Also, what kind of soil are you using? It should be very light, open and fast draining, not regular potting soil....

Briggett, it does looks like root rot. What Shelly said, check the rootball first and if does rotten you need to remove the old soil gently as much and wash it and put it in a new fast draining soil. I use orchids mix and add ferlite.

Hope you save it.

This is the root ball. Is it OK?

Those roots don't look too bad, but the potting medium could be waaay better.

Try to find a fine orchid mix (Lowes sells one made by Gubler, it is in a blue bag.

Soak the mix overnight, drain and rinse the next morning. Then, take your plant out of the old pot and rinse as much of the old soil off the roots as you can. After that, rinse out the pot, making sure all old soil is gone. Then, soak the pot in a bleach water solution (one part bleach to every four parts water) for 5-10 minutes. Rinse well.

Let the plant aerate and dry it's roots out a bit before repotting. Maybe 2-3 hours. Heck, you could leave it out all day, if need be, but don't leave it out of the pot overnight. Once you are ready to repot, place an inch of the orchid mix in the bottom of the pot. Then place the rootball of the plant in the pot. Add more mix around and on the rootball, gently wiggling the plant every once in awhile, to make sure there is even distribution of potting mix all around the rootball. Keep adding mix until the entire rootball is covered.

Wait at least a week before you water the plant again. Depending on the weather, using that exact mix, I water my hoya carnosa every 7-10 days. Right now, with it being hot and dry, and my hoyas being outside for the warm months, carnosa is watered every 7 days. I feed MiracleGro Tomato water soluble (comes in box) food at 1/4 strength (1/4-1/2 TEAspoon per gallon water) at every feed. Once a month, I flush my pots (rinsing potting medium really well by watering pots for 2-3 minutes to get rid of any potential fertilizer buildup.

Your plant is not yet suffering of rot, but it certainly is starting to show symptoms of early root rot. Most hoyas need a very well-draining potting mix, such as orchid mix and all POTTED plants should have an airy mix, especially epiphytes (plants that use roots to attach themselves to trees), like hoyas and orchids. The wrinkly leaves may make you think dehydration, and technically, that is true, sort of. When a potted plant becomes waterlogged, either by water retention in the soil or no drainge holes in the pot, its roots take up waaay too much water. This, in turn, causes edema (swelling) of the leaf cells, which causes them to become swollen. As the root system suffocates in the waterlogged pot, it starts shutting down. This, in turn, makes the leaf cells collapse, becoming wrinkly, dull, and droopy, as they no longer have access to water and nutrients. The last step is rot. It starts at the roots and travels up the stem, and if severe, migrates throughout the plant. Even just the lower stem getting rot is enough to kill the plant.

I would reccommend you take a cutting or two of your plant (healthy growth), and start a new plant, just in case this one continues to decline, even after being repotted.

Wow--what a detailed and interesting answer...I learned a lot from that--thanks aurorawa! For what it's worth, I use a mixture of orchid bark and seedling starter mix with my hoyas---the seedling starter is nice and light and fluffy (you don't want soil compacting around delicate seedlings) and the orchid bark gives openness and structure...works well for me...

Speaking of watering--here in the mid-Atlantic it's been hot, humid, and raining every single day, sometimes several times a day...my hoyas are drenched all the time and have been totally soaked for at least a month....if I did this indoors all my plants would instantly rot, but outside every single plant is healthy, happy, showing new growth, and several are budding up....how is this possible? Mother Nature is awesome :D

I hope I can save it! It's the only one I have besides a cutting that wasn't good from the start. I'm going to buy cuttings when I get the money they seem to be expensive. This plant was $15@ Walmart. It seems cutting average the same.

Oooh...Wamart. Yeah, EA (the company that supplies hoyas to Walmart) soil is not the best for long-term potting. It compacts quickly and is very water-retentive.

Not all cuttings are expensive. Many of us on here trade or offer freebies. I usually do, but right now, most of my plants are actively vining out big time. And, until those vines leaf out, I can't offer. Not willing to send a leafless vine through the mail, lol! At least, they are growing!

Well if anyone has any extras to help me get started, it would be greatly appreciated! My plan was to buy cuttings from you guys soon after I came on Board but I had one girl going to college and my other girl going to kindergarten then I lost my job so now money is tight but I'm going make it happen one way or the other. Lol.My plants are one of my biggest sources of peace and happiness in my world of chaos right now. They help me a lot. So as soon as i can I will be letting you guys know that I'm ready to order. I'm so excited to get started! Soooon!

Bridgett, I am going to try to send you a pm, message me here of you do not get it. :)

Dagnabbit. Houzz makes it so hard to message. How about you email me, at turtlescales @ gmail.