I finally had a chance to obtain a cutting of Hoya collina in September of 2017 from AH Hoyas; at that time it was called Hoya biakensis. It was part of a disastrous order where 8 of the 12 plants that I ordered arrived dead. Hoya collina was just barely hanging on, but with a lot of TLC, I manage to save it from the brink. Considering the hell it put me through later on, it might have been better if it had not lived!

It was at least 10-12 years ago when I first tried with this Hoya; back then it was called Hoya sp. Biak Island. It was a lovely plant with silver splotches on the leaf surfaces, but it only did well in my outdoor greenhouse and I lost my plant within the first year. I was determined to find another at a future date.

I have restarted Hoya imperialis so many times from cuttings over the years, and when grow in a tent under artificial light, it usually flowers for me within 18 months, or so. Here is another example of one flowering for the first time in January. It lives with other imperialises in the same 3X3 tent in one of our spare bedrooms.

Hoya hanhiae Deep Violet seems to be the most difficult of the hanhiae clones to grow and flower at least for me. I rotted the roots off in a regular soil mix, so I took cuttings and regrew the plant using leca and semi-hydro. While it has grown somewhat better, it seems to still be prone to root rot in S-H, but at least it flowered again!

Hoya dennisii continues to amaze by flowering and adding new leaves. It grows relatively slowly and requires almost no water, often going 3 weeks between sips.

I may never get the magnificent specimen that I had of this plant at one time, but after going years without even having a flower, Hoya inflata has now flowered for me 3 times in an 8 month period. Here is the latest bloom compilation:

I am intrigued with this Hoya and hope to be able to be more successful with it in the future. If you are going to grow it, I urge that you stay away from semi-hydro as the plant seems susceptible to some sort of rapid leaf die off when grown this way. This is a plant that has an unusual shrubby growth habit and could make a handsome hanging basket if the conditions can be found that suits it. It flowers very quickly from cutting and the flowers have no detectable scent.

Hoya burmanica was described by Rolfe in 1920; it is endemic to Miramar (formerly Burma – hence the name), and India. Hoya pandurata has much thicker and more rounded leaves than the thin triangular leaves of Hoya burmanica. The flowers are also different in that the corolla of H. burmanica is much more cupped shaped than the reflexed corolla on H. pandurata. There also must be different clones of Hoya burmanica in circulation as the corolla on my flowers are light pink as opposed to the bright yellow or green that I have seen online.

The burned leaves (that is the best way I can describe it) rapidly fell off the plant until I was left with just over half of my original leaves. The plant growing in the small pot of soil flowered in the meantime. I have just taken cuttings of all the stems growing in semi-hydro to re-root and grow in soil. I just have to surmise that the plant just did not like growing in s-h. I will hopefully be successful and be able to bring this plant back soon.

One morning I went down to check on my plants in a basement grow tent, and I was horrified to find that around 30 percent of the leaves on the H. burmanica growing in the semi-hydro container had turned to gray paper. I was as if someone had burned or dehydrated the leaves. In all of my years of keeping Hoyas, I had never seen anything like it. I had a couple of theories that maybe I had burned the plant with fertilizer, or that the grow tent was too hot for it.