The leaves of Hoya ‘Rebecca’ get a lovely reddish tone in good light.

Hoya ‘Rebecca’ is a cross between Hoya obscura and Hoya lacunosa.  It was created in Thailand and no one seems to know who created the cultivar, and whether H. obscura, or H. lacunosa bore the seedpod. Below the flower buds of Hoya ‘Rebecca’.

Hoya wallachii is one of the hardest Hoyas to get a good flower photograph of.  I believe that this is my best attempt thus far.

It took me two years to flower the all white Hoya bella the first time, and less than 2 months with this water-rooted cutting.  I think that it is a small miracle!

Hoya wallachii continues to be one of my most difficult Hoyas to grow.  It has however just amazed me by producing 3 buds on one peduncle.  They will not all open at one time, but in stages, and each flower will never open fully – It is a strange plant.

Going into my second winter growing Hoya lockii in pretty much nothing but sphagnum, and watering every couple of days, the plants are constantly in flower.  A truly remarkable plant that everyone should give a try.

Well it is hard to believe, but yet another year has passed by, always seemingly faster than the previous year.  I always like to take this opportunity to take a look at the highlights from the year past.

I flowered a number of new Hoyas in 2018.  Among the highlights would have to be Hoya celata and Hoya soidaoensis, which I spent considerable time, with many setbacks over the years, to get into flower.  The most exciting Hoya that I flowered in 2018 though would have to be Hoya maxima Red Corona.  I had always wanted to flower one of the imbricate Hoyas and it finally happened!

I have to mention a couple of disappointments from 2018.  Try as I might, I failed to flower Hoya obtusifolia.  Buds aborted all year long; I cannot for the life of me determine what I am doing wrong.  This is a plant that takes up way too much room, so if I can’t flower it next summer it will have to go.  The other big disappointment of last year was a friendship that I thought I had forged online seem to have fallen apart.  I may have misspoke, or who knows?  It is very hard to know what went wrong, but I miss this person who seems to have fallen away.

Other highlights from 2018 include successfully growing out a number of Hoya bella seedlings from my own seed. The best purchase of last year was Hoya platycaulis, which continues to fascinate me with its unusual growing habits. The best thing I learned last year was water rooting not only works, but is the go to method for difficult to root Hoyas.  Well I will end this post now wishing all of you the happiest, and healthiest of new years.  May all of your Hoya dreams come true!

Happy New Year’s Eve everyone! Today we finish up with Hoya ‘Nathalie’. I feel that I got off to a bad start with this plant, and if more care would have been taken, the plant could have been flowered much faster.  Now that I have the plant to the size that I do though, all it wants to do is flower.  It could also be one of those Hoyas that just have to get some age on it before it will bloom.  Regardless, Hoya ‘Nathalie’ makes a great specimen for the collection and I can highly recommend the plant to everyone!

Finally after four full years of growing, a couple of months ago, I noticed a real peduncle that actually started to bud up.  I was so excited that finally I would get to see the flowers on this plant that I had spent so much time cultivating.

Hoya ‘Nathalie’ always grew best in the summer when placed outdoors in the greenhouse. After long periods of steady growth I was checking the plant at least weekly for signs of it first peduncle, always disappointed when I found nothing.  Finally after three years I spotted my first vestigial peduncle, these are half atrophied peduncles that never fully develop and don’t mean a thing!