Growing Hoya - Wax Ivy And Ceropegia

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Hoya or wax ivy in your apartment

Representatives of the Gusset family have long and firmly settled in our homes. True, not everyone knows them "by sight" and by name. Their homeland is hot Africa, and the family got its name because of the similarity of the opened ripe fruit with … the tail of a swallow.

The most common genus of this family is hoya, or waxen. In everyday life, fleshy hoya (x. Carnose), or wax ivy, is most often found. This plant is very resistant to home conditions: shade-tolerant, drought-resistant, tolerates dry room air quite successfully, while in fact it loves bright sun and spraying in summer.

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Hoya is a magnificent liana with rough grayish shoots up to 10 cm long. Leaves are oblong-oval, grayish-green, opaque below; from above - dark green with rare silvery spots and specks, glossy, thick, fleshy, leathery, up to 10 cm long and 3-4 cm wide, with pointed ends.

Axillary inflorescences, up to 10 cm in diameter; flowers are white or pale-bodied, with a red or crimson star-shaped crown in the center, on shortly pubescent pedicels 2-4 cm long, collected in umbrellas of 14-18 pieces. The corolla of the flower is five-membered, up to 1.5 cm in diameter; corolla lobes wide, with curled edges and densely pubescent dorsally. Abundant flowering in spring and summer, each inflorescence is in dissolution up to 10-14 days.

But the plant becomes ornamental already with the appearance of buds, which are just like flowers made of pinkish wax. Umbrellas with buds slowly increase in size, remaining closed, and suddenly, at some point, a sweetish spicy aroma fills the room - it means that the flowers have opened, and the blooming holiday has begun.

Interestingly, hoya flowers are formed on short axillary shoots, resembling fruit branches of apple trees, and also remain on plants for many years. Unlike apple trees, the same "flower twig" can bloom several times per season. Therefore, flower-bearing shoots should not be cut off, except for propagation by cuttings.

Long shoots of wax ivy along stretched cords can perfectly decorate walls and even ceilings (in the kitchen, for example).

It happens that the hoya does not bloom, thereby upsetting its owners. What is the reason? There may be several of them. First, the air temperature in winter is too high (above 14-16 ° C); secondly, excessive watering, which leads to rotting of the roots and wrinkling of the succulent shiny leaves (they noticeably fade). But the main reason is the lack of sunlight, especially in the summer, when the shoots must ripen (assuming normal nutrition, of course). Like many other plants, hoya does not like changes in location, especially if the buds have already appeared (it can drop them before flowering).

So, fleshy hoya loves the sun, moderate watering, spraying in the morning and evening in summer, even air temperature in winter (13-14 ° C), relative humidity 60-65%, regular feeding. If these conditions are met, the plant lives for decades, becoming a relic of the house.

Hoya is propagated, as a rule, by cuttings, choosing a part of the shoot with 1-2 pairs of leaves, it can be longer. They are cut in spring and late summer, although rooting is possible throughout the year. If shoots with buds are rooted in April, young plants will bloom in the first year. When rooting vegetative shoots (without buds), flowering occurs in 2-3 years. It is important to know that the roots do not appear at the nodes, but between them, so the cuttings are cut below the node.

The optimum temperature for rooting is at least + 20 ° C. You can root in peat, sand, their mixture, or just in water. Since all crotch plants contain milky juice, freshly cut cuttings should be kept for some time in warm water until the juicing stops, and then placed in the indicated substrate or an opaque vessel with water to a depth of 2-3 cm. Roots are formed in 20-25 days, and young plants are planted in pots with a diameter of 9 cm. Soil mixture: turf, sand and compost soil (2: 1: 2).

Nowadays, they rarely prepare special lands for ornamental plants (turf, leaf, heather, etc.). More often they just use garden or compost soil, mix it with purchased peat soil (micro-greenhouse, etc.) and sand, gravel or small expanded clay (3: 1: 1). Drainage from expanded clay at the bottom of the dishes is required. Rooted cuttings need warmth (16-18 ° C) and a light shade, then, after 2-3 weeks, you can lower the air temperature or move them to a cooler and brighter place.

Young plants grow rapidly and require annual replanting. Adult specimens are transplanted, or rather, transferred (without breaking the coma) into larger containers after three years. Top dressing with full mineral fertilizer is carried out once every two weeks, any fertilizer for flowering plants is suitable for this - "Uniflor-Bud", 1 cap for 2 liters of water, "Kemira flower" - in a scattering of several granules on a flower pot, etc.

Top dressing begins with the appearance of young leaves in spring and until September. With a weak growth of hoya, complete fertilization is alternated with a nitrogen solution (1 g of urea per 1 liter of water or "Uniflor-growth", 1 cap per 2 liters of water). Watering and spraying is carried out only with warm settled water. At the end of flowering, in the fall, the hoya begins a period of partial dormancy, while watering is reduced, but the lump is not brought to dryness.

To stimulate flowering in the old days, the following method was used: the aboveground part of the plant was immersed in warm (35 ° C) water for 30 minutes, and a clod of earth - for 2 hours (in spring and autumn).

Rarely in the culture, there is long-leaved hoya (x. Longifolia) - a shrub from East Asia with narrow lanceolate, slightly concave leaves up to 14 cm long, succulent, dark green. At first glance, the leaves of this type of hoya resemble hanging bean pods, while the bush with dense climbing stems is decorated with umbrellas smaller than those of the hoya carnosa, white flowers with a crimson or purple center. The diameter of an individual flower is 0.5-0.8 cm, inflorescences are 3-4 cm; 10-12 delicately fragrant, wide open pubescent flowers are collected in the umbrella.

