Tired of looking at my half dead plant that just sat there and did nothing, I finally decided to pull it out of the pot and check the roots. They were half rotted, so I took a cutting and decided to put it into a 3 inch net pot, which I had just barely started using. Net pots are probably the best discovery that I have made in growing Hoyas in the past few years. I did not come up with the idea, but I have made tremendous use of it!
I purchased Hoya imperialis Palawan from AH Hoyas three years ago. His number for the plant was AH-283. The rooted cutting that I received did not respond well to my care and languished for around 18 months.
Finally we are done with Hoya flower comparisons for now, with the addition of Hoya motoskei:
We add Hoya kanyakumariana to the mix:
Just Hanging out:
Hoya maxima and Hoya hanhiae:
Here is a quick sneak peak of one of the flowers that just opened for me on Hoya imperialis Palawan. Much more on this clone starting on December 1st.
To prove that it was not a fluke, Hoya maxima/imbricata has flowered for the second time for me. To be fair, this is not an easy Hoya to flower. On my way towards this second flowering, I have literally lost dozens of buds that have blasted for no discernible reason. Some of these buds will blast a couple of days before opening – really maddening! Below is a quick snapshot from this morning along with yet another custom habitat that I set up for the mount.
This Hoya is so common, and readily available at most of the big box stores in the summer time, we tend to take it for granted. It flowers almost continuously, and smells very strongly of butterscotch. Couple that with the beautiful copper colored leaves, and you really have a winner!
The flowers of Hoya paulshirleyi don’t last more than a couple of days, but since it usually has multiple peduncles in various stages of bud and flower, it does not matter that much. Here is a photo from this morning:
