Mine will often shed leaves with the transition of moving to the inside. Can be a sign of change of conditions or dormancy. Shedding of leaves can just be a natural process of sinensis, also. Usually shedding from the lower extremities first and possibly moving upwards to tip. I keep mine in south facing light while inside and most do not lose their leaves. A good sign to reduce watering though when this happens. The little guys will benefit from stronger light levels than the older plant atleast for their first winter. Rick

Thanks, Mad, that's what I needed to understand. I'm in zone 6 and it gets pretty darn cold but winter is our driest time of the year so I don't have that problem. Even the snow is dry as weird as that sounds. The thing that is worst for my roses is the fluctuating temperatures. It can be 40 in the daytime and below zero at night. Or we can go a week or ten days in the teens and then have a week in the 30s and 40s. The roses get confused, try to bud out, then freeze, then thaw, back and forth. I've found that they can only do that so many times before the stored energy in the roots and canes just gives out and they die. Mulching them insulates them from that yo-yoing effect to some degree. I look for a hard freeze to get them dormant and then winter protect to try and keep them dormant until I know the temps will stay warm enough for them to start growing. Yes, Natural, you can winter protect pots. I have 30 (it was as high as 60 last winter) in pots that I've been winter protecting for 6 winters now. If you have a garage, and with only two to protect, I'd say put them in the unheated garage for the winter. Put them up on pot trolleys or blocks off the cement floor (Michaelg thinks I'm nuts about that BTW, lol) and remember to give them a little water every month. It's doesn't have to be a lot but they're dormant, not dead, and need some water. Desiccation will kill a rose quick too. A lot of people I know who garage their pots will take a shovel full of snow when they shovel their driveway and put it on the pots to water them. I do that with the one and only rose that will fit inside my shed, the tree rose. It gets the prized spot because I can't winter protect that top graft in the pot ghetto. All the rest of my pots winter outside on the back, south facing, wall of my house. I group them all together, drive in wood stakes, surround the whole thing with burlap and then pack it with leaves. In 6 years I've lost way more roses in the ground than in the pot ghetto. And those were usually sickly going in. And don't do it too early. I don't do mine until after Thanksgiving usually. Like I said you want to make sure they're completely dormant and then keep them dormant until night time temps are consistently above freezing. So don't get itchy in the spring (a bad habit of mine) and pull them out too soon either. Hope all that helps and if you have any other questions, ask away! Through trial and error I've done most everything you can do wrong but eventually figured some things out, lol!

MOO is quite easy to look after in my opinion and they reward you with flowers all through the year. I have quite a few of them now, thanks to all the cuttings I took early winter. They don't seem to be picky when it comes to soil, water or humidity- and my apt is bone dry in the winters yet they continue to chug along. For now, keeping it by a sunny window should be good- as long as your windows are not like mine and unbearably drafty. If yours is a bit drafty as well, you may consider not keeping the MOO right by the glass, maybe keep it a few feet away. I would try to keep the minimum temp above 60-65 since they are tropicals. You can transplant now or later- I don't think it will make much of a difference if you want to do it now. I use ordinary commercial potting soil- the same one I use for most of my tropicals- Fafard. I find it is slightly less dense than other brands which is why I like it. But, I really don't think the MOO is going to be too picky. Just water when the top inch feels dry- and that is good enough. Only thing Ive seen is that they don't respond very well to fertilizing. That is, they perform just as well w/o any. I've never seen a difference in their flowering or growing performance after feeding them. I read somewhere that they like to be a bit on the 'underfed' side but I'm not sure if this is accurate information. From experience, I would have to agree. Hope they gift you with those heavenly flowers really soon!

Awww! Well, first off, the kind of Hoya you have (carnosa) is tough, so relax. The big rules of Hoyas are as follows: 1. Well-draining soil. A typical "good mix" is half potting soil, half orchid bark. Let the soil dry out before you water again. Stick your finger into the soil an inch or so to make sure it's dry enough. After a while, you'll know, just by the weight of the pot, that it needs water, but use your finger until you get it. 2. High light. A good location is right on an east-facing windowsill. It will still grow if you don't give it enough light, but it won't bloom. Blooms take at least year, if the plant is mature and given excellent light. 3. Don't overpot. Most Hoyas are epiphytic, which means they grow in trees and get their nutrition from the air, rain, and pockets of debris, versus a vast bed of soil. So they don't need big pots relative to their size. When their roots fill their pots, you can go up one pot size, but a lot of time the plants will look under-potted, relative to their size, compared to other plants. (That doesn't mean they need to be root-bound to bloom - all they need to bloom is lots of sun.) Anyway, congrats on your new plants and thanks for stopping by to say hi.