First, Lati, I love your reference to "ye"! A bazillion years ago, when I was in my youth, I wanted to be an English teacher... All of my favorite teachers were English teachers, so it was my aspiration... Way back then, a "girl" from a family with means could go to college, but I wasn't one of them. So I got married and got a job and didn't become a teacher. But I've always had that mentality, and improper English has always been like fingernails on a chalkboard!

Anyway, H. curtisii is a challenging Hoya for me. I've tried growing it many times and have consistently failed, eventually. This last time, I kept it a long time (well, about 2 years...), then it started to decline last fall. I have managed to salvage a small pot of it and it's doing fine as of right now. (Fingers crossed!) Don't fret when a species doesn't do well for you. You have two choices - keep trying, or give it up. Something I really, really adore I will try over and over and over and... well, you get the picture! Others I will try once or twice and give up.

Denise in Omaha

At least even they didn't have a picture of it in flower....but it's the foliage that I really like! Sometimes things just aren't meant to be.

Maybe like with the lacunosa and polyneura. They're rooted and I even have plants...but we're still finding out if one of us is going to accidentally kill the other one. Could go either way.

(Would that be considered a pun? Hm...no...alagory? Parable? It's something about a double meaning...but it is considered a sense of humor.)

Did you mean "double entendre"?? I have that issue with succulents .... Everyone else makes them look so easy, and I can't keep most of them alive to save my life!! Sansevieria seems to be the exception to the rule .... wonder if it has something to do with being a Mother-in-Law's tongue???? o.O

Oh, and I thought I had a hard time keeping some of my plants alive! Thankfully I have plants that seem to love me and grow for me :)

Regarding curtisii, I found one about 10 miles away from where I live, big pot, superb plant. I tried to make arrangements with the person to meet and get one of the pots (there are a few available) but she only wants to ship them. Curtisii being one of the thinner-leaved Hoyas, chances are that it won't do well in transportation. And why pay shipping to get the postal service drive the poor plant around the area for a couple of days only to get to me half dead?? I didn't get the logic of this person at all. We could meet somewhere in the middle and just get me the plant..... I guess I'm just not lucky.

Yeah, I've killed a few curtisii myself. Trying again with a new rooted cutting. It seems to like more humidity, I think, and my house just runs too dry. This luck to you on this quest.

(And if you do figure curtisii out, I'd love to hear pointers!)

Mine has rooted and the different stems are putting on new growth. The stem that had the longest new growth is not doing so well as all the new growth (about 3inches) has died back.

My soil is a mix of regular potting soil with a little perlite and some very small bark chips.

Hoya curtisii does not like drying out. If the stems die, you are keeping them too dry.

I just couldn't find the right combination, or maybe I needed to do it in a window with more light.

My curtissii did well with rooting. It took a little while (3 or 4 weeks). I took a clear plastic cup, bored holes in it and filled it with perlite. Then decided it was too dry, and stuck the whole thing in another plastic cup and let about 1/8-1/4" of water stay at the bottom pretty much all the time. Was in a protected east window too, if that helps. After two months, I have a beefy root system and new growth from 6 different places, not bad for a single cutting! I replanted it today and will heed y'alls (I have no shame) advice and keep it on the wet side... Fingers crossed.

Still, I do have this... I haven't been able to even LOOK at lacunosa pictures since mine started failing, certainly not now that they died. Will have to try again.

My curtissii did not make it sadly. When stems where dying and i watered it, i should not have. Even though i used bark chips in the mix it stayed wet too long. I got it too wet and the cuttings leaves turned yellow.

Bark itself is water retention but when it's dry it has hydrophobic properties. Once it's soaked, it stays that way for a while, it's best to mix it with something that get air flow through the media so the plants roots don't stay soggy. I think this was also my problem when making the soil for it.

Oh noes! But it was doing so good! This has sadly happened way too often for me.

I brought some even smaller bark chips. Next time i will use 25% miracle grow, 25% bark, and 50% perlite.

That is similar to what I am using now, thanks tlbean. I got worried about laticaudas point on the bark. Good input from each of you, thanks.

Oh yeah, and if any of you chose to try my method, I did get a little algae in the perlite after awhile but it didn't seem to bother anything other than my sensibilities.

I potted the rooted australis and some unknown Hoya using a mix of hydroton, perlite, bark and gardening soil. Do you think there are too many ingredients?

I don't think it's too many.

I've never used hydroton. Let me know how it works out for you.

It's used also as soil aerator, not only in hydroponics, so I hope it will help them. :)

Do they have different sizes? I've only seen pretty big ones and most of my pots are rather small lol.

They come in very different sizes in a bag, You could choose to use the small ones. Or use grow stones, those can be used as soil aerator too.

Thanks! I have some unused aquaculture bio media that I want to try too. It has microscopic uh....holes/caverns/not really sure, ask their marketing guys lol.

Anyway, it's supposed to be like really good for microbes to colonize, something about the texture or the size or....I dunno.....but I'm gonna try it and it sinks instead of floats like perlite which I very much dislike (about perlite).

Mimalf do you have a preference for growstones vs hydroton?

I started with hydroton earlier than growstones so I have more cuttings rooted in it. I now prefer hydroton over growstones but only because of that. Time will tell. I also used some of them both in my potting mix for my plants that needed potting/repotting. Not much, because I also use perlite, but I figure it helps with soil aeration since it says that even on the bags. :)

I first ordered a small bag of hydroton from ebay for half the price I paid on a big bag 5-7 times bigger later on. But I had to try it on first, right?

i think it really depends on everyone's microclimate. Trial and error.