All my Hoyas

I really couldn't tell you how many different Hoyas I have in my collection. So I thought over the next few weeks I'd try and post a picture of each one and count them in the process. I'll start with the ones that have flowered, not necessarily in order of flowering or in alphabetical order, I'm not that organised unfortunately. So here we go....... from top left to right. Because they will be in collage nine at a time, you may prefer to click on the picture for a larger view and click again for larger still.
I hope it's not too boring.

1 H. pubicalyx "pink silver."
2 H. gracilis.
3 H. carnosa.
4 H. bella. ( albomarginate form)
5 H. subquintuplinervis.
6 H. C.V. "Minibelle."
7 H. lacunosa.
8 H. Kerrii.
9 H. Pachyclada.

Christmas Greetings!

Wishing everyone a blessed and Happy Christmas with family and friends. May the year 2007 be a safe, healthy, and prosperous one for all.
From Roy, larraine and family

Hoya gracilis and Hoya pubicalyx "pink silver"

These are two of the latest Hoyas to flower. I'm sticking my neck out a bit when I say this is "pink silver" because when I planted this Hoya I forgot to put the label in the basket. But looking at other images this appears to be the one. I'm happy to be corrected if anyone begs to differ. The bottom flower is H. gracilis, it is probably not a great specimen as it was on a part of the vine that was starting to wither a little. The rest of the plant is very healthy but no blooms. I've since given it a little prune and I've planted a couple of cuttings from it.

Hoya curtisii

We had a tropical storm last sunday which brought a heavy downpour, Our rainwater tank is full again which is great. It created so much humidity our H. curtisii is doing battle with some fungii.

Hoyas for Africa

This is my little market stall set up as a fundraiser for a project we support in Uganda. It really has been a lot of fun and a most enjoyable time meeting people and talking to people about Hoyas. A number of people bought a Hoya for the first time and the rest were people who were adding to their small collection. I must say I met some really nice people and it would be good if we could get a little informal group meeting occasionally. A cup of tea and enjoy the Hoyas.

Hoya carnosa

Hoya carnosa might be one of the most common and well known of the Hoyas, but for me it's definately a favourite. This plant is particularly nice because it is twining high up in the pergola and you can get a good view of the flowers as they hang down.

Hoya bella

This is our first Hoya bella flower. The plant is is the albomarginate form which is very attractive. We also have the varigated form which isn't growing anywhere near as vigorously as this one. I can see why Bella's are such popular Hoya's, it will be quite spectacular when it grows into a large pendulous specimen I'm sure.

Hoya Pottsii Sp. 'Chiang Mai'

This Is what I understand to be Hoya Pottsi Sp, 'Chiang Mai' It wasn't purchased from Liddle's nursery, but David tells me that he supplied all this nursery's parent stock years ago. So presuming they have it labeled correctly this is the one. It fits the description of a plant with thick, veined leaves and is said to have cream reflexed flowers.

Hoya australis leaves.

I was quite taken with this pair of H. australis leaves with the beautiful veins and the shine on the leaves. The great thing about Hoyas is you can enjoy beautiful verdant green foliage of various shapes and sizes during the growing season. In contrast to the perception of a scruffy neglected plant that some people seem to have of Hoyas they really can be quite striking.

Rescued Hoya.

There seems to be saying about Hoyas in the community that I've heard a few times now. You may have heard this or some variation. "Hoyas thrive on neglect" I've come across this a couple of times in the last fortnight. One was at a visit to a local produce/ nursery supplies where I'd noticed on a previous visit they had a Hoya planted in their garden. It was in pretty poor condition then, and on this occasion the whole plant was limp and yellow. The owner was nearby, so I said I think your hoya may have died. He said " Oh no! it'll be right you don't have to worry about them, It'll be O.K. I said if it's not dead it's close to it. Anyway to cut a long story short, He would have none of it. So I encouraged him to cut the plant back and give it a feed. About a week or so later I felt sorry for the Hoya Australis (pictured above) that was for sale in a local native nursery. It had obviously been in the tube container since being struck as a cutting. The the pot was so swollen I had to cut the plastic, and as you can see the roots of various reeds and grasses had clogged things up somewhat. So I carefully extracated the Hoya from the tangle and gave it a new home in a nice healthy mix of perlite and potting mix. We have to concede that Hoyas are robust, but maybe a better saying would be "Hoyas resilient in adversity" But like any other plant Hoyas thrive with a little bit of T.L.C.

