For anyone who has any information about this Hoya, if only what the RP stands for, please reach out. I can recommend the plant despite my difficulties with it. I look forward to bringing Hoya sp. RP-013 back after I have a nice specimen. Hopefully I can keep the root rot at bay this go around!
As usual, there is no getting around it, for a plant with root rot, the fastest way forward is to take cuttings and restart the plant. Even after all these years, I try to kid myself into thinking that I can get away with a re-pot. Hoya sp. RP-013 languished, and did absolutely nothing in that terracotta pot for literally months until I relented, and chopped it up into one node cuttings. All of those cuttings now have new growth. So people, if you take nothing else away from here, keep in mind that root rot means start your plant over from cuttings if at all possible!
After no growth in this Hoya for months, I decided to take it out of its pot, and found extensive root rot, but rather than start it over I decided to move it to a terracotta pot. This was a last gasp from me hoping that by removing as many rotted roots as I could, and moving it to a pot that dried out faster, I could avoid having to take cuttings.
After flowering, growth virtually stopped. There were no more new leaves, and the single vine ceased to grow. This pattern continued for many months, which is never a good thing, and usually points to the dreaded root rot. It did continue to periodically flower though, but this can also be a plants last gasp at reproducing because of other troubles.
Hoya sp. RP-013 like most of these Finlaysonii type Hoyas, flower at a very young age. It was not very long after getting the peduncle that the plant budded up and flowered.
After water rooting, I moved the cutting into a deep 2 inch pot where it continued to grow well. The new leaves come in with a slightly tannish color and needs to get older to turn into the light green color of the mature leaves. It was not long before a peduncle formed and I moved it to a larger pot to make it easier to trellis, which turned out to be a mistake.
A really nice woman named Paige sent me a cutting of this plant in the summer of 2020. I googled it and found out almost nothing on it other than it can get really large leaves. I put the cutting in water where it quickly formed water roots.
I say let’s talk about Hoya sp. RP-013, but I’m afraid there will be little to talk about as I really know so little about it other than my experiences growing it. I can’t even find out what the RP stands for in the accession number.
I was doing some research and stumbled on to an interesting bit of information. In October of last year Hoya sp. Perak ‘Teddy Bear’ received a new name; it is now called Hoya peninularis. So three cheers for Hoya peninularis!!
Hoya insularis was formally known as Anatropanthus borneensis and was moved over to the genus Hoya in March, 2020. I have to thank two people for sending me specimens of this plant. April Mall of Unsolicited Plant Talks and Mandy Lin sent me plants allowing me to try growing it in a couple of different mediums. The plant growing in leca using semi-hydro has grown admirably while I lost the plant grown in soil. Below the start of extremely strange buds Hoya insularis:
