Here is the entire plant:

Here are a couple of new photos of Hoya campanulata.  I have come to really like this plant. When grown hot and humid, it is an extremely easy Hoya.  It blooms on average once every three weeks or so.  It is another Hoya that I grow in a conventional mix, and the plant does not seem to mind being kept almost wet.  Maybe it is because it is so darned hot in that room, that it tolerates the wet soil – I have never tried to grow it in the main house, but I suspect that it would go into decline quickly.

I have recently looked at a couple of really nice Hoya websites, where everything was just a touch more beautiful than real life.  I’m talking mostly about what they do with the reds on the flowers using photo processing software such as Photoshop.  Candy apple red does not to my knowledge exist in the world of Hoyas; if it does, I have never seen it.  I want to make sure that my photos accurately portray what the flower will look like in real life.  The only thing I use photo editing software for is to remove the occasional dust speck or to crop an image.  I don’t want to have someone spend years growing out a plant only to be disappointed when it finally blooms.  I think Hoya flowers are beautiful enough without “tarting” them up.  What you see here is what you would see if you saw the bloom in person at my house.  Here is a photo taken this week of Hoya megalaster with thirteen flowers just beginning to open up – it is an accurate representation of the real thing.

Here is a photo I took a few minutes ago to show the size of this wonderful flower.

Today is my birthday, and I have been taking bloom photos all day. Here are a couple:

Here are a couple more photos of Hoya archboldiana x onychoides buds taken this morning.  Should open most any day.

Buds are Amost as Nice as the Flowers!

Hoya patella is a funny little plant.  It can be happy for what seems like forever in the same little pot.  I am going on my third year with the plant in its original 3 1/2″ container.  I think this year will be the year that I finally re-pot.  It seems to be happy for the most part in my plant room’s warmth and humidity, but it really shines out in the greenhouse in the summer time.  It rarely flowers inside, but with the added brightness and humidity in the greenhouse it flowers profusely.  I have a time-lapse video of it from last August with over 12 blooms opening that I will be assembling and adding to You Tube sometime around Easter.

It is available in both a pink and white variety.  I have been struggling with a cutting from the white form that I received last Summer.  It was the most miserly cutting that I ever got in a order.  It arrived with one leaf, grew another and has almost died on me three times and counting.  Three separate times it has started to put forth new growth, only to die back and break my heart.  Those two little leaves are trying to put forth a new growth vine once again – please cross your fingers for me!  I really want this one to make it.  I have also taken a cutting from my large pink form, and it has struggled as well.  I think part of the problem is that it has a very small and vulnerable root system that is very susceptible to over and under watering until the plant is well established.  In my plant room it is so hot, that watering decisions almost need to be made twice daily, which is not easy to do when you are at work.  After the plant is established, it seems to be very undemanding in its needs.

Lately, on various Hoya forums, I’m seeing a lot of interest in an athletic field ammendment called Turface for growing Hoyas.  Here are a couple of words of warning about my experiences with it.  Also, thrown in is my experience growing Hoya multiflora in semi-hydroponics.

I should probably not say anything, but I can’t help myself.  Here is my experience with both multiflora and Turface.  Multiflora grows like a weed for me when grown conventionally in a moist, loose, peat-based mix.  For fun, I tried growing it in semi-hydro with hydroton; it grew one leaf, flowered once, stalled out, and quit growing while the multiflora growing in regular mix tripled in size.  The plant in semi-hydro eventually went downhill, and I threw it out.  All I will say about Turface is that I bought six bags (300lbs) of it, and I have since spread it on my driveway.  The biggest problem with Turface is that it is heavy, and it keeps the plants too wet.  I once rotted the roots off from 15-20 plants using it.  That is my experience with Turface, and my word of warning.  Your results could be different, but proceed slowly with this product.