Last Updated on November 26, 2021 by Grow with Bovees
The Hoya carnosa krimson queen is a beautiful vine species of greenery that is quite durable and can survive under pretty harsh conditions that may in fact kill other plants.
These tropical plants are well-known succulent-like plants that are quite popular and, with their variegated leaves, add some beautiful color to any room, especially when they start blooming.
Flower of Hoya tricolor
The Hoya carnosa species is known for its porcelain resembling flowers. The blossoms are uniquely shaped like stars that shoot up in waxy clusters forming an amazing flower head. They are light pink and have an amazing scent.
The Hoya carnosa krimson queen, also known as the Hoya tricolor, is a vine classified as a perennial evergreen shrub.
The Hoya tricolor belongs to the Apocynaceae family and makes part of the hoya genus. Its long growing vines and lush leaves make this an epiphytic plant, and it is native to the subtropical humid regions of Australia and Asia.
When grown correctly and given peat moss posts for support, the krimson queen vine can reach heights or lengths of about 5-6.5 feet. And its lovely smooth oval leaves can measure up to 2 inches wide and 2-3 inches long when growing the Hoya carnosa as an indoor houseplant.
But how do you take care of an East Asian vine like the Hoya krimson queen? Let us talk a bit about some care tips.
Brief Hoya Krimson Queen Care Summary
To ensure the health of your Hoya carnosa krimson queen, you need to supply well-draining soil, water every week, and indirect light with the occasional direct lighting. The temperature cannot go below 50 degrees, and the humidity needs to be 40% or higher. Only prune off unhealthy or dead leaves.
What potting mixture should you use for a Hoya krimson queen?
How do you propagate the Hoya tricolor?
What are the most common diseases and pests?
These are all part of the krimson queen care guide requirements. Let us have a look at these questions and elaborate on Hoya krimson queen care tips.
How To Care For A Hoya Carnosa Krimson Queen
The Hoya krimson queen is a beautiful variegated plant that has amazing thick waxy leaves and generally blooms in lovely pink flower clusters.
This Hoya tricolor plant is a very well-known and popular indoor plant that even a person without a green thumb can easily take care of and keep it alive. Let us go through all the care requirements for the Hoya krimson queen.
Soil Requirements For A Hoya Carnosa Krimson Queen
A good airy potting mix to use for your Hoya krimson queen is an aerated houseplant soil mix that has good drainage.
An essential part of the fresh potting mix for a Hoya krimson queen is that it is high-quality, well-drained soil with excellent aeration. These are important because this Queen hoya krimson plant is prone to root rot if it is left to sit in water and soggy soil for too long causing yellowing leaves. Roots need space to grow through sand with little resistance.
If you want to ensure that you have a perfect fresh soil mix for your Hoya krimson queen, then you can mix the ingredients yourself. A good recipe for this is one part pumice or perlite and two parts peat moss.
These two ingredients, along with some coarse sand, create great soil for your Hoya krimson queen to be planted in as they ensure it is loose and has better drainage.
Fertilizer Requirement
To fertilize your Hoya krimson queen, you need to use a balanced liquid fertilizer for succulents with a ratio of 15-15-15, and only fertilize your shrub once a month during the summer and spring as they are light feeders and therefore the fertilizer requirement is not a lot.
Be aware of too much synthetic fertilizer as this one may cause a significant amount of fertilizer burn.
Watering A Hoya Krimson Queen
The Hoya krimson queen is great at storing water in its fleshy leaves, which does give you some wriggle room when it comes to watering it.
Hoya krimson queens do not need to be watered every day. You need to wait until the top 2 inches of the hoyas soil is dry before you water, and do not overwater it.
Only water the queen until the ground is wet, not until the water starts running from the drainage holes that are at the bottom of the plant pot.
This does help you to avoid over-watering the Krimson queen hoya, but if it does not get watched properly, then this could lead to over-watering.
