Hoya, Wax Ivy - Cultivation And Species

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

Under the zodiac sign Gemini

According to the horoscope, the zodiac sign Gemini (May 21 - June 21) corresponds to asparagus (plumose, densely flowered, asparagus), ferns (heart-leaved, humpbacked blehnum, auricular mnogoryadnik), feathery palms, tradescantia, graceful callisia, purplish reticulum and pluchinochium.

To the "family" of ivy belongs a thermophilic shrub, well-known to most indoor florists - wax ivy, or fleshy hoya Hoya (Hoya carnosa or Asclepias camosa), belonging to the Asdepiadaceae family.

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The name of the genus, which includes about 200 species (common in South China, India, the Pacific Islands, Australia), was given in honor of the English gardener T. Hoya. Wax ivy itself is native to northeastern Australia and India.

This is a climbing liana, reaching a length of 5-6 m. It has creeping, pubescent, woody stems and opposite, fleshy, shiny dark green leaves (5-8 cm long, 3-4 cm wide), oblong-oval, shortly pointed, on short petioles.

Wax ivy blooms from March to October (usually does not form seeds in room conditions). Numerous original flowers (corolla 1.5 cm in diameter, white or white-pink, waxy, with a pinkish crown, wide petals with curled edges and densely pubescent on top) of a star-shaped shape are located in umbellate axillary inflorescences.

The flowers last for several weeks. In hot weather it releases nectar with a very pleasant strong "honey" aroma, which intensifies in the evening: transparent droplets hang on each flower. After flowering, old peduncles with withered flowers are not removed - it is on them that new inflorescences will appear next year and later. It should be noted that, as a rule, only highly developed plants bloom well.

Untied shoots are not suitable for vertical design: hanging in all directions, they will look very ugly. In landscaping, this ivy is used in a variety of ways - depending on the direction of growth of the shoots.

It is very easy to grow in any indoor conditions, an unpretentious plant that tolerates dry air well. For its location, a bright place is preferable, even bright lighting (with a sufficient number of direct rays, but when they are enumerated, leaf burns are possible), especially if they want to have abundant flowering.

It should be noted that wax ivy grows well even with sufficient artificial lighting with fluorescent lamps. It is not recommended to touch the plant after the buds have appeared, and it is not advisable to touch the buds themselves.

Optimal conditions in summer are 22 … 24 ° С, abundant watering, periodic spraying of leaves (but not during flowering) and regular application (once every two weeks) of solutions of complex mineral fertilizers. It would be nice to wipe the plant's elastic leaves with a damp cloth.

Most flower growers recommend not to allow stagnation of water in a container with a plant, since this may cause leaves to fall, although in the summer I have a powerful fifteen-year-old liana literally "sitting" in the water.

Low temperatures of 14 … 16 ° C (preferably 11 … 12 ° C), low air humidity, moderate watering (semi-dry earthy clod) are optimal for winter maintenance, since excessive watering during this period is detrimental to the plant.

The soil substrate for hoya should be loose and nutritious; it is prepared from turf, leaf and humus soil, sand in a ratio of 1: 2: 0.5: 1. As a last resort, you can simply mix the garden soil with sand. The plant does not like spacious dishes (and it will not rush to bloom in such a container).

To successfully grow this vine, its fast-growing long shoots require support of any shape. Hoya can also be held on a long, strong twine. Young plants are transplanted annually, perennial plants - once every 3-4 years (more often when this is inevitable), gradually increasing the volume of the pot.

Some growers get abundant flowering from their pet, stimulating it by immersing in warm water for half an hour in spring (35 ° C), but such a procedure with a plant that has too long shoots seems quite burdensome. Wax ivy is perfectly propagated by cuttings taken from the shoots of the previous year, the milky juice released from the cut pieces is washed off. Cuttings can be cut even with one or two pairs of leaves or longer.

They root remarkably in water, sand and other substrates throughout the year, but the formation of a high-quality root system is still observed better in spring. Note that, unlike many other plants, hoya roots do not appear from nodes, but on internodes.

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The optimum temperature for successful rooting is 20 … 22 ° C. After rooting, which takes about 3-4 weeks, the cuttings are planted in pots. Some flower growers place 2-3 cuttings in a container to get lush greenery, but when cultivated for many years, in the future, in my opinion, they will only interfere with each other's development, taking away nutrients.

It will not be superfluous to mention the medicinal properties of hoya. Active chemical substances were found in the composition of its leaves, among which the most famous are condurangin and honin. Scientists obtained phytosterindigitonide from the leaf extract. For medicinal purposes, the leaves are sometimes used to accelerate the maturation of boils and carbuncles.

In indoor floriculture, hoya is also represented by other species. So, beautiful hoya, or waxen (N. bella), and long-leaved hoya (N. longifolia), originally from East Asia, are widely known.

The first species is a small, highly branching shrub with lodging or hanging stems (30-50 cm long) and small (3-5 cm) fleshy rounded leaves with a pointed tip. This species, which also blooms profusely (from the end of June or from July), is an excellent ampelous plant for interior decoration.

The flowers (0.5 cm in size) are white with a purple tint (crimson in the center), collected in a dense drooping umbrella of 10-12 pieces each. When cultivating hoya long-leaved, characterized by small (0.5-0.6 cm) fragrant wide-open flowers of white-cream color with a crimson eye (there are up to 15 of them in the inflorescence) and lanceolate (14-15 cm long) leaves, it is especially important good lighting, as otherwise its shoots will not ripen and the plant will not bloom.

I note that this species grows very slowly, you should not rush to prune it for bushiness, since inflorescences develop only on shoots of two years old. Hoya long-leaved is usually used for keeping in small rooms. Much less often in retail sale you can find multiflora hoya (N. multiflora) with pale yellow flowers and southern hoya (N. australis), which is distinguished by almost round leaves.

Of the pests (with too warm wintering), scabies may appear on waxy ivy. As for aphids and spider mites, I have never seen these harmful insects on the hoya, although I have been growing it for more than one year.