I don’t know if this is the world’s first photo of these two rarities together, but it is my first!

For the first time in months Hoya desvoeuxensis took a little time off from flowering to recharge. It is back to its old tricks; here are a handful of flowers from this morning:

This Hoya carnosa sport, the only H. carnosa left in my collection, is all budded up sitting on the windowsill. Here are the first of these buds to open for 2025:

I had to pull Hoya stenaokei out of the tent to water it today, and here is yet another set of flowers on it with more buds developing continually.

I’m still amazed every time I look at this plant and how good it looks after suffering with its cultivation for years. The secret was all in changing from a soil based substrate to coco husk chips.

Like virtually all the Ancanthostemma Section Hoyas, H. annacajanoae blooms drip nectar like a faucet. This really presents a problem with keeping the plant in the house in a window. My plant got to be over two years old without blooming, and now it is being covered in peduncles. I will likely have to remove them, or I’ll have sooty mold growing on everything!

We will celebrate May 1st with another look at Hoya annacajanoae. This Hoya was discovered back in 2006 and named after Mary Ann O. Cajano. I’ve had this plant for quite some time, and flowered it way back in 2020. I had extreme difficulty growing it in a soil-based mix, but it has absolutely thrived in coconut husk chips. My specimen may very well be the world’s nicest; here it is from this morning:

What might not be readily apparent is that the plant is over 3 feet tall.

I have started this plant over so many times over the 18 years that I have owned it, that I have lost count. Here it is this morning flowering in less than a year from a cutting.

Hoya macgillivrayi is really the Hoya that made me the addicted, Hoya obsessive, person that I am today. This is a Hoya that I have had since 2007, bought from an Oklahoma woman giving up her big-leafed Hoyas on eBay. It cost me $50, which was a lot of money back then. Best $50 I ever spent! Here is the plant a few months after I bought it back in 2007:

It was lit using a T-5 fluorescent light mounted vertically on the wall. It lived in the bathroom in a window nook. I have started this plant over many times since then. Tomorrow the latest iteration.

Here are the latest blooms with a record for me of 10 Flowers on one peduncle. I would like to start this plant over because of its shear size, which has become difficult to handle, but to start this plant over from scratch is kind of daunting at this point.