What a great friend and beautiful Kerri! Congrats!

Very nice!

beautiful! i really want a kerri, they are just so adorable! so happy for you that you got such a generous amount of her... was she already rooted or no?

Yes, it's rooted. She ended up mailing me her entire plant! She works at a greenhouse and there's more there if she wants. I just need to repot it.

xo
kittee

That is so nice, kittee! It looks just gorgeous - she has grown it really well. Lucky you! With my heavier plants, I usually put the pot inside a larger heavier pot and then stick a bamboo hoop in whichever pot fits best. These larger/heavier leaved Hoyas frequently grow into big hoops faster than they grow into big pots, so it gets pretty experimental lol.

Congrats on the carnosa, too. It is just amazing how well Hoyas treat you once they finally get going. It makes the waiting period seem so worth it you can't believe you ever complained! ^_~

That is a beautiful Kerri! And please share your secret on how to get carnosa to bloom twice in one season - mine never bloom more than once every spring. :)

Hey Kittee,

I meant to answer when you first posted but been too busy. She sent you one really GORGOEUS looking plant, I was going to say cutting until I saw the pot there. Yes, it looks super healthy too!

You mention rigging?

I attach the coming pix not to show the bloom, rather my rigging. It's got stakes, twist ties, binder clips, & rubberbands, especially since once it started blooming (this week) I realized it was going to get even heavier, so I rubberbanded it to help support the blooms.

This one is Hydro, so it's in a glass vase inside a terra cotta pot. As mentioned above, clay pots really help w/ these very heavy, thick stemmed Hoyas.

this one shows mostly ties, clips & the silver from the binder clip.

{{gwi:99866}}

Oh, FYI on Kerrii & Obovata or the thick stemmed ones:

best to hoop them when they're young & one can still somewhat bend or flex the stems, otherwise, they leak (kerrii especially) whited sap all over the place, looks just like Elmer's glue.

You really lucked out, I haven't seen such a pretty Kerrii w/ such pristine & perfect leaves in along time. Hope it does really well w/ you in its new home, enjoy!

@ Klea

My carnosa bloomed for the first time in early spring this year and hasn't stopped yet. When one group of blooms drop, there is already another set of blooms well into development. I have two pots of it and they started blooming at the same time (basically, as soon as I'd given them 6 months of adequate light), at the same rate. They're in two different east facing windows. I just water them once a week with weak Dyna-Gro Foliage Pro. One is too close to the glass, I think, because its leaves are super pale. The better looking one is a few feet back from a glass door.

I think this is how most people's carnosas behave - they just don't talk about it because it's so old hat to them. I really think all you need to do is have adequate light and normal fertilization practices. No special technique required to get a carnosa to behave itself. If you're only getting 1 set of blooms a season, I'd tweak your method, for sure. My plants were over 10 years old, but all they needed was some more light, to perform. This seems to be the case with 90% of mature non-blooming Hoyas LOL.

GG, yes I'm sure your right. I must be doing something wrong since I only get one flowering pr. year. :) Only problem is I'm giving my carnosas all the light I can give them! Well, at least one of them (I've got two that I started as cuttings from the same plant. They are about 6 years now I think). It's placed in a west facing window with 4 to 5 hours of direct sunlight (when the sun decides to show up that is, this summer has been so wet, dark and depressing that I don't blame my hoyas for not wanting to flower as much...) I've been fertilizing with 1/4 of the recommended dosage with every watering in the spring and summer each year. In winter I usually let it get very dry before watering.

Maybe I could try giving it a cold and dry winter season, and then BAM! flood it with water, nutrients, light and love when spring comes around again. Perhaps I can shock it into continous flowering? LOL :) Although, I think the case with my carnosas is to small a pot(!) because I just repotted one of them this summer (they've been growing in the same pot as I planted them in as cuttings), and there was no soil left in the pot - only tightly packed roots! :) It started flowering right after the repotting, but it only lasted about a month. Then it started to grow A LOT of new vines. I guess I'll get an answer next spring, then I can see if the one I repotted will flower more than the one I haven't repotted yet. Thank you so much for giving your advice on this. It sure would be great to have my carnosas flowering all summer! :)

(Oh, and sorry for going off topic in your Kerri thread Kittee.)

I think you could very well be right, Klea. Probably next spring one or both will be ready to flip into bloom overdrive. ^_^ I doubt you have to worry about giving them a hard season, as some Hoyas require. I'll root for you and you can root for me and my inadequate bloomers. :P

Thanks for those pics and tips PG!

@Klea, I have no idea why this is blooming again for me, although I have been very very diligent in watering it every week this season. Probably last summer I wasn't as attentive. I also barely water mine in the winter, and they do sit at a window, so they experience a temperature drop for sure.

xo
kittee

I wrangled it!

Boy you sure did, it looks great!! Your Carnosa buds are a pretty cool picture, I've never seen that in person, so thanks.

I envy you your cast iron collection, one of these days I'll find one & start collecting them too.

PG, those cast iron pans are just the Lodge brand, which you can find for really cheap at regular stores and even well stocked hardware stores. the small ones are all under $10 and the big ones are under $15 last time i checked.

xo
kittee