It looks great to me. You can totally clip them to the trellis. You only risk die back if you pin the growing point facing downward. Since I am assuming that all you want to do is support the stems, not train them in a loop, you should be fine. Imperialis is one of those that just likes to grow onwards and upwards, right? Rather than being a vining sort?

I can seriously see that being a glorious monster someday :)

Your imperialis looks great to me too Renee! I have to agree with you that this one is a little difficult to train. I ended up pretty much doing what Quinn suggested and clipped them to the trellis and wrapping them around when the vines got longer. I've found that if I pin them once they harden off a little, the chance of damaging the ends is a little less. I've found imperialis to be a "bleeder" and I'm constantly nicking them or accidentally bending them causing them to bleed. This hasn't been the easiest hoya to train for me. Reminds me a little of Kerrii but not nearly as bad.

@quinnfyre
@puglvr1
Thanks for the advice. The stems have reached the top of the trellis so I've been trying to bend them over or wrap them so they'll have more room to grow. Pug's definitely right about this thing being a bleeder though; I just wrapped the stems loosely around the trellis and they've started oozing latex.

lol "a bleeder" - that cracks me up, Pug. And here I was feeling all horrified by my apparently rough handling, thinking I just didn't know my own strength.

Grow it in an 8" hanging basket and wind the vine around and around, let it get root bound and when it begins to flower, cut off the tip vine and retain the blooming spurs. Although some imperialis do not always rebloom from the same spur.
Give it plenty of light, full sun during the summer (acclimate it gradually) and give it lots of air circulation.

RainforestGuy, please be careful when advising full sun for plants as some of us live in the South where full sun will "cook" most things to the crispy state. Especially for those new gardeners who are just starting out. The sun just isn't the same in all areas of the U. S. and location needs always to be taken into consideration.
Welcome to this forum and thanks for your other suggestions.
Beverly

Bama, if you see the warnings in the parentheses it does state gradual acclimating. But hoyas can take very extreme conditions. I have seen them grown in Australia in full unshaded lighted conditions with very reduced ozone and hoyas love it. Hoyas do come from some of the most inhospitable places. The eriostemma group grows among mesquite trees directly in salty coral soil and blooms on every node. You never see this in captive grown eriostemmas.

I agree that we baby our Hoyas and many of them really do want more light and even full sun. It is also very common for people to not fully understand that even bright indoor light is nothing compared to outdoor light so plants often get burned in the transition. I agree that Florida's growing conditions are much different from Michigans but remember that Hoyas come from places like the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia and these areas are even hotter and sunnier than Florida.

This photo (not mine) illustrates just how tough Hoyas are and how they will appear when not grown in the relatively shady conditions we often provide. Of course this is all species specific and some Hoyas are naturally found in sheltered habitats while others like it in more open situations. There is also no need to have your Hoyas turning red and splotchy from high light to get blooms but in other cases these light levels are important to get results.

Mike

Hoyas are very adaptable. This is why they are so widespread occupying such a diverse range of growing conditions. I have collected wild beautiful black leafed species and bring them back and try to mimic their growing conditions and they never ever become black. I once had a species called Hoya Philippine Black and everyone asked me why I called it black. Its leaves were a true lime green and flowers bright pink-orange. After a while I even forgot why it was called black. Then one day I accidentally dumped a whole can of MagAmp fertilizer in its pot and didn't realize that it was like a mulch of magamp until I noticed that a vine along a fence had turned jet black leaves. Upon close inspection, I noticed that this resembled the black hoya I once collected a while ago. Trying to find the beginning of this plant and seeing which pot it had come from, I traced the main vine back to a two gallon pot with the name Hoya sp. Phil Black and noticed that someone had dumped a whole package of Magamp in it. All the weeds died and all the ferns turned brown. But the hoya looked fantastic with the true characteristics of the leaves the way I remembered it. That was ten years after discovering the plant.

This red leafed hoya will probably never get red in cultivation, especially of given the standard law of fertilization for all plants. By looking at the host plant in the back ground, I can imagine that the soil is full of some ultra high micronutrients that allows just the few species to "thrive" in it.