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piers66

By Piers66

Surrey, United Kingdom Gb

What's this plant, and what's wrong with it?

I've had this plant for years (15-20?) and it's never done very much of anything. It's very slow growing and doesn't ever flower. It doesn't get much direct sun, and probably doesn't get watered as often as it should. I did re-pot it a year or two back and give it some fresh compost.

Recently it's been looking a bit ill, a few leaves have fallen off, some turned yellow/brown with large dark patches.

Any idea what it is, and any advice on looking after it?



Unknown_houseplant_crop

Answers

 

Hoya, Indoor Plant? x

11 Apr, 2021

 

Ladyessex has it right. It likes bright indirect light, or maybe filtered sun. It should be allowed to dry out almost completely between soakings, but not to the point of shrivelling. A good houseplant fertilizer, at half the strength recommended on the label, will also help it. If it gets happy enough, you might get flowers: clusters of little pink and cream stars.

11 Apr, 2021

 

May I join in please?
Help please! I have a Hoya given to me by Brian some years ago. It has very much smaller leaves than these so I Googled it. The site I found said it is a climber but mine doesn't climb but hangs down.Definitely Hoya flowers though. Google says its tricky to flower but mine flowers reliably and prolifically. It doesn't get pampered at all, just watered when it gets too dry.What's going on please?

11 Apr, 2021

 

30 years ago, almost the only kind of Hoya sold was the one that Piers has: straight up Hoya carnosa, which is a little shy to bloom.
Yorkslass, yours may be Hoya bella, or there's another species that I can't remember the name of, which both bloom better, and hardly ever climb.

11 Apr, 2021

 

Thanks for the info. It sounds like I'd been unwittingly doing the right thing in the past, with regards to watering, by neglecting it!

It probably hasn't had enough sun (even indirect), however, and rarely gets fed. Every now and then (like a couple of times a year) I've given it a drink laced with tomato feed (Tomorite) because that's all I usually have lying around. Is this the right stuff to use, or is the n-p-k wrong for this kind of plant? Does the type of feed affect flowering?

Finally, any idea why I should have started losing leaves (yellowing / dark patches)? Overwatering recently? Wrong type of feed?

12 Apr, 2021

 

There is a lot of debate over the kind of food that they need, but in my experience, they do best with a 3-1-2 or 2-1-2 proportioned formula without urea, applied half strength.
That pattern of yellowing and browning looks like overwatering, possibly combined with lack of light.

18 Apr, 2021

How do I say thanks?

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