I take my hanging Hoyas to the kitchen sink where I have shelves I hang them from and water. Especially if it's an EA plant, with that awful EA soil, I water it, let it sit 20 minutes, then water again. Second time gets the water into the nooks and crannies it missed the first time. If I let it get too dry, I'll even do it a 3rd time. It doesn't hurt them to do this, and it's good to take them down regularly to inspect them for bugs, dehydration, any other problems. Find a way to poke your finger down in there to feel the soil. Overwatering will hurt them more than underwatering, though you want to do neither, which is why you need to "feel" for dryness.

So what kind of Hoya are we talking about? Can you post a photo?

Denise

Great conversations you two. I just end up watering my hanging plants twice as often. After reading Denise's careful and loving method, I'm going to be cautious about what plants I put in baskets, because I can see the wisdom of her ways, but I don't know if I have that much patience!

I water most of my plants in place, not over the sink. While I have a few that hang, most of those that do have some kind of container in the bottom of the hanging pot so I can water into it w/out watering my floor too.

I have lots of patience for many things (like quilting & growing plants) but not to take all the plants to the sink to water.

ALL of my plants (every single one) have a drip saucer (old plastic lids from pints of ice cream); I have 'em in green, brown & gold, their colors work w/most of my pots.

I do bring several hanging pots to the sink to water, where I hang them from the hardware on the cabinets & water to overflow, letting them drip into the sink for a while.

A spiky Sans. & a Philo Brazil currently get this treatment.

A wooden chopstick or even a pencil can be used to check the soil for moisture (same way you check a cake for doneness).

Those downward facing growing tips will brown if kept down, can you somehow point them upwards, or twine them around the hangers upwards?

Thanks for replying everyone!! :)

denise, that's awesome! That's essentially what I was thinking to do with all mine. What is an EA plant/soil? I can post a photo soon! I'm in Hawaii (yay botanical gardens!!) right now, but I'll be back in about a week.

I treat my plants as my "pets", haha, because I am a sad college student that can't have a real furry pet... so my love goes to my plants! Gotta take a little time and love to care for em and (hopefully) they'll grow and flower for mama! I think watering/gardening is very zen too, but it isn't for everyone, as I have found from leaving my plants with my parents... coming home to find them (the plants, not my parents) dead- BLAH! How hard is it to water a plant if it looks like it's slowly dying? ;(

pirate_girl, the chopstick idea sounds great! I'll try looping the hanging vines up somehow. Thanks! :)

Plum,

EA = Exotic Angel, the ones they sell at the box stores. In most cases, I repot new plants into my own growing mix, but with most EA plants, it's gobs of little plants and it makes it very difficult to repot, so I usually just leave them in the soil they come in and treat them a bit differently.

It's not that my pots don't have saucers - most of them do. It's that I find it easier not to worry about how much water I put on a plant, or about getting back to it again to make sure I got enough water on it. Over the sink, I can flood it out the bottom a couple times then dump the excess before I hang it back up.

Denise in Omaha