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. Below is my favorite photo of the blooms:
Here is a comparison of the two flowers for perspective:
I read numerous places online that the flowers of Hoya rosarioae 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 takes 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 purchased Hoya rosarioae as a cutting from Ric Morier of Florida in the middle of the summer growing season last year. I grew it in a series of net pots using my regular chunky mix and it grew rapidly.
Here are a couple of close-ups of the flowers of Hoya rosarioae:
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. Below the back of the flowers:
Hoya rosarioae was named after Marylin Rosario, Los Banos, Laguna, Philippines and was published by Kloppenburg & Siar in 2009. Below the flowers of Hoya rosarioae:
Hoya rosarioae was first collected by Dr. Simeona V. Siar in the Philippines in 2007. Below the Buds of Hoya rosarioae:
As I write this it is currently -7°F and we are in a prolonged cold snap. Life is just so much harder when it is cold like this. Despite this awful weather I managed to get a new Hoya to bloom for me; its name is Hoya rosarioae. Here is a photo of the foliage and the entire plant to start the discussion:
