I have had to start this plant over a number of times, because of root rot and other maladies. H. thomsonii is a plant that does best in natural light where it can respond to changes in day length. Finally this year I tricked it by moving it from a grow tent with 15 hour days to one that had 12 hour days, and it immediately started to bud up. This go around I am growing it in coconut husk.

I received a cutting of Hoya sp. aff. thomsonii from Jimmy Myers, the great North Carolina grower, a few years ago. As with most thomsonii, I struggled with it, but finally this year was able to flower it, and it was worth the wait. The biggest difference between this plant and the regular H. thomsonii is that the pubescence on this plant is off the chart. It has long hairs all over the leaves. It is difficult to show in a photo, but here is my attempt:

I don’t know if I have shown both of these flowers together before, so here they are with Hoya buntokensis on the left and Hoya undulata on the right.

To All who celebrate Christmas, I want to wish all of you a very happy and merry Christmas. I pull this photo out most every year; it is Hoya cumingiana all decorated for the holiday season.

Here is Hoya undulata showing it in my homemade hanging trellis:

I always have to celebrate whenever Hoya undulata comes into bloom. This is the smooth-edged clone and is the first time that this plant has flowered since restarting this one from a cutting.

I am so happy to have this plant back after having lost it. I want to thank my friend Naomi here in Vermont for making that possible. The flowers need to be seen in person to really appreciate them, and that goes double for the leaves!

The two peduncles of flowers on Hoya lithophytica have finally fully opened. Here is a picture from this morning:

After my wrongly identified Hoya desvoeuxensis turned out to be Hoya vitiensis Yellow, Julie Kennedy felt so bad that she secured for me the real H. desvoeuxensis and sent it to me this summer. The plant was small with only 2 or 3 leaves, but has grown pretty well in a few months and put on a peduncle which now has a single bud maturing. While it only has one bud this go around, I am still excited to flower it with the hopes that as the plant matures, I will have many more flowerings with multiple blooms.

I added this one into the mix just for the fun of it since they were all flowering at the same time.