Here are a couple of beauties that look quite nice when paired together!

I used to flower Hoya serpens regularly but over the last few years, it has been all that I can do to keep the plant alive. I was very close to losing this one, but I’m so glad that I managed to keep it around. This is a plant that will only flower with the increasing day length of spring and early summer. I did it under lights by increasing day length from 12 hours a day to 15 hours a day.

With 14 flowers on a single peduncle, this Hoya undulata breaks my former record of a dozen blooms on one peduncle.

Together for the first time; I think that they make a great couple!

Hoya papaschonii is the only Hoya that I am aware of that appears to be self-pollinating so that anyone that wants to try to raise a Hoya from seed should pick up one of these! I think a well grown specimen can make a pretty interesting houseplant, and I am trying to grow a huge one right now. Below is a photo before I cut off all of the seedpods. I have grown so many of these over the years from seed that I have no reason to grow anymore. Also, I am trying to save myself the mess of all of these pods bursting.

Before I end my discussion of Hoya thailandica for 2023, I should note that when this plant is started from a cutting, it will frequently lose its leaves. After the leaves yellow and fall off, there will be only a green stem remaining, do not despair as most of the time this green stem will root, and new leaves will eventually spring out. Despite all of my troubles with this plant, l keep it around because it is exceptionally difficult to find as none of the Florida growers have it, and most of the Thai, and Indonesian vendors are unable to grow it.

Besides growing it dry much of the time, I believe that this is a plant that likes a slightly lower pH as in nature it is found growing in evergreen forests. I am now growing my plant primarily in coconut husk. While my plant does not look especially nice, for me it looks better than most of the time that I have kept it. It is growing in a shaded area of a grow tent under one LED light. The temperatures dip down to 60 F degrees at night and get to about 73 F during the day. These are warmer temps than it would find in nature, but seemed sufficiently cool to flower it. Both times the plant has flowered for me in January.

I will be the first to admit that Hoya thailandica just does not like me very much. I have really struggled with it over the past 8 or 9 years and have had to start it over a number of times. In nature this plant besides living in very cool, humid, temperatures goes through a prolonged dry spell November through February. I have found that this plant requires very little water, and I just barely mist the soil every 10 days or so during the winter.

Hoya thailandica was named for the country from which it is endemic. It was discovered by Obchant Thaithong who first collected it in 1994.

Hoya thailandica comes from an elevation close to 2,000 meters in Chiang Mai Province, Doi Inthanond National Park Thailand. Technically the park is part of the Himalayan Mountain Range and has cool temperatures with high humidity year around.