Hoya long-leaved blooms from May throughout the summer on the shoots of two years of age, therefore it is not recommended to cut the shoots. This species grows slowly. It prefers an even air temperature of 14-16 ° C and very careful watering in winter (like a succulent, it does not tolerate waterlogging of the soil), a relative humidity of 65-70%. In summer, watering should be moderate.

For the ripening of shoots and full flowering in summer, long-leaved hoya requires bright sunlight. Care is needed the same as for fleshy hoya. Propagated by cuttings and grafting on strong perennial specimens of fleshy hoya. This species is used as a liana and an ampelous plant in the interior.

The most graceful type of hoya is considered to be a beautiful hoya (H. bella), originally from East Asia. Succulent plant with thin ampelous shoots up to 5 cm long, opposite thickened ovate-lanceolate leaves with pointed ends. Flowers in umbrellas 3-4 cm in diameter, 8-10 pieces, 0.5 cm in diameter, white, waxy, fluffy inside, with a purple center, exude a light spicy aroma. Inflorescences are formed at the ends of the shoots, so it is not recommended to pinch them. Blooms from May during the summer.

The beautiful hoya grows very slowly. Propagated by cuttings and grafting. The succulent nature of the plant requires moderate watering in summer and very careful in winter, when the best air temperature for keeping is 16-18 ° C. A beautiful hoya transplant does not tolerate well, so it is rarely transplanted. The volume of the pot should be large, but the drainage must be good.

To maintain abundant flowering, a sunny location and frequent (1 time in 7-10 days) feeding with a weak solution of complete fertilizer for flowering plants is required. Spraying with warm water is helpful. Used in rooms, offices as an ampelous plant.

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Cultivation of ceropegia

One of the rarely found in culture and especially exquisite plants of the Grimaceae family is ceropegia (its homeland is tropical and southern Africa, the Canary Islands, India, where there are 200 species). The most common Wood's ceropegia is a herbaceous indoor succulent plant with thin filamentous stems up to 2.5 m long. Ceropegia forms small globular tubers up to 2 cm in diameter underground and on stems that root well together with stem segments. Leaves are round-cordate, up to 2 cm wide, opposite on small petioles; on the upper side, the color is reddish-violet.

The flowers of the ceropegia have an unusual shape, reminiscent of horizontally suspended miniature jugs, strewn from the inside with silky fibers of a dark brown color with a purple tint. Flowers are located in the axils of the leaves, tubular, up to 4 cm long with a swollen pink-purple base. Blooms in summer.

The soil mixture for transplanting consists of deciduous and sod land with the obligatory addition of crushed brick or small expanded clay. At the bottom of a small pot or bowl, drainage is certainly laid. Ceropegia is transplanted and cuttings in the spring. For reproduction, stem cuttings with air nodules are taken and rooted in a distribution greenhouse in a sandy and peat-sand mixture with bottom heating. You can pin the nodule to the substrate using wooden sticks without completely burying it. Rooting takes up to 1.5 months without bottom heating.

In summer, watering of ceropegia should be moderate, in winter - poor, the air temperature is not lower than + 13 ° C. Photophilous, tolerates partial shade. Ceropegia is used for interior decoration as an ampelous plant.

The genus of stapelia, known for the largest flowers in the plant world and the most unpleasant odor, which is so fond of the flies that pollinate these plants, belongs to the gusset family. It is unlikely that there are many lovers of such exoticism in the house, although there certainly are.

The most elegant of the indoor plants of the Grimaceae family may well be considered to be Stephanotis profusely flowering, or Madagascar jasmine (homeland is the island of Madagascar). Now such rare plants are increasingly being sold in flower shops, at exhibitions. It is indeed a very attractive evergreen climbing vine with a woody stem and dark green leathery shiny, oblong-oval opposite leaves with a light central vein.

The flowers are numerous, up to 6 cm in diameter, fragrant, tubular, white, collected in loose racemose inflorescences of 5-7 pieces. Inflorescences grow from the leaf axils. Stefanotis blooms in summer. Needs supports and bright lighting. In winter, the air temperature should be at least 16-18 ° C, the relative humidity of the air - 75-80%.

The soil mixture requires slightly acidic, loose, nutritious. A transplant is needed annually, watering is abundant from the beginning of spring growth in March to October. In winter, stephanotis is watered sparingly. During the growth period, spraying with warm water is useful, but not over the flowers. During flowering, it is better to humidify the air using bowls of water or wet expanded clay, on which you can put a pot with a plant. Considering the abundance of flowering stephanotis, regular fertilizing with complex fertilizer for flowering plants is required ("Uniflor-bud", 1 cap for 2 liters of water - once every 7-10 days).

Stephanotis is propagated by cuttings of last year's shoots, moderately pruning the stems in January - February. The substrate for grafting is a mixture of river coarse sand, peat and garden soil. Rooting is carried out under a glass or film shelter with bottom heating. The rooted cuttings are pinched and transferred to a large bowl in the middle of summer.

Thus, hoyi, ceropegia and stephanotis are of great value for decorating interiors and offices, allowing you to arrange vertical, horizontal, bush and ampel gardening for many years without requiring complex maintenance.