I was blown away by how fragrant the flowers of Hoya maxima were.  I had never read anything about their perfume online before.  I was also surprised at their size and their wonderful texture.

I believe that the complete living ecosystem encompassed in my mount made the difference in getting my imbricate Hoya to finally flower.  Besides the mosses, grasses, ferns, and fungi, there were a hundreds of very small soil mites that made there home in this extraordinary mount.  I believe they contributed valuable co2 that helped the plant grow.  Below you see a Hoya undulata also happily living on the mount.

I should also say at this time that my mount of Hoya imbricata/maxima sits in a large tray of water and is covered in a clear grow cloche that stands 22 inches high.  It is grown under one 300 watt LED light and is kept warm.  Every day the plant gets misted with RO water and fertilized.

Even with all of this care and as well as the mount was growing, I was taken back when I spotted the first peduncle!  Unfortunately, the first and second peduncle produced fell off.  The third peduncle started producing buds and they promptly fell off as well!

After these failures, I thought that maybe the atmosphere was too small, and I built a polycarbonate extension for the plant bringing it from 22 inches of height to 30 inches.  Finally a fourth peduncle formed and the buds made it to term – I was euphoric.  After almost five years and so many setbacks I had finally done it!

With my new mount doing so well, in October of last year I ordered a Hoya maxima Red Corona plant from AH Hoyas in Thailand.  It arrived nearly dead, but I saved one leaved and added it to my imbricata mount.  After two months it rooted and started to grow rather well.

Frustrated after 3 or 4 years of putting so much effort into my Hoya imbricata, I decided to put it in a shady spot outside for the summer in 2017, and let nature take its course.  Well nature took its course alright, the squirrels tore the plant to pieces a left it all over the yard. I was just going to compost it, when I got an idea for one more go at the plant.

I had a very large piece of aquarium driftwood kicking around for 10 or more years from the days when I kept fish.  Only my wife saved me from having thrown it out on numerous occasions.  I decided to make this piece of wood into my new mount and fastened a large screened in pocket of soil to the log with clumps of sphagnum also adhered to the wood.  I tied the bits of imbricata to the mount with fishing line soaked the entire thing with water and waited.

Miracle of miracles, it started to grow and respond and mosses, ferns and grasses started to pot up.

After the cracked glass incident, I bought tempered glass at a cost of $60 to take the heat.  It was all for naught as my Hoya imbricata languished in the aquarium and did not do well at all.  I removed it and made a larger mount out of U-shaped bamboo, covered in plastic tubing, covered in sphagnum. This whole contraption sat in a weighted terracotta pot.  There the plant lived for two years, and that is all it did was live, if it put on a new leaf it would lose a leaf.  It did very poorly.

Below a close-up of the flowers on my Hoya maxima Red Corona:

Realizing that I probably needed to give it more humidity to make this plant flower, I bought it a 30 gallon aquarium to grow in.  I had it suspended with egg crate above water and put a heat mat underneath the tank for warmth.  I had a HPS grow-light above the 1/4 inch special glass top that I had purchased to hold in the humidity. Within two Hours the heat from the lamp had shattered the glass, which rained down into the tank cutting my plant.

I have no photos of the plant from this time so more photos of my happy fuzzy Hoya maxima flowers:

I received my first Hoya imbricata on a small mount from Gardino’s Nursery in an eBay transaction in 2014. Here is a photo after I had it for a few months and it was outgrowing its mount:

The leaves of Hoya maxima Red Corona are about 3 inches in diameter and grab the mount with a vice like grip.

It was a difficult long process, but finally I flowered one of the imbricate Hoya species.  Plant scientists need to do a study and survey on these plants as I am very confused on differences between H. imbricata and H. maxima. They are all shingle plants with the same symbiotic relationship with ants. There are supposedly species whose leaves get to be 10 inches in diameter.  That I would love to see!