Your mistake was to pot them up to a bigger pot if you wanted to see flowers soon. When you do that, the plant spends all it's energy growing new and more roots to fill the empty space in the pot. When it gets the pot filled up with roots to it's satisfaction, then it will bloom for you if all other conditions are right. Many bloom on patios in the shade so it should be happy there. Just be patient.
Marcy

I completely agree with Marcy. Hoyas like to be potbound in order to bloom. Also, they need the right conditions to bloom. If your hoyas are happy, they should eventually bloom. You didn't mention what hoyas you have, but some take longer than others to bloom...for example, carnosas can take 7-10 years to bloom, and multiflora can bloom very early on, even as a cutting.

My advice to you would be to put your hoyas in the smallest pot possible - just big enough to fit the roots and enough soil to keep the roots moist. Do you have a picture? Just to give you an idea, my huge carnosa is in a 5.5 inch diameter pot. Most of my other hoyas are in 3-4 inch diameter pots. The largest pots I have is for my obovata and my multiflora, and they are HUGE (the multiflora is about 4 feet tall) - the pot is 8" diameter.

Also, make sure you fertilize regularly (but cut down in the colder months).

Hope that helps,
Gabi

Ya that must have been what I did wrong was put in a like 4 gallon pot, The plants are the Krimson Princess and Queen.
I will look for other hoyas and not repot, I can hardly wait to smell the flowers. Thank you

Some hoyas also like lots of sunlight like 2-3 hours of morning sun or even west sun depending on the varieties without burning the leaves to boost blooming. I have Krimson queen outside in partial sun in west side and it blooms all the time more then any other hoyas that I have. Some of my hoyas stay outside all year long unless there is frost warning. Hot and humid weather seems to agree with most of the hoyas.

Angel
I have a hoya lacunosa in a sothern windown (indoors) and it has two spots where it is going to bloom soon. I took pic's of the bloom but it didn't turn out well, it was blurry.

Gabi
my hoyas that I repoted when I recieved them are in either 4-6" pots the 5" or 6", do you think I should go down in size?

Gabi,
Very pretty plants. You answered my question, sorry to sound confusing. So, if I decided to repot my hoyas is there specifics on when to and not to do it? For example don't repot when it's blooming. I'm sure I have some of those little plastic pots I can put them in, then return them to the ceramic pots with rocks underneith if necessary.

And I do love the leaves of my hoyas but at the same time would like to see them bloom.

Thanks for telling me about hoyas liking plastic vs. being directly potting in ceramic and about the small sized pots. Appreciate it. Any help I can get. I am still very new at this and open to ideas.

Very nice Gabro. I too use only 4 inch pots, a couple larger ones are in 6 inch, I didn't realize some people went as small as 2 inch.....I might just do that with a couple of my smaller leaved hoyas. Shanna, I too use cache pots, sometimes to add the weight on the bottom so it isn't top heavy, and sometimes just to show them off. Gabro, your pubicalyx or the macG, are they close to root bound yet, that seems like so much plant for such a wee pot....lol. How long has it taken those plants to get that big?

Ok, I just got home and I wanted to show the amount of growth of 2 of the above plants. I think that keeping hoyas potbound not only increases chance of blooms, but it makes the hoya itself grow faster. These are pics of H. anulata and H. mindorensis taken 3 months apart..

H. anulata in July 07:
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H. anulata in Oct 07:
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H. mindorensis in July 07 (to the right of the red pot):
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H. mindorensis in Oct 07:
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Gabi
Wow, that is a huge increase in 3 months, it looks like they doubled in size at the least.

Well, we all know Gabi likes the small pots!! That IS an amazing amount of growth for those 2 plants. I don't know if it can all be attributed partly to them staying in small pots, though. I got alot of growth on similar sized hoyas in 6" pots this year - so maybe it depends on the hoya, it's age, the light, the fertilizer etc...I am probably guilty of potting up too big too soon, but typically I move up to the next size pot, not several sizes. My main reason for doing so is to get the plants into hanging pots as soon as possible. And I usually only pot up if the plant seems to have alot of roots.

It makes sense that staying in small pots might make plants grow more, but I don't know...some hoyas just grow fast no matter what. I wish I had the room to experiment more.

Yes, wouldn't it be great to experiment?? Any takers?

Actually, I sort of did an "experiment" myself, although not on purpose! I used to have my H. carnosa KQ in a 6 or 7 inch pot. It didn't grow much at all. Then, about a year later, I learned about keeping plants rootbound, so I downsized it to a 4 inch pot. Well, it took off....I mean REALLY took off. I had no choice but to put it into a 5 inch pot about a year after I had downsized it to a 4 inch pot, cause it had gotten so big. I can definitely attribute that amount of growth to downsizing the pot.

It also depends on other things, like Jen mentioned. Some hoyas, like multiflora for example, will grow like a gangbuster no matter what size the pot is. Also, of course light and fertilizer have an effect on growth. However, I think in addition to all those factors, keeping hoyas in smaller pots helps with growth and blooming.

Gabi,I remember when we first met, I read about your KQ and I think we spoke (wrote) about mine which was in a too big pot and not growing at all...I took your advice and put it in a smaller pot, and it did start to grow better, but for some reason did not do so well this summer, I think it got too much water during a really rainy spell.

I do think Hoyas like to be a bit potbound to bloom, but as for growing, I think giving them root-room helps them grow better on top of the soil, too. Angel, I would leave yours in the large pot as you suggested you might. Both KP and KQ are very showy plants that look amazing even if you don't get flowers. And, in California, believe me -you'll get flowers before too long! You have ideal conditions there...

Many of my Hoyas are in large pots - 10" or larger. When they get slightly potbound, I move them up until they get to the point that it's just too difficult to repot. Some take longer to bloom than others. KP and KQ are both carnosa cultivars, and carnosas are notoriously slow to bloom. But once they start, they're bloomin' machines. So just have patience and enjoy that beautiful foliage while you wait.

My mother always says: "The anticipation of an event is always more exciting than the actual event itself..." Which I think is true for everything but experiencing Hoya flowers! They're definitely worth the wait!

Denise in Omaha

Am I the only one who's having trouble viewing Gabi's latest pix? I see the green ceramic pot, (the 3 pix) after that, at first it was all red Xs, then today, it takes me to Photobucket, but my area there, not any pix by Gabi.

I've tried & tried to no avail, I wanted to see the new growth being discussed, ackkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!

PG, try deleting your cookies, and come back to the site, it should reload properly. I see them, but have had your problem b4.
HTH

Gabi-
I took your advice, I repotted my hoyas that were directly potted into the ceramic pots and put them in plastic pots with the ceramic as a catch pot. I like the look of them better now. I also planted a water rooted cutting so I hope it grows ok.
shanna

Shanna,

Glad you like the way it looks....I'm sure your hoyas will be very happy in their new homes. It will be really easy for you to water them - just make sure you remove the plastic pot out of the cache before watering (unless the cache pots have drainage holes, which I'm sure they do).

Good luck with your new cutting :)

Gabi

Gabro, I just had to mention that I also took a couple of my smaller leaf hoyas (serpens & heutschkeliana) and repotted them into little solo cups and used a candle holder as a cache pot. They are so pretty now! Thanks for the idea, your plants are all so pretty. Gabro, have you noticed how long it takes for them to get root bound in this tiny little pot?

Thanks

I think your pot IS too big yes. I'm still not one who lets them linger in tiny pots too long, but the pot should be a little bigger than the rootball. So if the rootball is around 4" in diameter, I'd put it in a 5" pot. You can always set the pot it's planted in into a cachepot that's heavier and bigger to avoid toppling due to them being top-heavy. The bigger one is carnosa - can't see the smaller one well enough to tell what it is...

Denise in Omaha

I have one for 7 years... never flowered!!!

my pot is 5 inches!!! is that the problem???

sny advice for my Hoya to flower?

I had a carnosa for years that never flowered. It was in an east window. Last spring I moved it to a west window, and it finally began blooming. I am guessing your hoyas need more bright light.

I just bought my first Hoya Carnosa plant last week, which looks like 3 plants in this 6“ pot.

The ends of 4 of the 6 stems were dried out or cut by the garden shop. To promote growth by crowding roots(?), can I separate them into smaller pots and put the smaller pots back into original 6” pot with potting mix around them?

I live in a cooler, cloudy climate— currently 55-60 degrees high. Will they do okay in east-facing sunroom?

Brand new to caring for plants— any advice appreciated!

Sharon,

They will be fine. Looks like a nice spot for them.

Of course the more fertilizer and the more sunlight, the more blossoms!!

You can grow a hoya in lousy light but all you wil get is leaf growth.