Hoya obtusifolia will only bloom in October in the U.S., but by decreasing its day length bit by bit, you can get it to flower in March or April.

The next few days I will highlight Hoyas that changed there behavior by me messing around with location and changing their photoperiod. I will start with Hoya sp. IM-08; this is a Hoya that has barely flowered for me. I have never had more than 2 flowers at once and it has only bloomed three times since I’ve had it. My friend Julie from the UK gave me information on a woman (Timea Valeria Takacs), who has flowered hers profusely on her windowsill. I followed some of her suggestions and moved my plant from 14 hour days to 12 hour days and put it into ambient conditions. Below is the result. I seem to now have dozens and maybe even hundreds of buds forming all over the plant. If you can’t flower your plant, it may be because of nonfluctuating day length. Below are a few of the new buds forming:

I spotted these on the back of the plant when I spun it around yesterday:

Here is a photo of Hoya Sulawesi #1 just beginning to open its flowers. Sulawesi is in Indonesia, and I just read a very insightful article on palm oil in the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/14/business/economy/malaysia-palm-oil-european-union.html These palm oil plantations are quickly wiping out all of the jungle diversity where Hoyas like Sulawesi #1 lives, but the story is very nuanced. Anyhow, I recommend the story if it is available to you.

I was really shocked to find what I thought was a Hoya that would only do well and flower in a tent blooming away on a north windowsill.

H. sp. EPC-610 Aff. acuta, now called H. verticillata, is budding up on multiple peduncles and flowering on the windowsill. Here is a photo of the blooms from this morning:

Last summer I lost the roots on Hoya griffithii Silver and tried something different. Rather than rooting one cutting at a time in a small pot, I took several cuttings that I rooted into a large 7 inch pot. I am using 100% coconut husk chips, and now I have a plant that is well on its way to becoming the nicest specimen that I have ever had of this H. griffithii clone. It is so unbelievably healthy and vigorous!

I have been through a lot with Hoya chinghungensis through the years. It made it as the center spread in the Swedish Hoya Telegraph way back in 2019. I probably sold over 300 cuttings and starter plants of it so it has spread all over the U.S. It has really become a precious plant to me. Here is the restarted plant in 2024; it is not what it used to be, but it is on its way.

I have not put much care into this plant now in a very long time, but somehow it continues to survive. The plant is in a very heavy glazed clay pot, and the soil is also far to dense for it, but it keeps on keeping on…

I had to start this plant over a number of times since I first acquired it. Here is its latest reincarnation: