Here is a photo of the entire plant. You can see that the plant does not have to be very large in order to flower. I have now flowered this plant on numerous occasions on two different peduncles. It appears to be one of those plants that is easy to bloom, but hard to grow well.
The flowers of Hoya aff. lambii (SLM 04) last exactly one day just like the regular Hoya lambii. They drip nectar, but because of their short duration, they don’t make too much of a mess. There is a light strange fragrance that is kind of indescribable.
I wondered why this plant was called Hoya aff. lambii, when the leaves looked almost nothing like Hoya lambii. The leaves were more reminiscent of some of the Hoya Finlaysonii Complex than H. lambii. I quickly found out that the flowers are virtually identical to H. lambii.
I found that this Hoya has grown exceptionally slowly and put on very few leaves. Finally in April of this year, I spotted my first peduncle starting to grow, and buds followed soon after.
I received Hoya aff. lambii (SLM 04) from an Indonesian vendor in the middle of the summer of 2022. It arrived in pretty rough shape with just a couple of useable leaves which I was fortunately able to root in coconut husk using a warm propagator box.
Here is a teaser photo of the flowers before, I talk about the plant tomorrow:
Hoya versteegii is a must have for every collection. The leaves are among the most beautiful of any that I have personally seen, and the flowers are so unusual. My plant was grown completely artificially, and only recently saw its first natural sunshine when I brought it outside to photograph it.
I was able to flower Hoya versteegii for the second time just recently with many more flower in this umbel. I still have not figured out what the flowering trigger for this one might be. I guess it just flowers when it wants to!
Finally in Mid-April the first flowers began to open. These blooms were supposed to have a really nice scent, but I have yet to discover it.
Good things come to people who wait, and sure enough one day in March of 2023, I finally spotted one of the peduncles starting to bud up! Below is a montage of developing bud photos:
