No question - the plant prefers full sun. Seedlings grow wherever the seed drops and takes root, and those that grow in the shade of other trees are usually out-competed by other plants or succumb to disease or insects because they are weakened from the lack of light. Only the strongest individuals that start their life in the shade of other trees are able to fight their way to a position that allows them their fair share of sunlight. Al

Hi thanks so much for the replies. How would one put containers in the ground? Wouldn't this stop virtually all drainage? (small holes up against the clay soil won't allow much to exit...) How long term are we talking? I don't quite understand how a pot in the ground is different than a hole dug out into the ground with the soil completely replaced. Will the minerals from the clay leach in from the sides or what? Or will the roots start growing into the clay and rot or starve for nutrients? In which case its better to have them forced to stay in the good soil? Sorry for so many questions. This is in my parent's backyard (I live at home) so I am not free to do whatever I want. I have a raised bed that is being built into the landscaping, and it actually is kind of going into a 3-4 foot hill. The blueberry plants were going in the hill behind the raised vegetable beds. Pots/a raised bed would look funny on a hill and my mom is very picky. Each plant+soil was about 25$ so I don't want to waste 125$ and have them die. Plus I want good berries so I want to do it right... Any ideas? Should I dig them out and make the holes wider and fill them in with more soil? I intend to fertilize with acidifying azalea mix to undo the leaching. Also I'm about 1 mile from the ocean so not extremely close and the plants are by a wall facing west.

I am about 1.5 hrs north of San diego and 1.5 hrs south of Los Angeles in the Inland Empire, it starts getting cold here at night about mid September to mid October. I bring almost all of my hoyas inside from the time the night temps drop below 55 degrees and keep them inside until April or May when they are back up to around 55. I was in Europe this past September and had my sister staying over to take care of my dogs and plants and I didn't think it would be a big deal to wait to bring them inside until I got back because temps were about 60 degrees when I left, they abruptly dropped to just below 50 while I was gone so they were in shock when I returned, I lost my Aldrichii and cv. Joy. My sister has hoyas too so I am sure it was the temp drop that shocked them and not the way she watered them. I am surprised you have been able to leave so many of yours out through the entire winter without mass casualties! This winter it was close to freezing for several weeks, and was even under 20 degrees a few nights here. I left my Carnosa outside through the winter because its way too big to bring inside and it seemed to do fine. My Variegated Kerrii was subjected to those super cold temps inside my house and tons of leaves froze, then turned black or started to yellow, and dropped off :( It was too big to bring into the kitchen where I keep the rest of them during the winter, so I left it in the back bedroom next to a window and I guess it must have even gotten too cold in there for it... It has bounced back, but I'm assuming that's because of its size, if it was a small plant, I surely would have lost it. Any new leaves that have grown since the freeze are solid green, not sure if that is from the shock of the cold or what but I'm not too worried about it, I know the whole plant can revert to solid green because of this but I'm ok with that, I'm just glad it survived because it was in bad shape. My hoyas that were in shock in the low 50's & high 40's: Latifolia - this one is pretty sensitive so I won't be putting it back outside unless temps are consistently above 60. Balansae Meliflua ssp. Fraterna Cv. Joy - eventually lost Diversifolia ssp. El nidicus - almost lost this one too Balaensis Pentaphlebia Naumannii Aldrichii - eventually lost The ones that were ok in the low 50's/high 40's but I brought them inside anyway (and they seemed grateful to be indoors): Australis(not sure which ssp., purchased at local nursery & it was not labeled) Davidcummingii Obovata Pubicalyx - did drop a few leaves but was still ok Heuschkeliana Compacta Kerrii Plicata I am slowly bringing them all back outside now :) Hopefully that gives you a good bit of insight from another Southern California Hoya lover. I have also developed my own little system I would like to share that helps me be sure not to over or under water my hoyas regardless of the season, my trick is checking the mature leaves first before checking the soil, if they are stiff I know they are not ready to take water yet. If the mature leaves are soft, I then check the soil, and if it is dry, I can be sure they need water. If the leaves are soft and the soil is moist I check the leaves the next day and most of the time they are stiff by then and just needed a bit more time to soak up the water from the soil. Basically, I rely on the stiffness of the leaves to tell me if the plant is ready to be watered and I have not had over or under watering problems since I started doing it this way :) My only hoyas large enough to take cuttings from are my Carnosa and Kerri, which are obviously pretty common, maybe we can do some trades next season once my other ones are large enough to take cuts from :)

For those who want specifics, here is the response I wrote to an article published several weeks ago by the L.A. Times, an article focusing on water usage in L.A. County: While the article's title is accurate vis-à-vis the facts presented, the information is misleading because the water problem is a statewide one--L.A.'s water sources are principally non-L.A., and, because the state water sources are statewide (and beyond), they are impacted by statewide use, not just L.A. use. Yes, just in L.A., the principal use of water is by single-family households; but this approaches insignificance when you consider that, statewide, approximately 50% of the total water used in the state is for environmental uses, 40% of the total water used is consumed by Agriculture (these figures are given in this Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_in_California). The remaining 10% is for "all other uses." It is patently unfair that the residential water user is made the whipping boy during droughts when all the reasonable savings a committed homeowner could conceivably make would make no effective difference in relieving the drought. Using figures supplied by the EPA for the nation as a whole, I've been checking some other figures. The "average household" uses (not wastes, but uses) 320 gallons of water a day, which is 116,800 gallons per year (in a 365 day year). They specify that 30% of this represents the household's "outdoor uses." The late Sunset Blvd. incident wasted approximately 20 million gallons. That would have been full water usage by one average household for over 171 years. And yet the water department officials scoff at the significance of this incident (while still scolding residential water users about their habits). Considering outdoor usage by the average household (the 30% mentioned above), the EPA says "as much as" 50% of this is wasted. That would be 48 gallons a day of wastage by the average household, which, in a year, would be 17,520. Let's say that our average householder managed not to waste that 17,520. That's very nice; but it would take over 1141 householders saving that amount to equal what was wasted in the Sunset Blvd. incident. To put it another way, the Sunset Blvd. incident wasted a whole year of strenuous efforts at conservation by over 1141 households. The EPA also supplies a pie chart, dated 2005, of "freshwater withdrawals." Here are the percentages of water usage, in descending order: Thermoelectric power, 41.5% Irrigation, 37% Domestic, 8.5% "Other Publicly Supplied Users," 5.4% Industrial, 5% Aquaculture, 2.6% (They note that mining and livestock account for 1%, which I suppose is part of the Industrial category.) Look at the above, and note that the top two line-items, Thermoelectric Power and Irrigation, account for no less than 76.5% of water usage. Even if one would say that the water used by Thermoelectric Power is then still available afterwards for other uses and so eliminate that category, Domestic (household) use still trails far behind the "final" (i.e., not available for other uses afterwards) usages for combined Irrigation, "Other," Industrial, and Aquaculture. And yet, it is us, "Domestic," with our little 8.5%, which is made the whipping boy during a drought. The Times article about L.A. water use perpetuates a false and unfair perception. Please publish an article presenting a full and more accurate picture. Thank you.