A really nice woman named Paige sent me two cuttings in the summer of 2020 that she knew little about and gave me the chance to grow them out. Hoya sp. EPC-196 was one of those Hoyas.

The leaves on the cutting had no real discernable pattern, but to my eyes looked like it was in the Finlaysonii Complex and expected the flowers to look like most of them do. It rooted quickly and grew at a fairly rapid pace during the summer. It went through a series of up-pottings and finally stopped growing and stood still in the winter. The leaves were very unattractive, not only having no good coloration, but developed bacterial or fungal spotting.

After sitting there for months in my basement grow tent, finally in late March of this year it developed a peduncle. I was excited to bloom this plant mostly so I could get rid of it. It finally budded up and flowered this week. The scent of the blooms were really pleasant, and they opened in daylight compared to most Hoya flowers opening at night.

There is not much more to say about Hoya sp. EPC-196 other than I suspect that it was some kind of Hoya cross that someone grew out from seed. Even if wasn’t prone to these fungal spots, this Hoya is the weakest candidate in any of the Finlaysonii Complex of plants. Some of the Hoyas in this group have spectacular leaf patterns and textures, but this plant really has nothing going for it with very blah leaves. It is not often that I talk down about a Hoya, but this is an exception.