So, during the growing season, ensure that you water the shrub regularly as this is when the Krimson queen hoya will be the most active, and the weather will be hotter as it is during the spring and summer.
Be careful of using tap water, it may be toxic to your hoya.
Lighting For A Hoya Krimson Queen
Good natural indirect light for the Hoya krimson queen is easy to achieve as this it requires bright light with a little direct light at some point in the day.
The queen thrives best in bright but indirect light. And enough light is of high importance when wanting to achieve a healthy plant with the variegation of creamy white and pink leaves.
Placing your hoyas near an east-facing window is a great spot for good bright indirect light. Just remember to protect the queen from the hot sun during the summer by closing a sheer curtain in front of it during the heat of the day.
If you want a fuller plant, a great amount of light is needed in order for ample photosynthesis to take place, taking into consideration that the queen has to work harder due to the lack of chlorophyll in its leaves.
So keeping the krimson queen in the brightest room of the house away from the harsh direct sun would be the ideal spot.
Temperature And Humidity For A Hoya Krimson Queen
The best and ideal temperature range for the Hoya krimson queen is between 50 and 95 degrees Fahrenheit (10 and 35 degrees Celsius). This is a vast temperature range that you can play with, which gives you options about where to keep the Krimson queen hoya.
However, hoyas are not too fond of cold temperatures, and they are certainly not frost tolerant, so if the temperature goes below this range, the shrub needs to be kept indoors. And be sure to keep it away from cold temperature drafts.
The Hoya krimson queen is best suited to tropical conditions as it originates from East and Southeast Asia. This does mean that it does better in a high humidity climate. If you can, you should try and keep the humidity and air moisture levels between 70% and 80%.
However, the Hoya krimson queen is highly adaptable, so as long as you keep the humidity at 40% or higher, it will do just fine.
Pruning And Propagating A Hoya Krimson Queen
Pruning a Hoya krimson queen is a low-maintenance job as you only need to trim it to control its size and shape or get rid of any dead or unhealthy leaves or leaf edges on the shrub.
Ensure you do this with sharp scissors or shears, so you do not scare the queen. Remember to always sterilize your tool of choice using rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide, which is safe to use on plants at the proper dilution.
Pruning The Hoya Carnosa
Do not prune the hoyas beautiful clustering flowers when they are dying; just let them fall off naturally. If you prune the flowers, you are cutting the peduncles where the flowers will grow from in the next bloom. Prune away any black stems but be sure to leave any healthy stem alone.
Propagation Of Hoya Plants
The best way to propagate a Hoya krimson queen is through stem cuttings from the mother plant. This is a fairly easy propagation process.
Water Propagation
You can propagate the hoyas stem cuttings in soil or in water. If you are using water, then the next step would be to place the cutting in a jar with water and wait. When the roots begin to grow, transplant the new variegated hoya into moist soil. The shrub will take a bit of time to establish.
Soil Propagation
If you are using soil, this will take longer, but you half bury the cutting in the soil and wait. Ensure that you water it accordingly, and the wax plant should begin to grow within a month or two. It is best to start propagating this variegated hoya in the spring or early summer.
Repotting A Hoya Krimson Queen
With repotting a Hoya krimson queen, try and put it off until necessary, meaning only when the wax plant is either pot bound or has more roots than soil in the pot.
The ideal time period to repot the variegated hoya carnosa is in spring and summer, but you should never repot a Hoya crimson Queen when it is flowering.
If you do, then the blossoms will fall off of the Queen hoya krimson plant. Ensure that the pot you are moving the plant to is 2 inches larger than its current pot.
Remember that this wax plant likes to be pot-bound, so you do not want to place it in a pot that is too big.
You should only expect to repot a Hoya Krimson Queen once every one to two years.
Common Pests And Diseases For Hoya Krimson Queens
The most common plant pests for variegated hoya are spider mites, mealybugs, and scale. Not all of these are bothersome, but if they are left unchecked on your plant, then they can cause damage to the plant and leaves in the long term.
To help get rid of, or prevent spider mites eating your plant, and other issues from getting to your wax plant, you can spray your plant leaves with a herbicide soap spray or neem oil.
The biggest disease that concerns Hoya Krimson Queen owners is root rot. Luckily, this can be avoided by ensuring you do not over-water your plant.
Hoya Krimson Queen vs Hoya Krimson Princess
Much like the krimson queen, the Hoya krimson princess also belongs to the family of wax plants. It is quite an elegant and crowd-pleasing shrub, also commonly known as Hoya carnosa or Hoya variegata.
The krimson princess is one of the most low-maintenance and easy to care for varieties of wax plants. And along with their clusters of lovely chocolate-scented flowers, they make for a great addition to your indoor plant collection.
Before going into a more detailed care guide for the Hoya krimson princess, let us help you differentiate the two variegated Hoya carnosa, as they are quite similar and often cause confusion, but both hoyas bear some differences.
Queen and Princess Differences
Let us start by talking about the differences in foliage variegation.
Variegation Variety
Upon first glance, it might look to you like the variegation of the leaves is the same, but look closer, and you will notice that the color pattern bears a difference.
The Hoya krimson princess has creamy white leaves which end off with a green leaf margin, whereas the Hoya queens’ foliage is green with a creamy white leaf border.
Stem Differences
The plant stems of these waxy beauties also grow to become different in color. The princess plant stems carry a pinkish color which is very opposite to the color of the queen’s stem, which you would find to have a more brownish tone.
Growth Rate
The krimson queen has faster growth and therefore needs a bit more water. The slow-growing nature of the krimson princess calls for an average amount of watering.
Blooms
And last but not least, the lovely blooms of these plants also come with a difference in color. The krimson princess carrier beautiful clusters of reddish-pink flowers and the flowers of the queen lean more towards a lush pink color.
They both carry nocturnal flowers.
Let us continue to look at a more specific care guide for this lovely shrub.
Hoya Krimson Princess Care Guide
As mentioned above, the Hoya carnosa is a very relaxed, low-maintenance shrub. It is easy to care for and, with its waxy leaves, would make a delightful addition to your indoor plant collection.
Giving the princess the care that it so rightfully deserves will grow a strong happy plant and bring joy to any plant lovers life.
Continue on to learn all you need to know about the basic steps of caring for this beauty.
The Growth Process
The Hoya carnosa krimson princess variety derives from tropical rainforests. Iit thrives best in humid conditions of warm temperatures.
Sunlight
So, when deciding to grow this variety of plants indoors, place it somewhere where there are ample amounts of bright filtered light.
If you want to promote flowering and fuller leaves during cooler seasons such as winter and spring, some direct sunlight would be beneficial.
But avoid direct sunlight in summer as the harsh rays of the sun will end up burning the leaves of the princess.
North-facing or east-facing windows will make for good amounts of bright indirect light for this shrub. If there is too much direct sunlight, add a sheer curtain to gain more filtered light.
Areas that are too shady or dark have not been shown to be beneficial and may cause leaves to be less prominent.
The krimson princess is known to be a climber and enjoys life in pots or hanging baskets. Letting it grow from hanging baskets or across a surface unhindered makes this plant very happy as well.
If your decision is to grow this lovely piece of greenery in an outdoor garden, be sure that you place it in a spot of dappled sunlight to protect the leaves.
The leaves need to be protected from the summer sunlight at all costs. Also, be sure to shelter it from any wind or strong breezes.
If the plant has been placed into a hanging pot, a great spot to place it outdoors is hanging from a tree where there is shade but also bright light.
Soil Requirements
Leaving the princess with wet roots is an absolute no-no, and this is where the shrub can become quite the drama queen. To avoid this issue from arising, get potting soil with ingredients that are well-draining and of good quality.
African violet soil mix that contains orchid bark and perlite makes for excellent growing grounds for the krimson princess.
This type of soil blend drains excess water easily and the orchid bark makes it beautifully light and aerated. It is able to hold onto enough moisture without turning clumpy and compact.
