Dregea Sinensis Variegated - Plant Care, Tips, and Tricks

Dregea Sinensis Variegated - Plant Care, Tips, and Tricks

The Dregea Sinensis Variegated is a broadleaf evergreen vining plant with pointed, green leaves and speckled variegation of pink/white. Related to the Hoya, it can also produce clusters of flowers.

 

Lighting Requirements

Bright indirect light, though it can tolerate and can sometimes do better in lower bright light/some shade. I keep all of mine under grow lights, and the leaves often sun-stress a beautiful pink-purple color. 

Experiment with what works best for your plant in your given environment, as sometimes the Dregea can be very sensitive to light.

 

Humidity & Temperature Requirements

I like to keep my vining plants in ambient humidity (averaging between 30-45%) but Dregea Sinensis can tolerate, and enjoy, higher humidity levels (between 50-75%). However, I would be very cautious about acclimating your Dregea. If you've bought one from me and wish to place it in a cabinet, you want to slowly acclimate the humidity or you risk your Dregea throwing a fit and dropping all of its leaves.

I find the Dregea Sinensis to be delicate and unforgiving when its environment changes drastically. If you've received one from me, you should try and keep it in ambient. If you're trying to acclimate one to ambient, you want to do it slowly over the next few weeks to avoid it throwing a fit.

For temperatures, 65° F - 80° F is the ideal range to keep them in. Any higher, and you risk melting the leaves. I believe it can tolerate lower, but plants tend to grow best within the given range.

 

Soil Medium

Almost all of my plants are kept in a soilless medium of: coco coir husks (or chips), perlite, and tree fern. The benefits of a vining plant is that they can acclimate to almost any  medium that you put them in. Dregea prefer a chunkier, well-draining mix.

I have had success propping and growing Dregea in fluval + perlite as well, though I personally like my soilless mediums. Chunkier semi-hydro mixes such as leca or pon might also work.

They tend to be rather sensitive to repotting. I suggest letting them get a little rootbound, and then repot them into a slightly larger container. I've killed several larger plants from repotting, either from not letting them get rootbound enough or from moving them into a pot that is too large. You do not want to mess with their roots at all if you can avoid it.

 

Watering & Feeding Schedule

Your watering schedule will depend on your environment and the soil medium that your plant is in, but generally when top inch or two of soil gets dry, you'll want to water.

I keep almost all of my plants in a self-watering setup so that they can pull what they need over the week. Dregea tend to be quite finicky, and overwatering or underwatering can lead to them throwing tantrums and dropping all of their leaves. Sometimes, you can do everything right and they still throw a fit, so you'll need to monitor your Dregea closely to figure out what it needs.

I do find that underwatering is often worse than overwatering. Much like the Fallopia, Dregea tend to shed their leaves and crisp up if they've been left dry for too long, and usually when they do that, they're past the point of recovery and you'll need to chop them.

 

Propagation

Dregea Sinensis are decently easy to propagate. They can propagate via stem cuttings, but I find the best success in removing the leaves off a node and burying the node. They root much more quickly that way. I've had success with tree fern/coco perlite and fluval + perlite for propagation but these plants tend to be slow to root and slower to grow when compared to a Fallopia Multiflora. Once they get going, however, they can vine decently quick.

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