I’m just fooling around with Google’s AI photo tools this morning and came up with this image.

Here is what Hoya sp. IM-08 looks like as a pen and ink drawing in a notebook.

When oh when will this Hoya get its own species name. It is still my favorite small leafed Hoya. Last winter I was afraid that I was going to lose my large specimen of this plant as I had tremendous leaf loss. The plant has since recovered spectacularly, but I took some cuttings as insurance and now have a beautiful second plant, which is now in full bloom.

I have to say that I think this AI generated image of Hoya desvoeuxensis taken from my photo captures the essence of the plant, and I think its really cool!

Hoya desvoeuxensis was flowering in the tent this morning so I snapped a photo and then created a pen and ink drawing of the same photo.

The biggest surprise that I had in Hoya growing in 2026 was flowering Hoya medinillifolia. Here is the second biggest surprise of the year:

Who would have thought that I would end up with a pollination of Hoya microphylla! This phenomena happened with no skill on my part; there must have been some kind of insect in my basement grow tent that made it happen. I have had many dozens of flowers on this species on multiple plants over more than 2 years of owning the plant and it has not happened before. I also have not heard of it occurring with other growers online, so I will go out on a limb and say that it is quite rare. I will be trying to sow these seeds and watch the progress after the pods ripen and rupture. Stay tuned for more reports!

I don’t expect to keep this plant past the end of summer so I will be showing lots of flowers between now and the first frost.

There are around 20 flowers with more to come on this Hoya ciliata living its best life outside.

I think these drawings can show the flowers off better than the original photo sometimes.

The hours of day light must be shortening as this is what triggers Hoya maingayi to produce flowers. I still don’t see many people online blooming this one so I feel pretty privileged to get to experience the flowers in person.