I have kept Hoya calycina ‘Stargazer’ for at least a dozen years now. It came from my good friend Julie Kennedy from Scotland. While I have had lots of great floral displays over the years from this plant, I have struggled mightily trying to have a healthy plant. The plant I believe is one of those Hoyas that is very susceptible to the ravages of the invisible flat mite. The midrib of the leaves with get ashen colored and the leaves would deteriorate and get sickly looking. I have had so many of these sickly looking plants over the years, that I have come very close to getting rid of the plant for good. The only thing that has stopped me is the insanely beautiful fragrance of the blooms. Tomorrow I will give my take on how to keep this one healthy. Below my beautiful specimen:

This plant literally just won’t stop flowering ever, and I can’t seem to stop myself from photographing it!

If you can find the dark flowered form of Hoya stenaokei, I urge you to pick one up. The growth is much more easily contained than H. stenaokei (NS12-222), and it is slightly more floriferous. I have to say that of all the plants in the Macgillivrayi Complex the one that has the best, strongest scent is Hoya macgillivrayi itself. So don’t buy this one for the scent, buy it for the spectacular flowers and easy care. I give it my highest recommendation!

This will be my last flower comparison photo for at least a little while.

These two make a handsome pairing!

The title says it all!

Both of these plants are in the Macgillivrayi Complex; here is a flower comparison; take note in the huge differences in the corona between the two, and note the lack of pubescence on Kaimuki.

I took the time this past October on an exceptionally warm day to bring the plant outside to photograph it. It was the plants first chance to feel the outside air as it has been grown completely artificially in a grow tent up to this point.

Besides the lack of pubescence, and the much slower growth habit of the dark flowered H. stenaokei clone, here are the few differences that a hobbyist like me can spot: The dark version has slightly larger flowers, drips more nectar, slightly different looking coronas, and seems more floriferous then NS12-222. Below the dark form of Hoya stenaokei:

Finally after about 1 year, both plants put on their first peduncle and I was lucky enough to get to see them flower at the same time. Here is a comparison photo of both plants in their first flowering about a year ago. Notice the shear difference in the size of the plants with the dark form on the left having about one third the mass of Nathalie’s clone on the right. Both plants were grown identically using coconut husk chips as the medium.