Hoya carnosa compacta variegata.
Variegated Hoya compacta carnosa.
Wait that's wrong.
This is a Hoys carnosa compacta, a variegated form.
This is one of my pride and joy plants.
People ask me on Instagram all of the time, what kind of plant is that?
Where did you get it?
How do you keep it looking so healthy and honestly, It's kind of luck.
I don't have the brightest house.
It is hanging in there pretty well, literally, hanging in there.
I wasn't to show you some of these crazy tentacles.
I call them tentacles.
Why is my dog making those crazy noises?
look at the size of some of these, look at that.
I don't know, thats maybe 5 feet?
Possibly 5 feet of this gorgeous variegation and thats just one of them.This is actually,
I think, a few plants put together.
This was a gift, and maybe the best gift I ever got in my life, except for my son.
I have to make up for my plants vs. kids video because I don't think everybody thought it
was funny.
I want to talk about care for this Hoya carnosa compacta variegata.
The care is very very simple.
You need to let this plant dry out between watering.
Do not overwater Hoyas.
They absolutely will not respond well.
I use terra cotta because if I accidentally over water I want the water to be pulled away
from the roots so it never sits in water.
That is the key.
When this is really dry, I would say more than halfway down from the top fo the soil,
you will know because you will pick it up and feel it and say, wow, This is really dry.
When this is super dry, I saturate it.
I have been using my humidifier water now.
I wish I would have discovered this last year, but I am using it and it gives me a lot of
water.
so ill let it get to room temperature, because it comes out really cold, Ill let it get to
room temperature so you don't shock these plants and then I soak it.
Over time the soil can become compacted, especially since you let this type of Hoya dry out a
lot between waterings.
What that does it that is starts to contract the soil and then you will have to top dress
it and then take a little soil probe and then start probing so you can add more aeration
and you can invite more air to come into the soil, and it also helps hen you are watering
so the water just doesn't slide down the sides of the pot or in-between the pot and the soil.
You should feed your Hoya during the growing season.
Now, Phew, its not doing much . If anything its crisping out in places.
When it start flushing out a little bit a growth or right before that in the spring
give it a complete liquid fertilizer that is half the strength.
Ill do it more often than not, ill even do like a quarter strength every time I water
it ill add that liquid plant food because you don't water them that much.
Every time you water you can add some plant food.
Come fall, when those days get shorter, you really should stop fertilizing.
You want to place these plants in bright indirect sunlight as much as you can especially in
the winter.
If you have it in a place that is no longer receiving good light, move it to a place that
gets as much as you can give it.
Balding, plant balding.
We all maybe had that experience with our plants.
It is very common for Hoyas to not produce growth from the top.
The produce all the growth down these long luxurious vines.
so don't worry if you do not have a lot going on on top, because its happening all along
the sides.
its ok.
If it makes you a little neurotic, or a little crazy that you see soil on the top then you
can take cutings.
Put the cuttings in water and then grow roots, make sure you cut below a node and then you
can stick those cuttings on the top of the pot.
I don't find it necessary because I am never looking down on the pot.
I am always enjoying it from a head on perspective.
I doesn't bother me, but if bothers you then you can do that.
if you do do that, then you will ant to add top soil because you need little freshness
up there.
you don't eat to add too much top soil because you do not eat to suffocate the roots of the
existing plant.
you could bump up the plant into a bigger pot and then put the rooted cuttings along
the sides and let them grow in.
Hoyas don't love to be repotted and the prefer to be slightly root bound so take caution
when you transplant your Hoya. you could be taking a risk.
These little brown, Ill do a closer shot, but these brown tips coming from these long
vines, sent cut them off.
That is where the new growth comes from.
That is how they are going to get longer and bigger.
I did that to my first Hoya.
I cut all the brown tips off because I couldn't have brown tips!
I read about it, after I did it and realized, wow , that was a giant mistake.
Hoya carnosa compacta variegata.
I love saying it.
I love looking at it.
I love showing it off sorry but I do.
its the one plant I want to everybody to see.
I also want those of you who have it or are thinking of getting one to have the healthiest
plant you can have.
those are the rules that I follow.
People might have different perspectives and takes on it, but this had been working for
me so I just anted to share that with you.
this is it, this is the one!
This is like the mother of all Hoyas for me.
Aright, thats it.
enjoy your Hoyas.
If you have them if you are thinking about getting them hope these tips helped you out
a little bit.
thanks.