Finally on the morning of May 19, 2022 my first flower opened up. There was no real scent and the smallest amount of nectar on the corona.

The strange thing about this plant was there was no discernable peduncles; it was as if the pedicel came directly out of the leaf node. After looking Hoya exilis up online and checking photos, I knew that this was not that Hoya, but what was it? I immediately put in an email to Julie Kennedy who has been so helpful to me throughout my Hoya growing career. She took my information and went to all of her sources. Finally we got the answer from Miros and Susanne; the plant now had a name: Hoya apoda. Below the large bud of H. apoda:

After switching the plant over to tree fern, the plant immediately began to do better and grew quite well. After growing it for some time with 14 hours of day light without getting a peduncle, I decided to switch it over to a 12 hour day. It was not much longer before I had my first peduncle only 10 months after receiving the plant, but wait…

Hoya apoda came to me as a small rooted plant with the name of Hoya exilis from a wonderful grower in Phoenix. We exchanged Hoyas in trade, and I was happy to get a new plant to try, and one that I had not heard of. It came growing in Pon, and for those who are not familiar with it, the substrate looks like fine aquarium gravel. I grew it that way for about 3 months, before I switched it over to tree fern. Below the foliage of the plant I received.

The next two Hoyas that I will talk about are Hoyas that I received with one name that turned out to be something else. In one case it was a happy surprise, in the other case not so much. Here are the two plants: Hoya apoda on top, and Hoya vitiensis on the bottom.

Here is one that you don’t see every day, and it just might be the first photo of these two flowers together that the world has ever seen!

Here is a photo taken only because they are both flowering at the same time and what the heck!

Hoya darwinii got to be unmanageable and an eyesore, so I decided to chop it up into cuttings and we will see how many of them take. It is one of the most difficult plants to grow in the Hoya world so no guarantees with this one. Here is a photo of Hoya darwinii and Hoya Patricia. I always wanted to take this photo as H. darwinii is the father of Patricia.

I have now had Hoya maingayi for just over a year, but it is shown no signs of wanting to put on a peduncle. The plant is now in an 8″ pot and from the bottom of that pot to the top of the trellis, it is 33″ tall. If it does not put on a peduncle in the next year, it may be the first candidate to move on to a new Hoya Hall of Shame List!

For those of you who have been reading my ramblings for a few years, you may remember that it took me years to produce a total of 3 flowers on my Hoya obtusifolia plant. The big problem with the plant is that it only flowers with decreasing day length in the fall. It flowers in October in Florida, I can’t have it outside at that time in Vermont as it would freeze. To make a long story shorter, I moved this plant from a 14 hour days to 12 hour days, and this is the result. It is dripping buds from as many as 16 peduncles. I grew this plant from a cutting started a year ago growing in pure tree fern. Here are a few of those buds: