At my lowest point with Hoya wallichii having only two yellowed leaves remaining, it started like Phoenix to rise from the ashes and add some new growth.  It formed a new peduncle with a tiny bud; I was so excited.  The bud promptly fell off! Soon another peduncle formed and the bud held on this time.  I tried to curb my enthusiasm as I had been disappointed so many times before.

This time the bud held one and got larger, and larger.  The bottom photo below shows the difference in sizes of the buds after four days.  Look at the amazingly perfect star formed in the bud!

The year following the death of my second Hoya wallichii plant, I got a chance at another one in a trade with my Hoya friend Jimmy from North Carolina.  I was determined that this was going to be my last attempt with this plant. Careful as I was with it, growing the tiny little Hoya in a 2 inch net pot, it still lost most of its leaves, and after 8 months was down two rather chlorotic leaves. I was sure that this one was a goner as well.

The year following the death of my Hoya wallichii plant, Julie feeling bad that I had lost the plant along with Surisa’s other cutting that I had ordered, sent me another beautifully rooted cutting of this apparently difficult to grow Hoya.  This one arrived in beautiful shape, and although it took a little longer, I still managed to kill this one as well – more tomorrow. Below the middle bud stage of Hoya wallichii:

My first experience with Hoya wallichii was three years ago when Julie Kennedy asked me if I wanted to take place in a group order organized by the Swedes to Surisa Somadee in Thailand. I ordered a cutting of Hoya wallichii and a couple of other things.  Julie very kindly rooted it and sent it off to me and I very quickly killed it – more tomorrow.  Below the bud on H. wallichii.

Except for the objectionable scent, the flowers of Hoya oblongacutifolia have everything going for them.  They last a minimum of 2 weeks and they don’t drip nectar – two very big pluses in my book!

For the second time this year, I had to cut the vines of this one to extricate it from all the other Hoyas in its grow-tent.

Hoya oblongacutifolia, the former Hoya graveolens is on a flowering tear right now.  The scent was so powerful that I had to move the plant outside last night.

Happy Flag Day to those readers in the U.S. who celebrate it.  We close out Hoya manipurensis today.  I have discovered since trying to move cuttings of this Hoya on eBay that there is not that much interest in the plant.  I did manage to move a few of them, but not as many as I had hoped.  It is too bad as I find it to be quite and interesting Hoya.  I have moved my giant specimen plant out to the greenhouse for the summer and will report back on how it fares in the autumn.

Hoya manipurensis needs far more moisture that I ever thought possible wanting to be damp without drying out pretty much all of the time.

The official type specimen of Hoya manipurensis was collected in the Salween Valley in Myanmar.