Botanical Title: Hoya Kerrii

This heart-shaped succulent is definitely a vining plant — when it grows up.

Gradual-growing, it’s going to take just a few years to grow to be an extended vine studded with hearts. Mature vining crops will develop clusters of flowers in summer time, when given loads of daylight. Sometimes pink with pink star-shaped facilities, they resemble the blooms of the favored Hoya carnosa.

Hoya kerrii crops are sometimes bought as single leafs in particular person pots.

Repot in spring, solely when wanted. This plant is so gradual, it could keep in the identical pot for years. If you pot up, use one which’s solely 1-2 inches bigger. A container that is too giant for the plant will maintain an excessive amount of water, which can result in root rot. 

Make it bloom. Hoyas could not bloom for just a few years, so be affected person. You possibly can assist it, although, by holding it root-bound in a smallish pot. Give it a number of hours of vivid, oblique daylight every day in summer time. Cooler nighttime temperatures might help, too. Only a 10° drop at night time will do. After the flowers are spent, do not lower off the flower stem as a result of it’s going to probably bloom once more.

Prepare your plant. Use florist wire or delicate backyard ties to help the vines on a trellis. You wish to exhibit the fascinating coronary heart leaves, do not you? Or put them in a dangling basket to show them at eye-level. 

Shopping for Suggestions for Hoya Kerrii

Its distinctive coronary heart form makes it a preferred novelty plant, bought as items for Valentine’s Day. Chances are you’ll discover it on the market as Valentine Hoya or Sweetheart Hoya. Hoya kerrii ‘Variegata’ has inexperienced and creamy white- or yellow-edged leaves. Purchase one the dimensions you need, in any other case you could wait years for it to develop into a big, vining plant.

Umbels of porcelain-like flowers are just like H. carnosa. Photograph © Irina Borsuchenko

Caring for Hoya Kerrii Plant Indoors

Origin: Southeast Asia

Peak: Stems can develop to six ft (1.8 m)  or extra.

Gentle: Vivid, oblique gentle year-round. Haven’t got a sunny spot? Synthetic develop lights work superbly. Put your Hoya plant about 8 inches (20 cm) beneath the sunshine and maintain the lights on for about 14 hours a day. It is also necessary to offer them darkness at night time. Vegetation want a relaxation, too. 

Water: Water completely spring by means of fall, permitting potting combine to dry out a bit between waterings. This succulent will not tolerate soggy soil. You should definitely use a pot with drainage holes and empty the drainage tray. Use room-temperature water in your houseplants; chilly water can shock them. In winter, water sparingly giving the plant simply sufficient to maintain the combination from drying out utterly. Brown or wrinkled leaves point out the plant is simply too dry.

Humidity: Give this tropical evergreen plant no less than 40% relative humidity year-round. In case your indoor air is dry within the winter months, increase the humidity with a cool-mist room humidifier. Maintaining a humidity gauge close to your houseplant will assist; indoor humidity can drop drastically in winter, with out our noticing it.

Temperature: Common to heat room temperatures (65-80°F/18-27°C) year-round. It can tolerate a minimal of fifty°F/10°C. Preserve Hoya kerrii out of drafts and away from warmth/AC vents.

Soil: Develop in a good-quality, all-purpose potting combine

Fertilizer: Feed month-to-month spring by means of fall with a water-soluble fertilizer specifically made for succulents, diluted by half.

Propagation: Take 3 in (7 cm) stem tip cuttings in spring. Lower slightly below a node (the place the place a leaf is hooked up to the stem). The node accommodates cells that may develop roots. Cuttings ought to embrace no less than 1 pair of leaves. They will root in moist potting combine. Bear in mind, Hoya kerrii is slow-growing, so be affected person.

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