I looked forward to putting the plant outside in the summer hoping that the greenhouse climate would spur on some new growth, but to this point it has not happened. I suspect that like its very close cousin Hoya clemensiorum, the plant is very susceptible to root rot and I am sure that I will probably have to start it over in the fall.
After transplanting the plant a couple of times, I moved it into a terracotta pot. It probably was not the best move as soon after the plant stopped growing. To be fair though, I think that I detected a small amount of root rot on the plant before transplanting it. After months of doing nothing, the plant grew a peduncle, budded up and flowered soon afterwards.
The plant grew well for a few months growing several new leaves, but I could not get large leaves like the plant came with. I suspect that my lighting was too bright. For Hoyas to get really large leaves, they need fairly dim lighting.
I received Hoya sp. Wavy Leaves from April Mall from Unsolicited Plant Talks as a gift in the early autumn of 2020. It had a gorgeous large leaf with fabulous markings and wavy edges. I was never actually able to duplicate the first leaf. Below one of my leaves:
Hoya sp. Wavy Leaves is a new Hoya from Indonesia that I know virtually nothing about other than it has similarities to Hoya clemensiorum.
Happy August 1st everyone; it is really hard to believe how quickly this summer is slipping away from us. Here is a photo of Hoya sp. Aff. engleriana Vietnam from this morning:
This is a first for me, and could not have happened without putting the plant outside for the summer. I don’t know what pollinated it, but I have about a billion earwigs this year crawling on everything.
I have come to really like this Hoya. It is a pretty slow grower, but when it is time to flower, look out! The blooms are powerfully perfumed as well.
I only started this plant over from cuttings last fall and look at the flower display already!
I am constantly flummoxed as to why I struggle to grow some Hoyas that I used to grow easily in my last home. The only thing that I can really come up with is the water. I was on a tiny community well that serviced about 35 homes, and the only thing added to that water was chlorine. Large commercial water systems like the one that I am on now no longer use chlorine, but moved some time ago to chloramine which does not dissipate quickly like chlorine. I do not believe that my r/o system can filter it out either. I am wondering if some Hoyas are sensitive to it, and possibly the chemical is causing some of my issues.
I have just installed a rain barrel pictured below, and in a short time already have over 100 gallons of water saved. I will report back on how this works out for me at some future time. Fingers crossed!
