Hoya vangviengiensis is name for the location where it was first found in Vang Vieng, Laos in 2010. In 2015 was also discovered in Yunnan Province, China; it was grown out and confirmed to be the same species in 2017.

Hoya vangviengiensis flowers are powerfully scented and last over a week. They drip small amounts of nectar. Here are the conditions under which it flowered. The night time temperatures would dip down to as low as 57 degrees Fahrenheit with day time highs reaching about 72 degrees. The day cycle was 12 hours of a strong LED light made by Mars Hydro with a manufacture date of 2021. I watered very sparingly, keeping it far drier than in previous years. Humidity was always high never going below 70% except when I opened the tent door. I fertilized lightly every time I watered.

I had tried most tricks over time to get it to flower including different fertilizers, day length changes, putting it outside in the greenhouse during the summer. I tried different types of grow lights and nothing seemed to do the trick to make this one bud up. Finally I noticed a peduncle starting to form tiny buds in late December of 2021; it took me quite a long time to really believe it was finally happening, but it made steady progress and the blooms finally opened up in Mid-February, 2022.

I had many stops and starts with this plant over the years. It would go months at a time without any growth at all. I suspect that there is some root rot that has gone on with it at times, as it is in far too large of a pot, which I am trying to move away from. I will go into extensive detail about how it lives in nature, and apparently it is totally epiphytic in its endemic habitat so the large pot had to be detrimental to it.

I just looked back and it took me less time than I initially thought to flower Hoya vangviengiensis. I got the plant as a cutting in September of 2017, where it quickly rooted and grew well enough to have to up-pot it a few times over the first year or so. I was tremendously excited when it got its first peduncle, but this is one of those Hoyas that a peduncle means absolutely nothing. It probably got a couple of dozen over the years but never budded up.

Here is my post from July 27, 2020: “I can’t even pronounce this one, let alone flower it. Another four year old Hoya that will periodically produce peduncles, but has never ever tried to bud up. I pretty much have given up on this one. I keep it around, but will in all likelihood never bloom it.“

Well, here we are in March of 2022, and I can finally say that I got this monkey off my back. Hoya vangviengiensis has now been flowered, and we will spend the next couple of weeks talking about it. Here is a close up of one of the blooms:

After these new buds open again, I will show the entire plant as it has gotten a lot bigger since the last time that I showed it. Hoya australis ‘Lisa’ is definitely one of the best Hoya introductions in the last 10 years as it is beautiful and actually pretty easy to grow.

My sole remaining Hoya platycaulis plant was down to one leaf and looked like it was going to die, but using some hydrogen peroxide, and a lot of luck, I have pulled it back from the brink. It still only has six leaves, but at least it now has a chance. I find that with the Hoya market the way that it is now, when you lose these species, you have very little chance of getting it back again.

Here are Hoya cutis-porcelana and Hoya lyi flowers together for the first and probably last time.

Here is a bloom comparison between Hoya cutis-porcelana and Hoya krohniana: