Category Archives: Hoyas

Final Day With Hoya bordenii

Hoya bordenii is an okay Hoya, but the flowers were too similar to two other Philippine Hoyas that would make better choices if one wasn’t trying to collect all the Hoyas in the world.  Both Hoya sp. Mindanao UT-247, and Hoya ilagiorum are quicker, and more rampant bloomers with flowers that are very close to Hoya bordenii.  Below a close-up of the flowers:

Growing Hoya bordenii Part Three

Hoya bordenii required three re-pottings or more properly said up-pottings.  It eventually was transplanted into a six inch pot where it lives today.  Below the plant in its entirety:

Growing Hoya bordenii Part Two

This plant presented no problems this go around.  It was a steady if somewhat slow grower that budded up for the first time in February of this year about 16 months after acquiring the cutting.  It flowered shortly there after.

Growing Hoya bordenii Part One

I had this Hoya as a small plant way back when I got interested seriously in Hoyas about 12 years ago.  I lost the plant as my knowledge of keeping these plants back then was not the best.  My cutting from Florida was pretty straight forward and rooted very quickly in my standard mix.  I used a net pot to make it easier to know when to water.  Below the flowers of Hoya bordenii:

Had To Start My Hoya waymaniae Over This Year

The windowsill was too cold for my large Hoya waymaniae this year and the roots completely rotted off.  This was the version called Orange Peel that I bought from SRQ many years ago.  Anyhow the shriveled leaves all plumped up, rooted and now I have a number of plants.  It is already flowering in bonsai mix.  Here is a photo from this morning:

Final Day With Hoya minahassae

All good things must come to an end so today is our final day with the beautiful Hoya minahassae.  It is a lovely plant with different flowers from the every day Hoya, beautiful scent, and does not take up a lot of room on the windowsill.  I think it is a must have!

 

Hoya minahassae Is An Unresolved Name

Here is what the late, great, Christine Burton has to say about this plant from her P.S. The Hoyan:

“Many of you think you have this species but you don’t.  You may have purchased one from one of the following sources:           

Liddle Nursery in Mareeba, Qlds., Australia, as Hoya minahassae (IML-1863).  This is NOT Hoya minahassae.

Paul Shirley of the Netherlands, as GPS-8875 or GPS-8816.  It is NOT Hoya minahassae.

Van Donkelaar of the Netherlands as IPPS-8875 or IPPS-8816.  It is NOT Hoya minahassae. 

You may have seen Kleijn and van Donkelaar’s publication, Taxonomy and Ecology of the Genus Hoya in Blumea 46(3):2001 with your plant plainly illustrated so you think your plant has to be Hoya minahassae. The only things proved here are that Kleijn and van Donkelaar hadn’t done their homework and the editor of Blumea hadn’t either.

Schlechter’s holotype specimen is extant and in excellent condition.  I have seen it.  I had it here at Fernbank for 3 months and viewed it and all of its flower parts under the lens of a high powered microscope.  Besides that, Schlechter drew pictures of all the flower parts and pasted the pictures on his holotype specimen.

If you’d like to see an excellent, well illustrated article comparing this hoya with the true Hoya minahassae, you can find one in the Swedish publication, Hoyatelegrafen, #3 (2008).  The text is written in Swedish but you don’t need to read the text to know what is said.  The illustrations speak for themselves. They prove that not one single part of the plant, GPS/IPPS-8875, GPS/IPPS-8816 and IML-1863, matches.  These numbers do NOT represent Hoya minahassae.   What is it?  I’m sorry, I don’t know, yet.  Please keep the IML-number on your plant, until someone learns what it is.

I think that what she is saying is that the true Hoya minahassae described by Schlechter earlier does not match up to any of the plants that we now keep labeled Hoya minahassae.  For now, I will have to keep that name, as that is what everyone else is calling it, until, and if this ever gets remedied.