I would take cuttings of those long strings, root them in water, and then just stick them into the soil. I would shorten the long strings quite a bit, which would provide lots of cuttings, and also give the new bits a chance to catch up. If you have any little tubers on the strings you could cut there and plant those immediately, but otherwise cuttings root very quickly in water. Or you could start a new pot full of the cuttings, arranged around the edges of the pot at regular intervals and they will all grow together, but I find it best to root them before I plant them.

Hi Val,

Nice plant, the hanging look is quite lovely.

Marguerite's given you good advice. But another thing, I suggest that pot is too deep & that can be slowing things down. I keep these in rather small pots, often just curling the whole thing in on top of itself.

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here's some pegged down, trying to root in a container that's normally kept closed, to maintain moisture.

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here's the variegate of these :
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You could try all techniques (water rooting, pegging down or planting in mix), see which works best for you. They probably just need more time & maybe better light if you can get that (mine sit at edge of a west window).

Thanks for the advice.

Marguerite - I will trim the long ends and try rooting the cuttings in water. So far I have found only one small tuber and I will root it as well.

Pirate girl - Your plants are beautiful. I especially love the variegated one. Do they do better if they are root bound? I know very little about growing these plants. I have wrapped a few strings around the top but they have not rooted at all. I even pegged some down. Would it help to bury the stems a little. I think I have 4-5 original strings in the center of the pot.

Amber - Thanks. These are beautiful little plants. I saw pictures of them on gardenweb this winter and had to have one. The flowers are very unique.

Thanks Val, appreciate the complements. In my experience, they've done well potted small.

FYI: they are Ceropegia woodii. The flowers are unique, but they bloom better outdoors than in (IME).

Yes, one should bury the stems a bit, if doing it in mix, at least to one node (joint or knuckle from which the leaves come), or take off the bottom 2 leaves & sink the stem as deep as the node was.

I've even placed a small rock at the top of numerous wraps of stems, so as to hold them down 'til they root.

Those look so much like Vinca, but better. Very cute!!

thank you PG for the name, im gonna need that if i wanna try and find my own!

Pirate Girl - I forgot to mention the light. The plant was about twelve inches from a south window. No direct sunlight hits the plant during the summer because the sun is directly overhead. During the winter it gets sun in the late afternoon and evening. I have now moved it directly in front of the south window. Unfortunately, I do not have a west window available and my east window has an awning.

Val, without bight light, Ceropegia' (String of Hearts,' tend to grow spindly, etiolate.

What a difference when SOH is grown outdoors, in shade during summer months.
Once brought indoors, color pales. growth stops.

Variegated SOH's purchased 2010..

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Spring 2012

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See the difference? Grown in perfect conditions, it would have been a beautiful, full plant.

When brought indoors, (winter) not only is it grown in south and west windows, but inches under a grow light.

Your Sting looks good. I agree on cuttings..'didn't know they rooted by cuttings since Strings are little bulbous plants.'

Another option is to buy a second plant and pot together.

Or place a small lamp beside your SOH. A standard light bulb will make a difference. Toni

Karen, forgot to mention your SOH's..it's doing great. Nice and compact.

ok so im in I need one of these so bad! @ PG what family are these in a dischidia?

Thanks Toni, it's deceptive. Mine just looks compact 'cause it's curled in on top of itself. But mine will get a hint of the pink highlight as the summer sun gets stronger.

While Val is doing quite well w/ these, I'd generally suggest these aren't beginner plants (needs very fast draining mix & get be tricky to learn its watering requirements).

I'm lucky then, because I have found these among my easiest plants. One St. Valentine's Day we took cuttings and gave them to friends as bracelets, and they rooted them afterwards. I haven't got my variegated one for as long, but the person who sent it to me finds it really easy, and so it is proving to be.

"get be tricky"

sorry, that should have said 'can be tricky'.

Well Marguerite, perhaps you have been lucky. I don't find these easy (except the water rooting, which seems super fast). I've found the variegate much harder to root & grow.

In fact, several yrs. ago, when I found several pots of these, I gave the 2nd pot to a friend asking that she root them for me as she seemed able to. That's the only reason I still have it, I lost the one was growing, she propped this one a bit & returned it to me & this is what's left.

Hey you know, silly me, not realizing these water rooted so well, I need to try that on the variegate (it's just that I don't have a lot of it to spare).

Thanks to this discussion for reminding me of water rooting them!

Toni, that was a beauty when new (sorry, but you knew that). That pink color was so nice. I've sometimes noticed that those pink leaves are thicker, fatter leaves than the greener leaves, almost more succulent in its fleshiness. Was yours that way too?

I had my father buy me one of these for Christmas this past year, he had to order it online cause it seems to be really rare to find one (unless you happen to live near a succulent/cactus nursery) and it looked pretty sad (I was kinda disappointed). But these past 2 months or so, it's taken off. I swear the thing is growing a foot a day, and it's flowering like crazy and I just have it hanging in a west window. I can't hang it outside but it doesn't seem to mind.

I'm thinking this plant is a summer grower and just looks sad during the winter due to dormancy or something. But it seems to be 'branching out' (I think that's the correct word for it, eventhough it has no branchs LOL) and looks thicker as it grows longer. And I too was worried about the top looking too empty, but their seems to suddenly be new vines growing from the tubers recently, so thats exciting.

