Hoya aff. clemensiorum comes from Sabah and is one spectacular looking Hoya.  It has 20 cm, almost 10 inch long dagger like leaves with beautiful finlaysonii like flowers.  I flowered this plant in around 14 months from cutting, but only because there was a serious problem with the roots!

I think that we all know when something is wrong with our plants, and we try to delude ourselves into thinking everything is fine when we know deep down inside that it is not. In the case of H. clemensiorum, for a long time the plant seemed to use no water at all; the soil constantly stayed moist meaning that there was no water uptake going on. Then the biggest and most beautiful leaf begins to yellow and then fell off. I wanted to pull it out of the pot at that point, but then a peduncle forms with developing buds. I had to see it through before checking the roots, because who knows if one will ever get the chance to experience blooms on a cool plant like that ever again.

After taking the plant from the pot, it was apparent from the lack of roots and the tell tale signs of thread roots, which are all that remains after the dead material sloughs off, that there was little chance of saving the plant other than to take a strong cutting and start over again. The upside to this root rot debacle, was I did get the blooms, which I very well might never have gotten otherwise.  I will report back soon as to whether I was able to save this plant from the cuttings I took, or not.

**Update** March 2018: I was able to save the plant from the cuttings I took. It is now four years later, and I have a vibrant plant that has flowered again.  It is still a very slow grower, only putting on two to four new leaves a year.  Directly below are photos of the entire plant and one 10.25 inch (26 cm.) leaf.