This stephanotis was given to my parents for their wedding in 1961. It bloomed every year for my mom. After she passed in 2019 I took it home and did my best with it. But apparently these plants are notorious for being a bit fussy and resisted all my efforts to get it to flower. Two years ago I read something about how they don’t like being rotated, so I stopped doing that and bought a grow light to keep the non-sun side from going bald. That seems to have done the trick. There are about 5 or 6 clusters and this is the first to open up. And yes they smell fantastic!

  • Chocrates@lemmy.worldEnglish
    10·
    3 months ago

    I have a cutting of my mom’s hoya, which was a cutting of my Grandma’s. Both have been dead a while and I can’t get it to flower at all :(.

    Good on you for perservering!

    • dirthawker0@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      5·
      3 months ago

      I tried propogating cuttings from this one to give to my sister but stopped after 3 failures. I generally can keep plants alive but I think my green thumb consists entirely of stubbornness, not talent. I hope you’ll get yours going :)

  • numberfour002@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    3 months ago

    My assumption is that the “do not rotate” advice inadvertently sent you to the actual, correct solution – more light! Congrats on figuring it out.

    In my experience, it’s incredibly common for people to overestimate how much light their indoor plants are receiving. People think a south facing window (in the northern hemisphere this is typically your brightest light, assuming no obstructions) is equivalent to full outdoor sun. Or they place the plants 6 feet / 2 meters away from the window and still think it’s full sun because it gets some direct rays of light during part of the day and it “scorched” when they tried moving it closer after it had adjusted to life in the shade for the past six months.

    • dirthawker0@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      2·
      3 months ago

      It’s possible. In both my house and my mom’s, the plant was/is very close to a window, as close as possible. Mom’s was south facing, mine is west, but my window is twice as large as hers. (The top of both windows is about 1.5’ from the ceiling but the windowsill is higher on hers.)

  • Herding Llamas@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    3 months ago

    I had one of these. My mother in law gave it to me a couple of years before I married my wife. She said it hadn’t bloomed for _ long time _ years and it only blooms when there is love in the house. I don’t think she thought it would bloom but it had clumps of flowers in a couple of months. I think it just needed more light.

    • dirthawker0@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      Thanks ❤️ My mom was the one with the green thumb. She had a backyard full of flowers, flowering shrubs and trees, but I did buy some of the same kinds for my own home to remind me of her.