Its a personal preference...if it were mine I would not cut it off because I happen to love the pretty white and sometimes pink leaves. I'm sure it does slow the growth down but with H.carnosa I don't mind that at all,lol...Your call!

This picture was taken 5 yrs ago and its still on my plant today...I just didn't have the heart to cut off such a pretty cluster of leaves :o)

This post was edited by puglvr1 on Sun, Aug 25, 13 at 8:39

I finally cut my white shoots off. A little while after that my plant began producing peduncles! Keep in mind my plant is over 4 years old, so the vines are much longer than what I see with your plant. Plus in zone 3 our days of light during the long winters are fairly short and I want to maximize the growth of my plant into producing those blooms!

The all white shoots are pretty darned attractive though, which is why I kept them on for as long as I did.

Puglvr, that cluster of leaves is indeed very pretty.

Decisions, decisions... "Pretty creamy leaves now vs. even prettier flowers sooner in the future" sounds almost like the "bird in hand vs. two in the bush" dilemma. :-)

There is also a consideration of irreversibility of the action. If I do nothing, I can always cut those off later, but if I cut them off now, there is no reattaching them back.

I agree with kioni that, for someone in a less exuberant growing area, it might be preferable to prune them vs. burden the plant. Probably nothing can slow Pug's plant down!!! ^_~

But, you know, if you're in no hurry, Patrick (who would know) says all his eventually die off anyway. So you could just enjoy the display like a long-lived flower that, like flowers, delays other types of growth.

I bet the divide is 50/50 on this one. I wonder if I can get a poll to work... Do you prune your white KQ leaves?
Yes
No
It depends on my mood!
ÃÂ ÃÂ pollcode.com free pollsÃÂ

I have enough hoyas that grow like gangbusters. I don't particularly swoon over that one's growth or flowers. I grow that one for its artistic beauty....so....I leave them on and delight at the overall look of it. Oh, and for the predictions that they will eventually kill th plant...I have had 3 carnosa cv Krimson Queens' growing with white leaves here &there for 10 years now. No problems. On the other hand... There is a variegated variety of H. austrailis that grows one or two leaves a year, and seems to stop growing completely at times, so when that one grows a white vine, I do tend to snip it off. Just my thoughts.

Why would they kill the plant? They're just slackers, not evil.

Or are they...

O_O

Years ago there were discussions on this subject and more than one person posted that they weakened the plant to the extent that eventually...the plant would die. I always believed that and used to cut them off myself, but then got very lapse about my plant care for a few years and when I finally noticed that those plants had a lot of white leaves again, I just decided to leave them on and let whatever was going to happen..happen. Nothing ever did. So now I just leave them on.

lame. I'm sorry, Mairzy.

I often think that listening to people on a forum is just like conducting scientific research. You can't draw too many conclusion from any one study's (or grower's) findings, no matter how dramatic. But if all the studies (growers) agree, maybe there's something to it.

Who knows, maybe that person really did have their KQ die, and erroneously associated it with the white leaves.

LOL 0 consensus in the poll. I like that. :)

>> I often think that listening to people on a forum is just like conducting scientific research.

Yeah, I enjoy individual stories, but they should mean little to induce others to act or not to act, unless there is consensus. Maybe your hoya started blooming because it was 4 years old, not because you cut the white leaves? Or maybe it died for a million reasons having nothing to do with you leaving the white leaves on the vine? Correlation vs causation.

My hoyas grow at a glacial pace, if at all. This one grew the size of each leaf more so than putting out new leaf growth. For a while I was attributing slow growth to the medium that was too water-retentive (here I am, too, with individual stories). Now I've changed the medium and put it under a lamp. Your move, hoya!

I am personally still undecided on cutting the white leaves. I think I'll wait for consensus and meanwhile just admire the leaves.

Mwahahahaha. And greentoe rolls out old correlation vs. causation.

Individual stories are all we individuals have. But if we don't share our case studies publicly, we can't form a pool of data. I just wish there was some internet short hand like tldr for "correlation doesn't prove causation, but (it's all I've got to work off.)" cdpc,b

lol @ "Your move, Hoya."
KQ is glacial for me, too. A watched Hoya never boils, I guess.

That cartoon is hilarious and smart! The artist must be a genius. Maybe. :-)

>> A watched Hoya never boils, I guess.

Maybe we should boil our hoyas! Someone once told me a story that it helped it bloom right away. :-)

This post was edited by greentoe357 on Wed, Aug 28, 13 at 15:15

rofl!!!!! (âÂÂã®âÂÂ)

Hi I am new to Hoya and only had one that I picked up for 1.00 on the Lowes dead rack. Last year it was a little sprig. I kept it outside all summer last year and this year it grew some more and.... It grew like a weed and it bloomed and it did not have any fragrance. I just put it in a box and sent it to a friend. I was looking for fragrance that you all have raved about.

Since I gave away a plant I had room for another plant. I only have a 100 more houseplants cannot leave a empty space. lol

I found another one at Lowes a couple of weeks ago another dead on its last leg. I put it outside and when I saw the pics here it looks like the plant you all are discussing. Are the flowers fragrant on this one or am I going to have to send this one to someone that wants a Hoya? Thank you for letting me butt in.

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