Oh.. I see the rope one! It's hiding! That looks like a variegated compacta. The other, huge, one looks like carnosa.

The Carnosa will take a lot of light. I put all my hoyas behind net curtains, despite the fact I HATE net curtains, so they get dappled light (definitely pander to the plants there!). Mine gets the lunchtime/afternoon sun and is just coming into bud now, so is quite happy. And it's been unseasonably hot recently. Unfortunately it can take years to flower but it is more likely to flower when potbound. They seem to like being kept on the dryer side.

Hope that helps

Hills

Hi Valerie,

Mine are all in East facing windows with no blinds, so they get full morning sun. Some are blooming, some aren't (could take years for some hoyas to bloom), but they're growing very fast right now. Hoyas supposedly don't like direct sun, but I've heard that many people do well with them in direct sun. Maybe a South facing window would be a bit much, but I'm not too sure.

If you want to put them outside, I would acclimate them first so they don't burn. In other words, don't just put them out in the middle of hot summer with no shade. Put them out in the shade when it starts to get "spring-like" out (I know it's far from spring in NY!), and slowly bring them out into the sun over a few weeks. But if it's growing nicely inside and you don't want to take a risk of burning them, that's ok too (they just tend to bloom and grow more if they're outside). I personally keep mine inside year round, and just deal with the slower growth rate!

Good luck getting blooms :)
Gabi

Thank-you Gabi & Hills,
I moved my strawberry one to the east window with no shade and the others to the west window just to the side. we'll see what happens. Thanks again. Valerie

Hi Valerie, I am a plumeria grower as well. My fave at the moment is Princess Victoria, but I hope to collect some of the ones with variegated leaves this season.

You don;t say what you are fertilizing with, but kind of like Plumeria, you need to use a fertilizer with lower Nitrogen and a higher Phosphorous content to encourage blooms. If you were growing outdoors, I would say topdress your hoyas with a sprinkling of Nutricote or Osmocote and give a "bloom booster" like 10-50-10 water soluble every week. But that would be too much for indoor plants. Perhaps a topdressing of a granular bloom booster might help you get blooms.

Have any of your plumeria woken up yet? Mine are starting to leaf out slowly and I have bloom spikes coming on a few.

Thanks Gabi for pointing me here! This is exactly what I have. And it's driving me nuts! It hasn't bloomed and I've had it for four years (also from a cutting). I'm not sure what I'm supposed to pot it in. I just repotted it in a smaller pot as I didn't realize they like to be root bound. Thanks for the heads up on fertilizer and lighting (I've burned mine a couple times...grr). Currently it is in my kitchen which has an east facing window.
I will gobble up anyother suggestions!
Rachael

Rachael,

You're quite welcome. So it's a Carnosa, huh? Hopefully your repotting job will help it bloom (I recently downsized my carnosas as well). From the look of the pic you sent me, it seems like a healthy plant. So I'm sure you're taking good care of it.

All my hoyas are in an east-facing window...yours should be fine there. As for fertilizing it, as stated above...don't use a bloom booster weekly unless you're planning on putting it outdoors. You can use a bloom booster with those numbers, but use it monthly, not weekly. A bunch of us here use a fertilizer called Eleanor's VF-11, which is "weak" enough to use with every watering (that's what I do at least, year round). It's also great as a foliar spray.

Aside from that, just be patient....I know it's hard :-) My Carnosas haven't bloomed yet either. Maybe this will be your year :)

By the way, the blooms on a Carnosa aren't purple (you mentioned in the email that you were told you'd get purple blooms). They are white (or light pink) with a red center.

Good luck!

Gabi

Bihai,
My favorite so far is daisy wilcox. I have flowers on my Celedine all winter long. Do you follow the plumie forum?

Hmmm...well it's still a mystery to me. Hopefully it will bloom soon so I can figure out what color the blooms are! :o)
The plant (what ever it's name is) is fairly healthy but some of the leaves are burned. What should I do with them? Leave them? Cut them off??
Rachael

I pop in on Plumeria forum every once in a while, but don't follow it regularly. I do follow Tropicals and FL Gardening though. I have had some of my plumeria for so long they are really trees. I have a couple of 6 and 7 footers, multiple branches. I am going tohave to take cuttings this season just to prune them back. Kauka Wilder, Hilo Beauty, Candy Stripe and Lei Rainbow are ones I have had forever, and some species plants, stenophyllus and pudica. A friend and I got Pudica in So FL at Fairchild Gardens when it was first introduced, gosh must be 6-7 or more years ago now. At one time I had probably 35 different trees, but I gave some away and sold some because they took up way too much space. I have another friend in Louisiana who knows Sondra Stokes at Stokes Tropicals on a personal basis, and when they got the Princess Victoria from Joey Roselli and were selling it for about $300 a cutting, he got some and eventually shared it with me. I have a huge tree now in my greenhouse. Its about to come into bloom. I always get some variegated flowers.
I am very interested now in the new Thai imports with variegated leaves, like Sweet Syrup, Maya etc. They are pretty pricey, Asiatica in PA has a few. I may wait and see if the prices fall a bit.
I see you have a supplemental light for your plumeria, great going! No wonder your Celadine blooms all winter! Snow on the ground outside and a beautiful blooming plumeria in the living room, what could be better! Is that a mister/vaporizer I see under the table?

Hi Valerie,

I didn't get to see your pics until now (can't see pics from my work computer). Gorgeous Carnosa you got there. Just to clarify, the silver flecks aren't what makes your plant a Carnosa. There are a bunch of other hoyas that also have those marks, like Pubicalyx, Obovata, and some Lacunosas (there are more but I don't know which ones). You'll love the Kerrii ("heart shaped hoya")...it has nice big leaves and is pretty "succulent". But I must warn you, it's a slow grower! If you like it, you might want to look into Obovata (faster growing), which has those beautiful silver flecks that you seem to like. Obovata is very similar to Kerrii, because it has those thick vines, and the leaves are similar in size...but Obovata has roundish leaves instead of heart-shaped ones.
Here's a pic of one of my Obovata leaves:

A large one (I put my hand in the pic for size reference) with lots of silver flecks:

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And a more circular small one:

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Anyway, hope to see pics of your Kerrii when you get it. Good luck with getting some blooms this year on your other hoyas.

Gabi

Gabi,
My gosh there huge!! I have been browsing all night at diff kinds of hoyas. Most are beautiful and like plumies I want them all. What you see in the picture there is a plug in strip. All of my heating pads and lights are pluged into that. I don't use any humidity. Do you have pics of your PV tree? Post your trees so we all can see. That would be great.

Here is the pic of the one I have coming. now I will look for Obovata.
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Valerie

Well you'll probably find that the Kerrii leaves are fairly huge too. I didn't realise quite how big they were until I bought one (then tried to figure how to hide it from my boyfriend, who then didn't even notice it right next to him!!!)
The carnosa seems to react well to fertilizer, and I've been feeding it on the beer fertilizer. I'm using it at a very weak concentration as otherwise I can never remember which plants I've watered with it when, just seems easier to make it weak and then just water them with it every time. The full strength just caused spindly growth, so obviously wasn't that good for the plants anyway.
Currently I have Carnosa, Publicalyx cv Pink Silver, Multiflora and Retusa all in bud. We've also had unseasonably warm and sunny weather as well, probably a gives the plants a good prod in the right direction.