I have a plant in my greenhouse that I started from seed about 3 years ago. The label says Jasmine stephanotis florebunda. It really didn't grow much until this summer and I got tired of looking at it in the greenhouse and put the pot outside. My puppy dragged it around in the yard so finally brought it back into the greenhouse. Today I was cleaning the greenhouse up (its been a dump and run) since early summer. It has really grown and I noticed the leaves looked just like my hoya so came in the house to look it up in the computer and saw that the plants are related. Now instead of a regular pot I am going to have to change to a hanging pot. My hoya bloomed for the first time this summer although I didn't notice much smell from the flowers. Ellie

hello, Toni, thank you. i am surprised by the steph. also; and unbelievably, it is getting flower buds again. I used to have it in my upstairs bathroom which gets southern exposure where my hoya is. the hoyas blooms all summer but the steph. would not. i think it was 3 summers ago, i repotted it into a wrought iron hanging basket that is lined with coconut husk fibers (so it is not pot bound) and hung it underneath by balcany outside. it bloomed all summer. when it was time to bring it back in i decided to leave it in that hanging pot and sort of suspend it in a retangular cache pot. the bottom of the hanging basket does not touch the bottom of the cache pot so the roots gets air circulation. when i water it, it never sit in any excess water because it always flows out and i wait until it is almost completely dry and sometimes it is completely dry before i water it again. from that time onwards, in the summer it is in my sunroom with western exposure and in the winter it is in the family room with northeast exposure. this past summer, i gave it a variety of fertilizer: some organic, some chemical; whatever i was giving my orchids, i was giving to it so it was lightly and almost every time i water: 20-20-20; msu; 10-6-16; worm casting, epsom salt, coffee, & sprayed it with superthrive, spray & grow, FE/soap/water mixture, and pure neem oil/soap/water mixture. i still spray with neem oil mixture about once a week (i am paranoid about getting bugs in the house). also check out the info re aspirin on google - had sprayed with that too. I guess I tend to experiment. if the current flower buds mature to flowers, this would be the 3rd time for this year! I hope i remembered everything. puglvr, if you are reading this too, I also used the above sprays and fertilizer on the gardenia too.(actually, in all my plants) sorry I forgot to include them - I use so many different things and i don't even pay much attention as to how much or when: I just do what i feel like at the time and try out whatever i read on the different threads, and buy whatever i don't already have. just remembered, i also use hydrogen peroxide in the water once in a while. sue

I vote you get one. It is totally worth it. The flowers are still going strong, and it alternates between smelling somewhat hyacinth-like to smelling a lot like this tuberose lotion I got from Bath and Body Works. I think lacunosa is adding its fragrance to the mix now and again, as well. I don't think they're close to blooming at all, but calycina and australis ssp. tenuipes also live in my room. If they all bloomed at once... well, that could get interesting ;) My computer is a cranky one, indeed. I'm hoping a fan replacement does the trick. I'm just afraid to take it in though; it involves carting around with me on two buses and probably leaving it with them for a little while, during which I am completely computerless. Also, I'm afraid (for no particular reason) that it will not end up being as simple as a fan replacement. Ah well. I need to figure it out sooner rather than later.

Well - I grow mine in a east garden window in the kitchen. It seems to grow like a weed - actually so much so that I gave my largest one away to my mother who is now got it growing outside for the summer only. I find my stephanotis seems to really like my garden window in the summer - I guess cause it gets a fair amount of direct sun there and in the winter it gets pretty cold - probably about 50 or so. And I am POSITIVE that is why mine always flowers again so readily for me after the cold winter is over. I have always used african violet fertilizer on my step too. Actually I just bought myself my newest steph. this year in spring and it was in flower. I put it directly into my garden window which again was fairly cool - and now it is just about to reflower again for me. I guess I fooled it into thinking it was winter again. And now that its warming up - flowers! :0) Hope that somewhat helped. Golden