This is the final Hoya benchaii comparison photo and tomorrow we will wrap it up with this species.
Hoya benchaii and Hoya ‘Almost Paula’
Hoya ‘Almost Paula’ is one of my favorite hybrids that is never out of flower!
Hoya benchaii and Hoya sp. UT-247
It is hard not to love the dark red color of H. sp. UT-247!
Hoya benchaii and Hoya cutis-porcelana
Hoya cutis-porcelana is never out of flower so it makes a lot of appearances in this blog!
Hoya benchaii and Hoya blashernaezii ssp. Siariae
Now we start a series of comparison photos between Hoya benchaii and whatever else I had blooming at the same time. Here it is paired with Hoya blashernaezii ssp. Siariae:
Growing Hoya benchaii Part Five
Finally in early December, my first set of buds opened. I really earned these flowers after struggling with this plant for six years. I neglected to say that I also had to battle root mealies on these Hoyas as they seemed particularly attracted to it. Anyhow, I finally got these flowers under my belt and now both plants have bloomed a few times since.
Growing Hoya benchaii Part Four
Both of my cuttings that sat there for months began to put on some serious growth in late 2022/early 2023. I finally got a peduncle with one developing bud in last summer, and then of course I was crushed when it blasted at about 1/4 inch in size. It seemed as if I was never destined to flower this species. Finally in late November I had peduncles and developing buds which actually began to open!
Growing Hoya benchaii Part Three
The last time I restarted Hoya benchaii from cuttings was late in 2021. It was particularly painful because I had actually got the plant to around 8 inches in height. I was growing in leca using the semi-hydro method, but like all my Hoyas when grown that way it was succumbing to root rot. By this point I had moved over to coconut husk chips as a medium so I managed to root 2 small cuttings in it. It took a very long time, but finally I began to see growth in these cuttings in the spring of 2022.
Growing Hoya benchaii Part Two
I got a small rooted cutting of Hoya benchaii way back in 2017. You have probably heard of some Hoyas being referred to as plastic plants; For myself Hoya benchaii typifies that condition. I went through so many points where the plant would only gather dust on the leaves for months with zero growth. I tried growing it in a lot of different media types over the years with many restarts primarily because of root rot.
Growing Hoya benchaii Part One
Honestly I thought that growing Hoya benchaii would be pretty straight forward and similar to my experience with H. kloppenburgii; nothing could have been further from the truth!