Hoya archboldiana is one of the Hoya species that tends to start life on the ground vs as an epiphtye. This Hoya tends to grow up from the ground into the crowns of trees so it does tend to want to grow upwards. Many of the climbing Hoyas will show dieback of new growth if you try to train them too much. If you can offer a taller support like a four or five foot tall bamboo trellis etc. you will see your Hoya put out a good amount of vine growth and then the vine will fill out with leaves.
Hoya archboldiana likes it quite dry during the winter and this cycle of dry season to wet growing season is what triggers bloomimng. I have been watering my archboldiana plant much less this winter, just a sip or enough to wet the surface soil each week to week and a half and the plant looks just fine. I would no go as far as letting the plant wilt or to become too wrinkled but my plant has not shown any ill effects.

Mike

Hmm, guess I'll go try to find an upright to fit in the pot. Good to know about the wet/dry thing; I thought maybe I wasn't watering it enough and that was why it was losing leaves. It's only flowered once since I've had it. Thanks.

WW

You will have to feel it out concerning watering during winter. If your plant is not doing well and it's dropping leaves there could be other factors at play and a dry period will not help matters. The leaves that drop, are they mature leaves or small developing ones?
Growing your plant on a trellis will help but if it has bloomed for you already you must be doing something right.

Mike

The leaves that dropped were mature ones. I took it off the ring and wound it up a couple stakes instead. It looks like what happened was there were 3 branches, and 2 of them died back. The last one seems OK, it has about 10 leaves.

This plant was very small when I got it and did absolutely nothing for about 2 years, the last couple years it's put on a growth spurt when I put it outside in the summer and then died back during the winter inside. It might need repotted, too; it's in a pretty small pot, although it doesn't look potbound. That won't happen till spring, anyway. I suspect that training it around a little ring was a good part of the problem. It's funny because some of the other hoyas I have do really well on a ring.

WW

Don't worry about the plant being pot bound, these larger Hoyas like to have some room for their roots. I have my plant in a 5" pot but it will go into a larger pot once it starts to grow quickly again. Mine is also on a small hoop but it really needs more room to climb once it gets going.

Mike