Overall, this is probably my favorite plant. VERY easy to grow indoors. Seems to root/propagate easily. The flowers are beautiful and doesnt seem to need anything too special besides some sunlight to bloom. Like I said, mine is hanging in an west window with a sheer curtain, and it loves it, it isn't sun deprived. I would recommend it to anyone who can find one, and since it's a succulent, it's great for someone who forgets to water their plants sometimes.

I'll try to get some pics up tomorrow of it's awesome blooms that it has right now.

-FPT

Well I don't have bloom, but this is another plant, in another room.
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(pls. ignore the dirty pot)

Note the different looking leaves, more lance shaped than heart shaped as usual; hanging at the edge of another west window

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I've grown quite fond of this little oddity (even if it hasn't bloomed yet).

Just wanted to post an update on this plant. My SOH did very well in a south window this summer. It produced many blooms which were so cute. However my cats loved the long dangling vines and ended up pushing it off the stand. I lost a few of the vines before I noticed what they had done. Luckily I had taken a few cuttings and placed them in water. They rooted easily and have even bloomed. I love these little plants.

val1, it's great to hear how well your plant is doing, I love follow-ups.
Karen, that is a lovely and unusual string of hearts, the one with the more angular leaves. Do you think it might be a different species? Has it bloomed yet and if so were the flowers any way different?

Wow, it's seriously been 4 months since I looked at everyone's beautiful pics here, feels like last week!

Val, so glad to hear something's still going! Updates are awesome, especially when they are still in progress, so to speak. I've been on the hunt for one of these pretty plants since this thread (which entails such prowess as stalking WM once per week. oooh skills!)

Pets make weird gardening decisions, don't they?! Discovered that sometime in the last couple days, our great Dane decided a new bed I made would be a good place to take a nap. Though I had put enough rocks there so he wouldn't have room, but obviously not. Ooops! Stuff was pretty much dormant there but it was all nice'n'fluffy and aerated from the digging I had done. It looks like a leaf pancake now. I was actually standing in the yard LOL'ing when I saw that and actually heard me ask myself, "Why did he take a nap in this bed?!"

purpleinopp - I purchased my SOH last February from an individual on Esty. The mail was delivered right as I got off work that day and I had to hurry home to save it from the cold. I hadn't seen one anywhere and was impatient.

Pets do make things interesting. We have a pony who opens the gate to her corral if we forget the second latch. She runs through the garden and the goats, who follow her, eat the strawberries as fast as they can before I catch them. We also have a kitty who loves to play with your hands as you are trying to weed. Drives my husband crazy!

Ha! That's funny stuff! Cracking up!!

Our dog has friends (other dogs) that come by and open the gate and let him out. I'm supposed to remember to put a carabiner on the latch but am prone to forgetting. The last time he was a few miles away and we looked for him for hours. We were getting calls, he was spotted over here at 4 am, downtown soon after that, and was finally found because the lady we talked to at the police station saw him on facebook! He was at her neighbors house and they had posted a picture of him wondering if his owners wanted to come and get him. The guy said his dog brings other dogs home often. LMAO!!!

About a week ago, there was another dog INSIDE The fence when we woke up. Apparently he was able to squeeze under the gate 'cuz that's how he left when I went out there. I was going to give him a biscuit and take his picture for facebook, too!

I've never seen one of these plants for sale, you make a good point. If I have seen one before, I probably thought it was Vinca vine.

Have you tried a search for "Nurseries which sell Ceropegia woodii?"

PS, Ansell,

We don't send private Emails as responses from here. Also not so wise security-wise to post your private email address here for all to see (just so you know).

It's customary to post the question & then check back periodically to see if there's been a response.

Lena

I saw one on Ebay...

Can you root a single leaf? Will it produce new stems or vines?

Sorry, but I don't think so.

But if you have some leaves there's no harm in trying ;-)

Folks are always welcome to experiment, but really, it's highly unlikely.

Related plants like Hoya & Dischidia don't grow new plants from just leaves either. One needs a cutting w/ at least a node or 2 or in the case of CW above, a tuber. I grow all 3 of these & believe they are all Asclepiads.

Lena

You know that heart-shaped leaf hoya they sell around St. Valentine's Day, I think Hoya kerrii, does that root from leaves? All you get when you buy one is a big leaf in a pot.

Sorry, no, almost never Marguerite, like 95% of the time not, I've personally had my local supermarket stop selling them yrs. ago, for $12 a pop no less, since it's a ripoff.

You can search at Hoya Forum, there's a few conversations there abt it (it's pet peeve of mine). Folks there say one needs to have a bit of meristem w/ the leaf to grow a plant, otherwise, it'll just grow roots.

Lena

That's correct about not being able to grow a plant from a Hoya leaf, but the leaf can develop a root system and last a long time. I have a Hoya pottsii leaf that is still going strong after 3 or 4 years, but no plant (vine).

My string of hearts've grown quite long, so this summer I tried a few ways to propagate it. I think I should share with you what worked best for me:

- I cut a stem with at least 2 nodes and than cut of the leafs on the lower node.

- I stuck this end in soil (well draining). I used a small pot and didn't bury too deep the stem, but you have to bury the node, because that's where roots can easily form.

It began to develop roots in a week:

I have one that has a few longish strands and am wanting it to fill out more as well. I read that it will grow tubers along the vine and then you can loop it back up into the pot, with the tuber on the soil (making a kind of ‘U’ shape) and the tuner will root. But mine still hasnt grown any tubers along the vine. Is this accurate? When do they usually come?

Hi there fellow gardeners, I've just stumbled across this site, I love the chain of hearts, I would love to get the variagated chain of hearts, does anyone on here have some they would like to sell please and!