Today I end the discussion of Hoya gildingii. I should note here that the flowers do not have a nice scent. It is not perfumed, but does have a somewhat musky scent that I cannot really describe. This is a plant that will not be an easy grower for most, but I wish that it was more widely available so that anyone that wanted to give it a try, could get the chance. I hope that it is one that I can keep around for a while to find out more about its likes and dislikes.
I really like the ability to hang plants in here as you can see from this photo:
Over the next few months my little plant grew a couple of leaves and flowered three times, but the majority of the leaves looked chlorotic and did not seem healthy. I decided to see if I could take this poor looking plant and propagate it. I took two cuttings to root in water, and repotted what little was left to the root ball. Surprisingly the top cutting that I placed in water grew a peduncle and began budding up. It grew a couple of water roots; I potted it up and low and behold those buds opened up!
I last grew Hoya linearis about 10 years ago, and then it was only a few cuttings that I eventually lost. A kind subscriber to my YouTube channel decided that I needed to try it again, and sent me a small plant. I was really thrilled and a little nervous, because of its reputation as a difficult grower. Below the flowers of the plant:
It is such a rare event that I will spend another day on the seedpods of Hoya ruthiae. The only way that I can figure that the plant was pollinated was through the strong water mist that I spray the plant with every day. Here is a photo of the entire plant:
I sold a tremendous number (at least for me) of cuttings this summer, and the weird thing was that not one person bought a cutting of Hoya bicknellii. Is that because everyone has one, or they just don’t like it; I just don’t know. It currently has 3 open peduncles of flowers, and I love the plant, but I guess that I must be the only one. Here is a bloom photo from this morning:
Hoya bordenii is a Philippine Hoya described back in 1906 by Rudolf Schlechter. He was a German Botanist who is said to have described at least a thousand new species, many of them Orchids which was his primary field of study. Hoya bordenii is an unresolved name.
Hoya Kaimuki flowers regularly because I am able to give it enough 12-14 hour days using grow lights. If you live in an area where that is not necessary, more power to you; I need the lights, and the results speak for themselves!
Below are my dining room Hoyas; I have to run a T-5 strip light here, because the roof overhang cuts out too much light to keep plants in the space. Note the pipe insulation on the electrical cord; we have a cat that likes to chew on them. If we ever have a fire, it will be because of that darned cat chewing wires!
Happy May 1st everyone! The Hoya growing season will soon be in full-swing around here – Finally! Here are a couple of photos showing what an unbelievable foliage plant Hoya papaschonii can be. I say foliage plant because the flowers are small, but the glossy leaves and dozens of seedpods make up for these shortcomings in spades.
