Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
banannas

Dog attack! Repotting suggestions

banannas
11 years ago

Hi all,

So guess who just got a dog? Suffice to say he took his anxiety over us going to work out on my hoyas :(

Do any of you have any suggestions on how to rescue my plants?

I have done my best to get as many of my roots back into the pot under the soil but they look like they are struggling.

We have now installed shelving that is higher up to house the hoyas and created a barrier to the plant area that seems to be working for now.

Thanks!

Comments (6)

  • Denise
    11 years ago

    Ohhh, dang! Been there! Not with my Hoyas, but with succulents and others. I remember many years ago, I had this big, beautiful fig tree - Ficus benjamina - about 5' tall and super full. I came home from work one day to find it shredded, not a leaf left on a branch, trunk out of the pot and mostly chewed, potting soil from one end of the dining room to the other end of the living room. Looking back, it's almost funny, but at the time, I was so livid, I flung my shoe off and it went right through the dining room window!! (Adding insult to injury!)

    You may just have to chalk this one up to a lesson painfully learned. I would just play the "wait and see" game. If you can take some cuttings, I'd do that. Here's something I've learned with a lot of my plants when my over-zealous German Shepherds have whacked plants over and broken them with their wagging tails. A plant "pruned" (either accidentally or on purpose) almost always comes back looking spectacularly better - it just takes time. So when that tail smashes plant to bits, I grit my teeth and say "Thank you, Lucy...grrr," because I know in a year, it'll look better than it did before.

    Denise in Omaha

  • teisa
    11 years ago

    I had a cat that was 12 yrs old. Well last fall I had a baby! ( my first and I'm 38 yrs old). The cat was very jealous of the baby. He started digging up my Hoyas! He destroyed a couple by dumping them in the floor and even a limbed in and laid on top of the plant! I was so mad at this cat. I was very surprised that he knew my plants was a way to show me his anger!

  • greedygh0st
    11 years ago

    lol! Great story, teisa. I mean, tragic, but an awesome tale of feline wrath. Now I'll be forewarned and forearmed.

  • luvidaho_2010
    11 years ago

    I had a newly purchased H. verticillata 'albomarginata' in a hanging basket sitting on a table on my porch until I decided where I was going to put it. I happened to look outside and saw my 90# schnauzer carrying it very gently by the hook out into the yard. Fortunately I caught her before she did any damage to it. It looks kind of tough, lost leaves and most of the soil from the fall but is doing OK. It would have looked much worse if I hadn't seen her with it. In her mind, anything on her level is for her to play with, even my treasured plants!
    The sunglasses and roll of paper towels my husband left on "her" picnic table didn't fair nearly as well, LOL
    Tami

  • banannas
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Good news all...we have achieved the understanding that hoyas are friends not to be chewed...I think. Everyone is cohabitating nicely. The best news of all is that all the hoyas survived the attack. I did lose one of cuttings I had of Gunung Gading I got from David but luckily I had two so I'm not without.

    Denise thanks as always for sound advice. I would also like to ask you what to do once you have established plants in a community pot. Do you leave them as is or try to separate their roots and pot them individually? Thanks

    Tesia, you have now got me on alert for when our little one comes. We are going to start trying next month so fingers crossed!

  • greedygh0st
    11 years ago

    Glad to hear you and your Hoyas have survived this encounter with nature. Congratulations and well done! :)

    I don't have a dog and my cat leaves Hoyas alone, so I let my guard down, completely overlooking the fact that retusa doesn't look like a Hoya even to cats, and once it was on ground level, he made an exception to his rule and chomped it up pretty good. We survived that skirmish though, too. ;P

Sponsored
DryHome Roofing & Siding, Inc.
Average rating: 5 out of 5 stars82 Reviews
Loudon Co. Roofing, Siding & Exterior Remodeler Best of Houzz 5 times!