I received this cutting early in the year and had a lot of trepidation about it, because of its rarity in the trade and supposedly need for very cool growing conditions. I do not usually fare that well with the cool growers and they continue to stymie me. Well I had no reason to fear as this plant seemed to like me right from the beginning.

I received a small rooted plant of Hoya nyhuusiae from my good friend, and one of the best Hoya growers that I know, Jimmy Myers from North Carolina. It is so difficult to obtain these rarer Hoyas; so I am really indebted to him for sharing this plant with me. Below the leaves of H. nyhuusiae:

I am very excited to start talking about Hoya nyhuusiae, which has put on an enormous floral display for me. We will begin by showing a side by side comparison of Hoya patella and H. nyhuusiae to help illustrate how large the flowers are. I had no idea that the flowers were near the size of H. patella.

Unlike the regular Hoya nummularioides, the Christine Burton clone of this plant does not flower as often, or as profusely as the regular nummularioides. I got this plant as a very tiny bonus plant, which was included in an eBay purchase of H. albiflora from her. The albiflora did not live very long for me, but I kept this little nummularioides alive and it has been with me now for over 10 years. The leaves are much thicker and more succulent than the normal, readily, available nummularioides.

I figured that it would never flower for me again, but the other night I walked into my office, and there was a very sweet smell emanating from somewhere. I looked through the plants and sure enough I found this single peduncle of flowers. I recently sold a lot of this plant off in the hopes that it will remain out there, Christine Burton has been gone for awhile now, but this plant reminds me of her every time I see it.

Here is Hoya sp. UT-247, which I only started over from a cutting a few months ago, and it is already blooming!

Except for the interminable wait for flowering, Hoya flavida gets my highest recommendation. The gorgeous red leaves and the long lasting no drip blooms are huge selling points for this species. I will bring it back if it flowers regularly now that I have it at this stage.

Below you can see my entire plant and how large it got before flowering. I think this species really has to get some age on it before it is able to flower.

Hoya flavida comes from MT Gallego in the Solomon Islands and was described in 1993.

As far as Hoya flowers go, the blooms of Hoya flavida are outstanding, if for no other reason then the flowers don’t drip any nectar. After cleaning up this nectar mess with most Hoyas, I can really appreciate the no drip trait of this species!

Finally in late October, one day before Halloween the buds opened and revealed the pubescent blooms. There was only the lightest of fruity scents on day one of the flowers opening. I finally did it!