How to Root a Hoya Plant

The hoya carnosa plant, also known as the wax plant, features thick evergreen leaves and pinkish-white chocolate-scented flowers that bear an uncanny resemblance to wax. These hardy and attractive houseplants, which bloom for two weeks at a time all summer long, are long-living and often handed down from generation to generation. Since they bear few seeds, hoya plants are best reproduced by rooting cuttings. By following some simple guidelines for propagating cuttings, you can create a brand-new plant from your original hoya carnosa.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

things you’ll need:

• Sharp knife or scissors
• Rooting hormone powder
• 2-inch pot, sterilized
• Peat moss and perlite
• Pencil
• Clear, thick plastic bag
• 4-inch pot
• Soluble houseplant fertilizer

1. Use your knife or scissors to cut a 4- to 6-inch shoot from a vigorous, healthy hoya plant. Make the cut just below a leaf node. Remove the leaves from the lowest node on down.
2. Pour enough rooting hormone powder from the jar for one use. Dust the first inch of the basal end of the cutting with rooting hormone powder in an even layer about 1/16 of an inch thick all around the stem. Discard the unused powder.
3. Sterilize a 2-inch pot by cleaning it with a 10 percent bleach solution, and fill it with equal parts peat moss and perlite. Insert the first inch of the cutting into the growing medium. To prevent trauma to the end, make a hole in the growing medium with a pencil first.
4. Wet the soil well, and allow to drain. Affix the plastic bag over the cutting and pot.
5. Place the pot in indirect light, and check the growing medium often to make sure it isn’t drying out.
6. Transplant the cutting to a 4-inch container when the root is an inch long.
7. Use a soluble houseplant fertilizer after the cutting is established in the new container. Fertilize your new hoya plant at least once a month and every two weeks during the growing season.
8. Keep your new hoya plant in indirect light and provide good air circulation. If the leaves turn yellow, your hoya plant is getting too much sun.

Tips & Warnings

• Never prune the flower spurs from your hoya; the plant blooms on the old wood as well as the new shoots.