Hoya anncajanoae is endemic to to Luzon Island in the Philippines and was named after its discoverer, Ann O. Cajano, a technician at the Botanical Herbarium and Museum of Natural History, UPLB College, Leguna. It was published by Dale Kloppenburg and Simeona V. Siar in 2008. It is in the Acanthostemma Section of Hoyas and has pretty large flowers for that section. It also has the fragrant caramel scented flowers of the type, and I found it to be a heavy nectar dripper.

Hoya anncajanoae came to me about four or five years ago with my first order from the Thai vendor AH Hoyas. I anticipated that it would flower in short order, but found out that assumption was grossly, overly, optimistic. As with most Hoyas, this one was moved up through a series of pots starting out with a 2 inch rose pot and eventually ending up in a 6 inch plastic pot. It grew well at times, but only in stops and starts, sometimes going many months with no new growth.

Usually if your Hoya is not growing, and it is not in hibernation from dry winter air, it means that there is some root rot going on. I am certain that some of my issues with Hoya anncajanoae came from root rot that I kept choosing to ignore. The leaves in coloration and in texture are very similar to Hoya sp. aff. buroniae (the former DS-70). I figured that it would be just as easy to grow, and flower as the old reliable DS-70, but alas as the years rolled by without even a peduncle, I learned that was not true.

After trying everything from windowsill growing, to tent growing, to greenhouse growing, with different fertilizers, and light regimens all to no avail, Hoya anncajanoae was added to my Hoya Hall of Shame. Finally after throwing it into the bottom of an upstairs grow tent as an after thought in the fall of 2020, I was blown away with a peduncle forming in December of that year. The buds steadily grew and were many times larger than on aff. burtoniae. Finally in early January of 2021, Hoya anncajanoae finally began to open her flowers!

I think that if this plant could flower far quicker than the 4-5 years that it took me if I would have dealt with its root rot problem early on and restarted it from cutting. If grown properly, it is a stunning Hoya with large butterscotch scented blooms as a bonus. I give this plant a very high recommendation for all growers and hope to see it made more widely available.