How do you propagate a hoya vine? Especially if you are lucky to be gifted one. My Hoya pubicalyx or harlequin porcelain vine is blooming. It has bloomed before, so I decided to look back and see when I started this plant.
How to propagate a hoya vine
I saw this plant growing along a room divider in a hobby shop in a small town in Michigan. It was going crazy!
I asked if I could have a piece and the owner gave me one. (I always ask. Never take a cutting of a plant that you don’t have permission to take.) The cutting below is a piece of the long vine he gave me.
I took multiple cuttings from the one long piece. Each cutting needs a short piece of stem along with 1-2 leaves. Note: If you try to grow 1 leaf without a short piece of the stem attached, you may never have a vine. A good example is the heart-shaped hoya, Hoya kerrii, popular around Valentine’s Day.
Hoya propagation August 2013
From the dates on the pictures, I see I started these cuttings in August of 2013. I took a few cuttings and pinned them with pieces of a paper clip to moist potting medium. Keep it moist while the plant forms roots.
As you can see, I used the bottom of a carry-out plastic container to hold the medium. I had this container and cuttings on my light stand, which received 12 hours of light a day, every day. Starting them under lights isn’t necessary, but it’s where I had room and it worked for me.
Hoya propagation December 2015
Below is a picture of it in December 2015 with all the cuttings planted up. I left it in the take-out container much longer than I needed to. I am a procrastinate person….
Don’t you love those light pink speckles on the leaves?
Hoya Flowers Today
Fast forward to today and it is flowering. It flowered last year, too. I don’t know exactly the first time it bloomed so it may even have bloomed in 2017. I don’t remember. Anyway, look at what can happen from a small cutting!
Naming the Hoya pubicalyx
Aren’t those flowers gorgeous?! Why is it called Hoya “pubicalyx”?
See how the large burgundy part is fuzzy? Pubescent means hairy or furry and the calyx is the sum of all the sepals. They protect the flower petals until they unfurl.
So those burgundy sepals were tight around the pink center flower before they opened. Thus the sepals that all together form the calyx are fuzzy–pubicalyx. I love the names they use to describe plants.
Hoya propagation after-care
I hope this helps you propagate hoya if you receive a cutting.
Hoyas are easy plants that enjoy plenty of light and seem to prefer cramped quarters. Don’t put them in too large a pot. Keep them evenly moist, but not wet, never allowing them to completely dry out.
If the leaves wrinkle as your fingers do in the bathtub, they are extremely dry at that point. They will usually recover after watering, but it is best to NOT let them become that dry.
Hoya peduncle
Also, one last note. Do not cut off the peduncle or small stem the flower cluster is coming from. Next year’s flowers will come from the same small stem. You can see one below.
Do you have a hoya? Has it flowered for you?
Have a great week!
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Very nice article on hoya plant. I indeed had a hoya plant in my indoor pot but growth was not good and granular eggs like formation started on leaves. When I took to a local nursery person to get it checked I was told that it’s root suffering from a soil bug…. Just wanted to check if anything I can do for my indoor succulent plants to stop this occurring again.
I use a houseplant systemic by bonide and that should take care of anything in the soil. You might also consider completely changing the potting medium. Then treat it with the systemic to be safe.