Hoya rosarioae

Hoya rosarioae was first collected by Dr. Simeona V. Siar in the Philippines in 2007 and was named after Marylin Rosario, Los Banos, Laguna, Philippines. It was published by Kloppenburg & Siar in 2009.

Hoya rosarioae is very similar to Hoya obscura but has smaller flowers, much longer peduncles and the pollinina are much shorter. This information comes from a Dale Kloppenburg publication, but I can attest that this plant is a different animal than H. obscura.  I have tried to grow Hoya obscura on two seperate occasions and failed – it won’t grow for me under my conditions, but Hoya rosarioae grew very easily.

I purchased the plant as a cutting from Ric Morier of Florida in the middle of the summer growing season of 2017.  I grew it in a series of net pots using my regular chunky mix and it grew rapidly. It took a fair amount of moisture, but growing it was completely unproblematic, and it flowered between 6 and 7 months from cutting.  You can’t ask for more than that from a plant!

I read numerous places online that the flowers smell sweet and faintly of roses.  Unfortunately, I can not attest to it, as at the time of the flowers opening, I had a tremendous cold and could not smell anything.  The flowers only lasted about four days and fell off over night.

Hoya rosarioae is a fantastic plant that I can’t recommend highly enough.  It makes a perfect specimen for the light garden and doesn’t get too large too quickly.  It flowers at a very early age and the flowers are supposed to smell sweet.  It doesn’t get much better than that.