dappled sun , for many plants.
Florida Gardening Forum is full of hurricane stories pertaining to what happened to people's homes and landscaping. I haven't been on that forum for a while , so I don't know what the current topics are.

Florajilly

Thanks for all the input and support!
My babes doent look any healthier for my doting but I took cuttings so all is not lost...?

With the tsunami and hurricane crisses everywhere it seems pretty selfish to sit here and whine about a few Hoyas colapsing.... We'll live.... just hope the people there find friends and love ones:-)

Diane

Interesting that this isn't the only column I have read today that mentions the hardships in our world! I guess it is a constant reminder that we are here for a short time to do our very best!

Ryan

PS--BE GOOD!