I have quite a few Hoyas that I have flowered that for one reason or another have not yet made an appearance on this site. Hoya sp. EPC-319 PG-04 is one of those and it was brought to my attention by an eBay customer of mine when she received a cutting of it from me as a freebie.
I took so many cuttings off from this plant in anticipation of getting rid of it, which I could not bring myself to do, there is a smaller display of flowers. It is still nice however.
The way I grow Hoyas in grow tents on huge humidity trays come with a lot of maintenance. Every few months I have to strip everything down to access these trays to scrub them out and sanitize them. A humidifier might be easier, but they require maintenance too and either expensive cartridges, and, or distilled water. My way is free, but if you count my hours of cleaning, it may be more expensive! Below one of my trays ready for cleaning; you can see in the bottom right corner my shop vac for pulling out the water and scum.
It took me 2 days to fully clean this grow tent. Below are a few of the plants that have been moved out so that I can access the disgusting humidity trays.
This Hoya multiflora has only been growing in this pot for about six months, but as can be seen I would like to up-pot it, and I believe that to be impossible without removing all of those water roots with a sharp knife. I think that this would kill the plant. I feel that it will not be too many months before the plant will begin going downhill, and since I can’t get it out of the pot, I will have to take cuttings to restart. Another issue is that I find it impossible to clean the leca and am unable to reuse it, which seems pretty wasteful.
My number one difficulty with semi-hydro or passive hydroponics for Hoyas is the problem with up-potting or repotting the plant. You can see below the roots that have penetrated the inner pot and the legs of the pot. It would literally be impossible to remove from this pot without destroying the plant.
I have had Hoya callistophylla for over 15 years and think it is one of my oldest Hoyas. It requires copious amounts of heat and humidity to flower, and since I have not had room for it in one of my grow tents for a very long time, I have not seen flowers. In the spring and early summer I finally chopped up my very large and road worn plant and sold off most of the cuttings. I kept the worst cuttings for myself and rooted a number of them. One of the brand new cuttings surprised me and actually bloomed. I was pretty surprised and happy.
I have to give a big shout out to April at https://unsolicitedplanttalks.com/ . She was kind enough to send me a Hoya medinillifolia when she heard that I had lost mine and was looking for another. I have people ask me all the time who do I recommend as a vendor, well April gets a 100% recommendation from me after seeing how well the plant was packed and reading the testimonials on her website. She imports some of the rarer stuff, but also keeps some of the more common as well. Below is a photo of the cute little plant she sent me. I hope that I can keep it alive, but if I can’t it won’t be because the plant did not arrive in top notch condition.
I wish that I had more information about this plant for you, but after scouring the internet, I can come up with nothing as to where this plant comes from. I am wondering why it has not become a species yet. It is funny some Hoyas become a new species literally months after being discovered and some take years. This one has been in the trade now for at least 10 years, but still has not been named other than by accession number.
This is a great Hoya if you can find it, and while somewhat easier than sigillatis, it still is very susceptible to over watering. I wish that I had my plant back, and if I ever find another, I will pick it up.
Here is a photo of the blooms of Hoya sp. GPS 7240 taken at magnification:
