Hoya rosarioae was first collected by Dr. Simeona V. Siar in the Philippines in 2007 and was named after Marylin Rosario, Los Banos, Laguna, Philippines. It was published by Kloppenburg & Siar in 2009.

Hoya rosarioae is very similar to Hoya obscura but has smaller flowers, much longer peduncles and the pollinina are much shorter. This information comes from a Dale Kloppenburg publication, but I can attest that this plant is a different animal than H. obscura.  I have tried to grow Hoya obscura on two seperate occasions and failed – it won’t grow for me under my conditions, but Hoya rosarioae grew very easily.

I purchased the plant as a cutting from Ric Morier of Florida in the middle of the summer growing season of 2017.  I grew it in a series of net pots using my regular chunky mix and it grew rapidly. It took a fair amount of moisture, but growing it was completely unproblematic, and it flowered between 6 and 7 months from cutting.  You can’t ask for more than that from a plant!

I read numerous places online that the flowers smell sweet and faintly of roses.  Unfortunately, I can not attest to it, as at the time of the flowers opening, I had a tremendous cold and could not smell anything.  The flowers only lasted about four days and fell off over night.

Hoya rosarioae is a fantastic plant that I can’t recommend highly enough.  It makes a perfect specimen for the light garden and doesn’t get too large too quickly.  It flowers at a very early age and the flowers are supposed to smell sweet.  It doesn’t get much better than that.