I believe the most flowers that I’ve ever had on a Hoya imperialis in the past was 14 on a single peduncle, and that was a few years ago. The photos below shows a single peduncle with 16 flowers. Unfortunately, because of the LED lights and the difficulty in getting the plant out to photograph it, I chose to cut the entire peduncle off from the plant.
Here we throw Hoya griffithii into the mix.
Hoya ruthiae, Hoya lockii, Hoya sp. MT-02, Hoya micrantha, and Hoya griffithii
Self explanatory except we have not yet talked about the incredible Hoya sp. MT-02, but we will soon!
Hoya ruthiae, Hoya lockii, Hoya sp. MT-02, and Hoya micrantha
As long as I have this plethora of blooming going on, I have to take advantage of it.
Hoya ruthiae, and Hoya lockii
Hoya ruthiae is definitely not a Hoya for beginners, but if you want a challenge, have the prerequisite place to grow it, with very high humidity, warmth, and follow my instructions on the use of net pots and adding oyster shell to the mix, it might be for you. It took me five long years of patience and dedication to flower this plant, but knowing what I do now, it could probably be done in about two years of high intensity growing.
Only having seen the flowers of Hoya ruthiae in photos on the internet, and in a book, I somehow expected them to be larger than they actually are. The entire umbel of flowers are only around 2 inches across. Whatever they lack for in size though is more than made up for how photogenic they are. They take a heck of an impressive photograph!
I don’t know if it was the addition of the oyster shell or the LED lighting that made the plant finally begin to want to flower, but besides the flowering peduncle it now has three other peduncles beginning to bud up!
After adding ground oyster shell to the mix the plant continued to grow pretty well. I compare the plant to Hoya padangensis both in appearance and growth habbit. The leaves come in an attractive dark green with speckles and then fades to a flat yellow green. The plant is far from attractive as can be seen in the photo below. When the plant was about 15 inches high, I moved it under its own LED light and shortly after it surprised me with a peduncle that actually began to bud up!
It did not take too long to move from a two inch net pot up to a three inch. It grew fairly strongly until the roots were coming out of the pot. At about this time I received a book called A Guide To Hoyas Of Borneo where there was an entry on Hoya ruthiae. It said that the plant was endemic to “Borneo and lived on the limestone of Bukit Baturong.” The part about the limestone got me thinking; so in early 2018 when I transplanted the Hoya to a four inch net pot I incorporated considerable ground oyster shell to the mix.
When I started Hoya ruthiae over again at the end of 2016, I had discovered net pots which gave me far greater knowledge of when a new plant actually needed to be watered. I started my meager little cutting in a two inch net pot and not only did it start to root, but started growing stronger right from the get go. I don’t know if it was the breathe-ability of the pot, or what by I was pleased at the rate of growth.
