For the second year in a row, I managed to get Hoya thomsonii to flower at the wrong time. This is a plant that ordinarily blooms as the days shorten in the fall. By growing it most of the year under grow lights that stay on for 15 hours/day and then moving it to grow lights that are on for 12 hours/day, it will set flowering in motion.
Today is our final day with Hoya naumannii. This is a plant that if you want to grow, and flower it successfully, you will need a strong trellis as it is a heavy, active grower. The blooms are scented, and while not unpleasant smelling, they are not sweet and perfumy. It is a Hoya that will take up a lot of room, so sadly, I am having to give up my plant to make space so that I can give others a try.
It is interesting to compare Hoya calycina to Hoya naumannii as they are very closely related! I am pretty sure that this is the world’s first photo of these 3 species taken together, all in flower at the same time.
Here is a pairing that you don’t see every day!
Here is another size comparison photo just for fun. Note all of the sulfur residue on the leaves.
These were both flowering at the same time so I thought why not put them together for a size comparison.
It took me close to three years to flower Hoya naumannii the first time, and I now believe that it is just one of those Hoyas that have to get quite large in order to flower. I also should state that this is another plant that took off particularly strongly after it was sprayed with sulfur as a flat mite deterrent.
The cutting that I received in 2019 really never stopped growing and I successfully up-potted it many times. I grew this one in coconut husk (coir chips) right from the beginning. It was not at all difficult, but it seemed to take forever to finally grow a peduncle and begin to bud up.
The first time that I attempted growing this plant was way back, close to 15 years ago when Joni Kahn from SRQ Hoyas was still in business. I failed miserably with it, and never thought too much about it again until in 2019 when I was offered a cutting of it from a very nice grower right here in Vermont.
The late David Liddle thought that Hoya naumannii was a wild cross between Hoya australis and Hoya subcalva. This would be the same as the man-made cross that created Hoya ‘Pinkie’.
