Name: Carol Noel Hawaii (near Hilo) It's all about choices.
Hoyas seem to have a direction sensor in the tip of the vine...and if the growing tip of the vine isn't allowed to point UP, it easily dies back. Some plants with woodyish growth have to be watched and the growth will harden and the tip can't grow UP. I found this plant had been pinned so the growing tip grew down....and the tip had died back 3 nodes. It wasn't long enough to circle all the way around the hoop. You can see the vine to the right of the hoop...between the hoop and the margin of the photo.
Name: Carol Noel Hawaii (near Hilo) It's all about choices.
So...keeping in mind that the growing tip seems to know where the 'midpoint' of the plant is....I clipped it across the hoop above the 'midpoint' of the plant.... The plant will grow vigorously as it thinks it is climbing....
I just came across this thread Carol, and I bet you heard the clunk in Hawaii when the penny finally dropped!
I've been growing hoyas for years - and always assumed the tips dying back on my plants were due to the dry atmosphere in the house overwinter...I think I may have just worked out what the cause is (me )
Only trouble is with the likes of H arnottiana. If you don't tie in when the shoots are still very green, they easily snap if you bend them. My plants have to be 'contained' to fit my windows!
Do you also see tip die back in Hoyas that tend to hangdown naturally , instead of climbing ?
Or is it just in varieties that are naturally climbers or ramblers ?
Name: Carol Noel Hawaii (near Hilo) It's all about choices.
Don't know if I mentioned this (too lazy to read back ) but if the vine is pinned back BELOW the mid point of the plant it will also die back....it should be secured above the mid point.....
Carol, I have a question. Remember one time when you said that you experimented with propagation and got a lot of crosses but didn't grow them out. I believe they were carnosa crosses. Do you have any more of these? I think it would be so interesting (not to sell or anything).
Name: Carol Noel Hawaii (near Hilo) It's all about choices.
Hmmmm I did grow about 5 of those crosses out (carnosa X obovata) and they all bloomed different shades of pink to white. I kept one. The seed pod was from a wild cross that happened in a friends' greenhouse in Texas. I love the plant...blooms all spring-fall thru the summer.
I purchased a Hoya on a trellis that the plant had out grown & i am partial to HB's.I took the plant down to discover it had been kept cut back to only a few long "runner's" it has currently grown a couple more & the longest one is growing straight out.I think they are beautiful plants & enjoy watching them grow as they please.I will post a picture of it.I hope it doesn't grab my humming bird feeder!!
I also noticed a lot of the leaves have markings on the back.Is this scaring from being trained on the trellis or just age?? This is the only plant that has this on the leaves.
Have a wonderful day!!!
This is the plant i removed from the trellis,it's in a 6" pot sitting in a 8" basket so i could hang it & not re-pot it.
I asked for a flower and he gave me a garden,then grand-kids to work in it with me!!!!
Still thanking Carol about this tip-growing tip that is! My slower growing hoyas are now putting out new growth and before they were just sitting around!
So how do you grow on those big oval trellis where there are many loops up and down, up and down? It seems that every time the vine was pinned down the tip would die back? I can see where the tomato cage would be better as the plant continuse to grow up and spirals around the cage. But the up down method would allow for rooting at multiply places on the stem which is probably more natural and safer from a growers point of view.
I noticed most of Christine's hoya are grown on oval trellis on her myhoya site.
Randy
Name: Carol Noel Hawaii (near Hilo) It's all about choices.
When you pin a growing tip UP, it really isn't necessary that the vine makes the 'whole loop'...I make a shortened circle and as the tip grows I make the 'loop' larger.
I grow many hoyas with tomato cages and the drawbackthere isthat that find a vertical andtake off....growing alltheway UP...
Thanks for this tip! I wondered why some people grew on hoops rather than in hanging baskets... but I have a couple in baskets that just aren't growing (not dying either, just not growing). I'll fool with them & see what happens. :-)
I have been collecting, studying and selling hoyas for about 10 years. This Cubit is about growing hoyas, and about the hoyas I have to sell. I welcome any and all hoya lovers, whether you want to buy or not. Hooked on Hoyas is another great Hoya sight
)
) but if the vine is pinned back BELOW the mid point of the plant it will also die back....it should be secured above the mid point..... 
This is the only plant that has this on the leaves.
