I was so excited when I flowered Hoya stenophylla for the first time, because so few had done it, and now it simply won’t stop flowering. It currently has between 50 and 100 flowers on it. The flowers are pretty insignificant and only fully open at night so it is difficult to photograph well.

I will be the first to admit that most of my magic of flowering Hoyas takes place in warm, humid, and artificially lit grow tents. I am frequently asked about what might flower with no artificial aids just grown in the regular house on a windowsill. Well, the answer might surprise you; I believe that most Hoyas given enough time will reward you with flowers in the regular house, especially with the lengthening days of spring into summer. An example of this phenomena is Hoya alagensis flowering on the windowsill below. I have now seen for myself a number of Hoyas that I thought could only grow and flower in the grow tent flowering away on windowsills in the house. So if you don’t have a grow tent, don’t despair, your flowers will come, and maybe faster than you think!

These flowers completely blew me away. I had only flowered this species once in the past and not for a very long time. It has always lived in a grow tent up until about seven weeks ago, when I needed the room and threw it upstairs. When I went to water it the other day, I discovered a huge set of buds with another smaller set nearby. Here are the flowers from that large set of buds. More tomorrow.

I hope to bring this easy growing plant back in the future when it gets a little larger. I want to thank my friend Wil for gifting me the cutting as it was something that was never on my radar. It makes a lovely, easy growing specimen and get my highest recommendation!

Here is a lovely photo of Hoya nabawanensis with a filter applied with Movavi photo editing software:

Here is a close-up of the flowers of Hoya nabawanensis. They are lightly fragrant, and smell much like the blooms of Hoya obscura.

Hoya nabawanensis budded up and flowered nine months after starting it from a cutting. It has been watered by soaking the pot with coconut husk chip substrate once a week.

I received a nice cutting of Hoya nabawanensis late in the summer of 2023. It rooted easily in coconut husk and was very straight forward growing. I would compare it to Hoya lacunosa in its difficulty of cultivation. At this point it has been up-potted twice and it is currently in a four inch nursery pot.

Hoya nabawanensis was first collected in Nabawan, Sabah, Borneo and this is where it gets it name. It was Found in mixed dipeterocarp hill forest and hill heath forest in a wet humid area with low bushes and low growing vegetation and sphagnum moss on floor. One of the original collectors was Eva-Karin Wiberg. Below the foliage of Hoya nabawanensis:

Hoya nabawanensis is native to Malaysia (Sabah on Borneo Island). It was brought to Dale Kloppenburg’s attention when samples were sent to him in June of 2001. He cited it and named it a new species in 2002.