This kind of potting soil also provides enough space for the roots to grow in their own way and paths.
Avoid placing your princesses pot over a saucer that is wet. This is a big mistake that indoor plant growers make, allowing a pot to sit in a water-filled saucer.
Remove the pot from its saucer, give the plant the water it needs, allow it to drain from the pots’ drainage holes and then place it back to where it normally stands.
Plant the shrubs in terracotta pots. They are great for ideal soil moisture levels as water can slowly seep through them and evaporate, aiding in extra drainage.
When To Water
When adding water to your krimson princess hoya pot, do so slowly. Make sure the soil gets saturated properly until you notice water running back out. And try to keep the soil moist.
We always say that feeling the soil before every watering should be a routine habit adopted by every cultivator.
Stick your finger into the soil and wiggle it around a bit. If the first few inches of the soil feel dry to the touch, then you know that it’s time to water again. If you notice moisture, then hold off watering for another day or two.
A good thing to remember is that the Hoya krimson princess plant variety is quite drought resistant. They have the incredible feature of being able to store water in their waxy leaves.
Make a habit of watering during the day. This way, excess water is able to evaporate while the sun is out which in turn minimizes the danger of its roots hanging in water all night.
A night watering routine also increases the risk of the princess developing leaf spot.
Always pour water into your pot at the base of the roots. Overhead watering should be avoided, as constantly damp leaves are a good environment for fungal growth.
Keeping in mind that this shrub is of tropical origin. Be sure to water the princess with water that is room temperature. Water that is too cold will end up shocking the roots.
Overwatering should also not happen. Most people don’t know this, but too much water is a very common reason for plant death.
Finding a humid spot for the krimson princess in the bathroom, aids in reaching proper humidity conditions for the princess. This leads us to our next point.
Namely, humidity requirements.
What About Humidity?
We cannot stress this enough, but this plant thrives best in humid areas. There are a few ways to pump up the humidity around the princess other than placing it on a window sill in the bathroom.
Read on to learn how, because meeting the proper tropical humidity conditions will imitate its natural habitat, and you will have a happy problem-free shrub. Even when neglected in other areas of care, when humidity levels are sufficient, the krimson princess will not make a fuss.
Misting your plant with a light water spray is a great way to raise humidity levels. But don’t go about misting the princess when it’s busy blooming. The moisture may cause your flowers to rot. Otherwise, you are free to mist your plant once or even twice a day when the temperature outside rises.
Investing in a humidifier is never a bad idea. It is, in fact, recommended. It is, unfortunately, quite a bit more expensive than buying a spray bottle, but it is great at raising humidity levels, and it is a very convenient tool to have as a plant lover.
Placing a water-filled pebble tray underneath your pot aids in keeping humidity levels without exposing the plant’s roots to great amounts of water.
Placing a bowl filled with water next to your plant will have the same or a similar effect as the tray of rocks in your pot. It is, however, less practical.
Plant grouping them with other plants is another way to maintain proper humid conditions. This helps in creating a micro-climate and natural humidity due to evaporation and condensation processes.
A good thing to remember is, these plants have a poor tolerance of too dry conditions, so extra moisture in the air will only be beneficial.
Conclusion
Well, dear plant parents, there you have it. Detailed information on how to properly grow and promote healthy growth and foliage variegation of the Hoya krimson queen and the Hoya krimson princess plants. Not to mention, knowing the difference between the two houseplants.
The Hoya Krimson Queen is a lovely vine with big leaves and lovely flowers. Both hoyas are also very durable plants, so they do not require a lot of effort from your side to keep them healthy, happy, growing and pretty.
You definitely do not need a green thumb for either of these houseplants to grow into lovely eye-catching pieces of greenery.
One more thing, good luck caring for your hoyas!
Resources;
https://www.businessinsider.com/toxic-chemicals-tap-drinking-water-2019-4
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/photosynthesis/
