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!

One of the things I discovered about Hoya flavida is that it needs very little water and is sensitive to over watering. You can easily go 2-3 weeks without watering this plant, and it will be happier for it. I don’t know if this information helped me finally flower it, but it definitely made the plant happier.

When I brought the plant indoors in September, I put it into a new grow-tent that I specifically set up for species that liked it cooler. It had exactly a 12 1/2 hour daylight cycle with high humidity and temperatures that never got above 73F in the day and dropped to 64F at night. I could not believe it when I saw new peduncles form, and they actually started to bud up!

I put Hoya flavida outside for the first time this past summer with the hopes that the plant would bud up on those barren peduncles. Unfortunately whether it was the colder temperatures, or an over watering mistake, the peduncles that were on the plant fell off, and the plant stopped growing altogether! It took until mid-August, before that plant started to grow again, and soon I would need to bring it back indoors for the winter.

After re-rooting this Hoya it grew steadily for months, which turned into years and finally in its fourth year it grew a peduncle! I was elated after all that time. Unfortunately Hoya flavida turned into one of those Hoyas where a peduncle means almost nothing. Soon I had 3 peduncles but they never would bud up. Below the amazing red leaves of the plant:

I grew this one for about 8 months when I saw that it had stopped growing for some time, which usually does not bode well. After lifting the plant out of its pot, it had the dreaded root rot so I restarted it.

I got this plant about five years ago from Ric Morier in Florida. The cutting rooted fairly quickly and we were off to the races, or so I thought. Below the buds of Hoya flavida:

If you remember, a few months ago I listed 7 or 8 Hoyas that I have never been able to flower despite my best attempts. Well Hoya flavida was on that list and can now be removed! Below the flowers of Hoya flavida.

From right to left, here is Hoya Rebecca, Hoya platycaulis, and Hoya multiflora.

Here are the flowers of Hoya aff. Bella PES-03 and Hoya vitiensis next to each other.

Not a very good photo, but Hoya linearis did manage to open up her flowers this week,