All good things must once again come to an end and so it goes with this wonderful and in my opinion much more hardy clone of Hoya undulata. If I was going to try to grow this plant, I would definitely try to seek out this particular one as it just seems much more hardy than the wavy leaved Borneo version.
I have never been able to get any plant grown using leca and passive hydro to last much longer than one year before succumbing to root rot. It requires constant flushing of the media to keep ahead of it, which is way too much work especially when you have most of your plants growing in tents, which make the plants hard to access. I have seen some gorgeous Hoyas grown in leca on Instagram, but I cannot seem to achieve the same results, and it is maddening. So while it worked out in the case of this undulata, I can hardly recommend it as a main course of growing.
The buds seemed to take forever to open but they finally opened on July 5th. There were five flowers with no scent, but with a great deal of beauty. I was pretty happy that I got this plant to flower within one year of owning it.
Despite my best attempts to prevent root rot, I did observe some rot in March or April, I pulled off as much of it as I could get at and used high pressure water to flush the leca of as many impurities as I could. I then saw that the growing tip died back, and thought well, here we go again, but surprisingly soon after the tip died back, it put on a peduncle near the end of the vine and actually started budding up!
The plant went through the autumn and winter of 2020/2021 with slow but steady growth, sending up a vine in February. I was so afraid of root rot that I kept very little water in the reservoir letting the leca slightly dry out between waterings, which I flushed with a high pressure hose after every watering.
I had to make a decision on how to grow the plant after it arrived. It was rooted in coconut husk, and I opted to go with leca using the semi or passive hydro method of growing it. The only reason I chose that method was that I had killed Hoya undulata growing it in normal mixes. After a month, it still had not died so I felt maybe I had a chance at keeping it alive for a while!
Mandy Lin who is a fantastic grower in California sent me a different clone of Hoya undulata which I did not know existed prior to her telling me about it. I suffered so much trying to grow this plant that I was not even that excited to receive it, thinking that I would probably kill it.
I have a strong feeling that there is root rot once again in Hoya sp. aff. clemensiorum, but I just don’t have it in me to deal with it right now! I have started this plant over so many times that I have lost count! Here are the buds from this morning:
What Hoya Rebecca does best is flower, and it seems quite happy outdoors this summer. Here are the flowers from this morning:
This Hoya has a powerfully sweet scent, and it is a real pleasure to go into the greenhouse and smell it right now!
