Hoya inflata

Hoya inflata made quite a journey to get to me.  It was taken as a cutting in Australia, went to Sweden in a group order, where it was then sent along to Great Britain.  It was then rooted by my good friend Julie Kennedy, sent on to me a couple months later; it now lives in my home in Vermont.  I would say that it is a world traveler.

As luck would have it, I started this plant in semi-hydroponics in a new substrate called Growstones, which are made from recycled glass.  Apparently it was the right decision, because the plant grew quickly from the start and never let up.   I watered the plant daily with a nutrient solution and placed it under a combination of high pressure sodium and T-5 fluorescent lighting.  It lived in a high humidity grow tent and flowered in less than nine months from the cutting being struck.

The plant is a PNG native and was discovered in 1997.  It was moved from the Madangia genus to the Hoya genus in 2006.  I had a lot of fun with this plant and can recommend that you give it a try if you can get a hold of a cutting.

Hoya inflata

Here is a video of the plant taken in my kitchen in February of 2014: