Hoya isabelchanae was named after Isabel Claire Chan Yuen Ching, late daughter of a Singaporean patron of botanical research and a gardener with an interest in Hoya.  It is an Acanthostemma type Hoya that has pomegranate colored flowers with no scent and peduncles that are 4-5 inches long.

I had been wanting this Hoya for some time after I first heard about it back in 2016. Little did I know that I had purchased it in 2018 under a collection number of GPS 7-35. I found this out when I researched the accession number. From the description by Michele Rodda and Nathalie Simonsson:

“Hoya isabelchanae is only known from the base of Gunung Boliohutu, Sulawesi, where it was collected as a sterile cutting in 2002 and brought into cultivation at the Royal Botanic GardenEdinburgh where it regularly blooms in a heated greenhouse from May to October. The species was collected in primary forest and it was growing in shaded but exposed area on a decaying tree 12 m tall. A further collection is widely available in cultivation under Gerard Paul Shirley number GPS10161 and 7-35. This accession is apparently also from Sulawesi but no further collection information is available.”

I received Hoya isabelchanae, then named Hoya sp. GPS 7-35, in May of 2018 as small bare rooted plant. I carefully transplanted it into a 3 inch net pot and put it into one of my homemade propagation boxes.  After about 3 weeks in the warm humid  box, my small plant started to show some good root growth. You have to essentially re-root these Thai plants as they are ripped out of their media, and all of the roots are completely dried out when the plant is received. The plant grew steadily in my downstairs grow-tent and developed a peduncle at about 9 months of age, budded up, and then flowered soon after. It has been a regular bloomer ever since.

Because of lack of space, I move a lot of Hoyas in and out of my life, but
Hoya isabelchanae is such a winner, I will be keeping this one in my collection for a long time to come. It is a plant that stays at a manageable size, blooms early and heavily, and is just a delight to have around.