I’m going to take a few days to introduce Hoya stenaokei to some of the other flowers in the grow tents. Today it meets Hoya Kaimuki. Notice the typical corona of the Macgillivrayi Complex in the Kaimuki bloom.
In November of last year (2023), Hoya stenaokei (NS12-222) budded up and flowered less than 18 months after I had started it from a cutting. The plant was primarily grown in coconut husk chips, with a weekly dip into a nutrient solution. The specimen was truly outstanding despite living with root mealybugs, which I am still working on eradicating.
The 3 plants that came in the order were all labeled H. stenaokei, but what was puzzling was that two of them had pubescent leaves and one had glabrous leaves. I did not know if the vendor somehow made a mistake or not. I sold the smaller of the two pubescent cuttings, and kept one and kept the glabrous one. Both cuttings grew well under lights in the grow tent, but the pubescent one grew with much greater vigor. It was not long before I had to move it up to a 7 inch pot with a tomato ladder trellis.
I received Hoya stenaokei May 10th, 2022 in an Etsy order from an Indonesian vendor. Unlike many overseas orders that I have placed, most of the plants in the box arrived in pretty decent shape. It included two or three half rooted cuttings of stenaokei among other things. I quickly potted them up in coir chips and put them in the propagator.
Hoya stenaokei joins H. macgillivrayi, H. archboldiana, and H. onychoides in the Hoya Macgillivrayi Complex. The interesting thing to me is that H. stenaokei is the only one in the complex to have pubescent leaves and flowers.
Hoya stenaokei (NS12-222) was discovered as a single known specimen growing as an epiphyte 20 m up in a very tall tree, nestling inside a fern, Asplenium sp., in a species-rich primary forest with limestone karsts. Soon after its discovery the area was logged and despite later attempts to find the plant again, it could not be located.
Hoya stenaokei (NS12-222) was discovered in Sandaun Province, Baiberi, PNG growing in lowland rainforest.
We will first discuss the name of the species – the correct spelling, and where it got its name from. The species is named for Sten-Åke Svensson whose children supported the early work of Nathalie Simonsson in Papua New Guinea. She discovered the species in 2011, and when she later published it, named the species Hoya stenakei, thinking that it was optional to write the Swedish letter Å as A. She found out later that botanical nomenclature did not allow it and Å has to be written as AO, hence stenaokei. I think that it will probably be written incorrectly for many years to come as stenakei is so much easier to pronounce and spell than stenaokei!
Happy New Year Everyone! I always like to start the new year with a look back at noteworthy accomplishments from the previous year. Here are the highlights of 2023:
We started out in January with my second ever flowering of Hoya thailandica, which made me very happy after having gone years without seeing a bloom.
This was followed up with a first flowering of Hoya rigidifolia and a second blooming of Hoya maingayi.
In March we had one of my most picturesque flowerings of H. desvoeuxensis, and a out of season blooming of Hoya thomsonii.
April and May brought my first flowering of Hoya Sunrise and Hoya Icensis.
The most notable flowering of the summer was probably Hoya versteegii and H. yuennanensis.
September brought the second flowering of H. acicularis in 11 years and the blooming of Hoya kenejiana Albomarginata.
October and November brought my first flowerings of H. decipulae and Hoya sulawesiana.
December brought a flowering of Hoya stenaokei, which we have yet to discuss. We will talk about this one soon in the new year. Here is a teaser photo of the blooms:
It seems as though I can mark the passage of time in my life through these Hoya photos. Lets look forward to 2024, and I want to wish all of you the best in your growing in the new year. May your plants prosper and your pests wither!
Well, we made it through another year! Tomorrow we will look back at all of the highlights from 2023, but we will leave this year with a much nicer specimen of Hoya sp. Frogfoot than I’ve ever produced before.
