Hello Hermitide,

Yes, you can make cutting to reduce the size of your mother plant but do not over do it.

How much direct sunlight did your carnosa get over the Winter and Spring?

If you look at my post, "My Blooming Compacta" you will see pictures of my Compacta/Krinkle8 and in another post, a full flowering Carnosa.

Both of these plants got lots of full sun this Winter and Spring.

I do admit that the sun is hard on the Compacta leaves.

Wildcat

I also have a huge green Carnosa that's about 3 yrs. old which hasn't flowered. It probably didn't help that I over potted it. I'm trying an experiment...I took six cuttings and potted them up in a 2 1/2" container and I'm going to leave them there until they are extremely root bound and see if that'll get the plant to bloom earlier.

What's odd is that I also have a varigated hoya (Krimson Queen) that I got about the same time as the plain green one. It was smaller to begin with and took forever to start growing, but it currently has 3 big blooms. I've read that the carnosas won't bloom in an air conditioned house, so I was pretty excited when I saw peduncles on this one...and I guess there's still hope for my other carnosa.

Silly Question, but what do the peduncles look like?

Like little microphones that usually are pointing down. :-)

hermitide, are you using any fertilizer?

Hi P. Creel, I have not used any fertilizer, at least not intentionally...I suppose my next stupid question would be...should I have? (sigh...)

any recommendation on what type or how or when? I always thought you fertilize when a plant is flowering...

Instead of pruning the plant, you might try removing several vines of the old and woody part of your plant. This will encourage the new growth to thrive and flower.

Fertilizer will definately make a difference...Mising will also help!!! If you have never fertilized, I would suggest you start with a balanced fertilizer like 20-20-20. I always use half of what is recommended on the label and try to feed the plants every couple weeks during the growing season.

I personally fertilize with every watering at 1/4 strength. I do recommend that you use some fertilizer seeing that you haven't fertilized for a long time. For the first time around water with a full strength high Phosphorous fertilizer then reduce to 1/4 strength on the following waterings. Use the high Phosphorous fertilizer for 2-3 weeks then use a balanced fertilizer for 4 weeks, then back to the High Phosphorous one for 2-3 weeks,.... and so on. The high Phosphorous fertilizer helps induce flowering (no guarantees :) but continuous use can cause other deficiencies due to the high Phosphorous content and that is why I recommend the use of a balanced one in between. Use a fertilizer that contains chelated micro nutrients (Iron, Manganese,....) beside the macro nutrients (Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium). Some folks will say not to fertilize during the winter time but I fertilize year round and Hoyas like carnosa will happily grow and bloom in the middle of our cold winters here ;)
I saw another thread of yours where you where looking for Hoya suppliers. I don't know of any on-line stores in Spain but I know of a few in Holland, Italy and Germany. Drop me a message an I can give you the links if you're interested.

Milan