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.