What you heard is right - kerrii's stems stiffen up so quickly, I've never been able to train it, so it just grows wild on a top shelf in my GH. Next year, it's going to get a serios trimming!

Denise in Omaha

If you grow this one in very bright light it will be more compact, lower light causes it to vine and climb which is harder to deal with. Once your plant gets big enough to form some peduncles you can always take cuttings from the growth that becomes hard to contain neatly.

Mike

Mike,

I grow my regular kerrii in very bright light yet it goes everywhere. Now my other clones - hairy kerrii and veined kerrii, both seem to grow much more compact in much lower light conditions. I wonder if it has something to do with the clone... JoJo, your's looks nice and compact at this point, so maybe it will stay that way for you. Of course, in AZ, you have better light conditions than we have here in the Midwest, so that may make a difference, too...

Denise in Omaha

Hi Mike and Denise,
Thanks for your help. I kinda figured it may be an unruly child when I got it. lol!

I'll see what I can do with it. I'm not looking for anything fancy, just some support and shape. I have some bamboo that may help.

Denise,
I don't have a greenhouse, and my house is small at that. ;)
So that's why I was looking for some way to shape it. :)
Good luck with yours and the hair cut. lol!

It is nice and compact. It was propigated and grown in a greenhouse. I just got it a few weeks ago, and had it outside.
With the nights droping into the 40's, figured it was time to bring it in.
It will go in a south window for the winter.

Thanks again,
JoJo

Denise I am still in denial about just how much space my Hoya kerrii is going to take up. The person I got my plant from grows theirs in much less light that I do mine an it had turned into a pretty wild climbing vine. I am trying to grow my plant hard by reducing water in the winter and keeping it in the brightest light I have available. I keep it fairly dry unless it is actively growing new leaves.
I really like that your pubescent leafed kerrii is more compact, that is the variety I wanted to get but I could not find a source of cuttings. What would you say that your favorite it? I only have the plain green form and it is about five feet long, not on a trellis yet, just kinda clipped to the plant stand so it can be as close to the light as possible.

Mike

I shot some pix over the weekend of my Kerri on a hoop, will try to get them posted soon.

Jojo, in that nice compact growth, you don't actually have much to work w/ now in terms of stem length to wind.

The thing is to get it started hooped young, while the stems are still flexible, I never actually had one break tho' I have had one bend & leak white sap (looks like Elmer's glue). (Someone else reports lots of white sap leaking when they tried to bend it.)

I keep my solid green one pretty dry too (it's off in the bathroom window, where I don't actually see it all that often). My other Kerris are located where I see them more often (the slight reverse Kerri on Kitchen table, the solid green Kerri, grows Hydro, getting Monster-like in the kitchen window & my variegate Kerri grows in Hydro on a piece of furniture at the foot of my bed.