I received an email recently from someone who despaired that the plants she ordered from Thailand were rapidly going downhill soon after arriving, and here is my answer to her question.  I thought others could benefit from my thoughts on her problem.

Your question is a good one. Most plants from Thailand will arrive half dead and it is quite a job to revive them. When they rip them out of their media and pack them into a box in 100° temperatures and we get them a week to 10 days later all of those fine thread like roots that you see are essentially dead. They have been dried to a crisp. No amount of soaking will make them alive again. You are basically nearly starting from a cutting when you get these plants.

Here is what I did with a batch of plants I got from AH Hoyas about 6-7 weeks ago, and they all have lived, which is a miracle in itself. I soaked them for a couple of hours, poured the water out of the bucket and left them in there covered with a lid over night. In the morning, I potted them up in a very chunky mix that is damp but not soaking wet. I watered the soil with Dyna-Grow K-L-N Concentrate, which will help build new roots. You have to treat these plants as if they are unrooted cuttings and put them into nearly 100% high humidity conditions for a few weeks until you can see new root growth. I put them into my homemade propagation chambers under grow lights and use net pots so I can see these roots developing. After the roots begin developing, I gradually acclimate them to my conditions.

There are times when the plants you receive are in such terrible shape that nothing can save them, but I think that my method gives them the best chance. I have made videos on my YouTube channel on using net pots and building a propagation chamber. I hope that this information is helpful.

Best,
Doug

As I predicted the first buds on my Hoya imperialis ‘Palawan’, which were supposed to have yellow flowers did weaken and fall off.  While it was very disappointing, I have the feeling that I will flower it by year’s end; time will tell!  Below a photo that I took a few days ago of the flowers of Hoya sigillatis, before the corolla was fully reflexed.  I like the natural sunlight coming through the blooms.

My Hoya imperialis Palawan (Yellow Flowers) has put on these very improbable buds at only 13 months of age.  I am 90% certain they will yellow and fall off, but hey I got this far!

I chopped this plant up a couple of years ago and sold it off, but there was a very bad cutting left over which I kept, and believe it or not it now exceeds the original plant in appearance. Below the plant and the first flowers:

I hope none of you were bored with my extensive coverage of the flowering event of 2018 for me in blooming an imbricate Hoya.  This was a very difficult five year process.  It is one of the toughest Hoyas for the indoor gardener to flower so I needed to make the most of it.

If you have the patience, time, and space to try to grow this Hoya, I would encourage you to take up the challenge as the rewards are huge!

I was blown away by how fragrant the flowers of Hoya maxima were.  I had never read anything about their perfume online before.  I was also surprised at their size and their wonderful texture.

I believe that the complete living ecosystem encompassed in my mount made the difference in getting my imbricate Hoya to finally flower.  Besides the mosses, grasses, ferns, and fungi, there were a hundreds of very small soil mites that made there home in this extraordinary mount.  I believe they contributed valuable co2 that helped the plant grow.  Below you see a Hoya undulata also happily living on the mount.

I should also say at this time that my mount of Hoya imbricata/maxima sits in a large tray of water and is covered in a clear grow cloche that stands 22 inches high.  It is grown under one 300 watt LED light and is kept warm.  Every day the plant gets misted with RO water and fertilized.

Even with all of this care and as well as the mount was growing, I was taken back when I spotted the first peduncle!  Unfortunately, the first and second peduncle produced fell off.  The third peduncle started producing buds and they promptly fell off as well!

After these failures, I thought that maybe the atmosphere was too small, and I built a polycarbonate extension for the plant bringing it from 22 inches of height to 30 inches.  Finally a fourth peduncle formed and the buds made it to term – I was euphoric.  After almost five years and so many setbacks I had finally done it!

With my new mount doing so well, in October of last year I ordered a Hoya maxima Red Corona plant from AH Hoyas in Thailand.  It arrived nearly dead, but I saved one leaved and added it to my imbricata mount.  After two months it rooted and started to grow rather well.

Frustrated after 3 or 4 years of putting so much effort into my Hoya imbricata, I decided to put it in a shady spot outside for the summer in 2017, and let nature take its course.  Well nature took its course alright, the squirrels tore the plant to pieces a left it all over the yard. I was just going to compost it, when I got an idea for one more go at the plant.

I had a very large piece of aquarium driftwood kicking around for 10 or more years from the days when I kept fish.  Only my wife saved me from having thrown it out on numerous occasions.  I decided to make this piece of wood into my new mount and fastened a large screened in pocket of soil to the log with clumps of sphagnum also adhered to the wood.  I tied the bits of imbricata to the mount with fishing line soaked the entire thing with water and waited.

Miracle of miracles, it started to grow and respond and mosses, ferns and grasses started to pot up.