Hoya subquintuplinervis

This Hoya is one of my favourites. Yes.... I can pronounce it and I can spell it, which is quite an achievement for me. It comes from Thailand and it is more of a bushy plant than a climber, it has a really exquisite fragrance early morning and evening. It's worth a click for the larger view. There doesn't appear to be a lot of photos on the web of this hoya flowering, the only one I could find was one of Christine Burton's, mine seems to have a lot more red in the corona. I hope we get a double dose of flowering like with the Pachyclada.
For our records Hoya subquintuplinervis flowered first in the second week of November 2006

New pot trellises

These are a couple of pot trellises I'm trying out. They are certainly not the easiest things to find. On the left is H. sp. 'Tanna Island, it has small shiny green leaves with pink flowers. I'm hoping it flowers this summer. On the right is H. acuta, I'm told there is so many variations on this Hoya, so I don't really know what colour the flower will be. Both plants seem to be twining nicely up the trellises (with a little assistance) but I wouldn't like to try anything too vigorous I don't think. David Liddle kindly gave me a list of smaller growing Hoyas that he thought would suit this type of trellis. Heres the list for anyone who may find it helpful.

H.bilobata H.burtoniae H.camphorifolia H.davidcummingii H.kentiana H.literalis H.loherii
H.memoria H.myrmecopa H.odetteae H.pusilla H. limoniaca H.tsangii H.nabawanensis
H.sipitangensis.

Hoya cv minibelle.

While I've been waiting for the little cutting to open its buds, I noticed one of the divisions of the original plant I bought was flowering. I've been backwards and forwards to your blog a few times Sandy to make comparisons, and I think you were right, it appears to me to look like H. cv minibelle. The little cutting (two posts down) is really stuggling to open all it's buds, It doesn't quite seem to have the strength to complete the process. I've given it a weak dose of fish and kelp fertilizer to see if it helps. For our records one of Hoya gardens many H. cv minibelles flowered first at the beginning of November 2006

H.pachyclada flowering again

I was surprised to see new buds on the peduncle of my H.pachyclada. It's actually only just finished flowering a fortnight ago. I know that peduncles will continue to produce new umbels but I didn't realise it would be so soon. I must ask the experts on Wax plant forum and see what they say.

H.shepherdii / minibelle latest

Well Sandy my little cutting is getting closer to flowering and hopefully we can give it a correct I.D. For a while there I thought it was going to self destruct, half of the buds stopped growing and then fell off. There are thirteen left ( I'm not superstitious) so hopefully they will make it through. I thought perhaps because it was only a cutting with tiny roots the plant wasn't getting enough nourishment to sustain all the buds.

Hoya wall

This is the side of our building which faces south. I'm hoping this spot proves to be a good place to grow Hoyas, between the house and the boundary fence is all driveway so being able to utilise the wall is a good option (and a good excuse to grow more Hoyas of course) The eaves of the building protect the plants from direct overhead sun and the house next door being painted white reflects bright indirect light. Towards the end of the day the plants receive about 2hrs late afternoon sun. I'll have to monitor that as we get further into summer but so far so good.
The terracotta pots have a flat back with hole for hanging so I can move plants easily if necessary. So..... we'll see how things go and I'll post another shot of the wall at the end of summer, plus of course anything that flowers along the way.

Hoya lacunosa

We've got several H. lacunosa and this is the first one to flower. The different varieties come from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. It's a smaller Hoya compared to some and its growth habit suits a hanging basket or pot. The leaves are lacunose, which I understand means "cupped" or "sunken" referring to the effect on the leaves the raised veins give. The flower has a lovely fragrance and I've heard that when the plant is large with lots of flowers the effect of that is quite amazing. So for the records our little H. lacunosa flowered in the third week of October. 2006.

Hoya Subquintuplinervis

Just as the H. Pachyclada was finishing flowering I noticed two peduncles appearing on my other succulant type of Hoya H. Subquintuplinervis ( I must be getting to know them I spelled the name without looking it up) I realise these two must flower at the same time approximately because someone on one of the Hoya forums was saying they had received a cross between the two. That will be interesting to see when it flowers. Strangely enough we both agreed that the cross didn't seem to look like either plant. Anyway it's a race to see if this plant or the H. Shepherdii/Minibelle flowers first.

Hoya Pachyclada has flowered

Well my Hoya Pachyclada has come into bloom and for the record it flowered first in October 2006. The fragrance is beautiful particularly at night. It is a succulent fairly slow growing species so it maybe a while before I can take cuttings off it. It would be great if it was pollenated and gave me a seed pod, but I think that might be too much to hope for.

Hoya Shepherdii (possibly)

During last winter the Green Shop at Clayfield were having a sale, so I managed to pick up this huge Hoya ( simply labelled Hoya species) for $15 . It took me an hour to untangle it, divide it up and take cuttings. I got three good sized plants from it plus cuttings. From checking different websites I concluded it may be Hoya Shepherdii, and a few people more knowledgeble than myself think so too. Sandy from Hoyas etc. also suggested possibly Hoya CV Minibelle. Well..... one of the smallest cuttings has started a bud, I have heard people remark that they have had cuttings flower before, but I don't know how common it is. I hope I did the right thing, it was in water (it had two roots on it about 1/2 inch long) and when I saw the bud I thought I'd better plant it. So I've got my fingers crossed.

Hoya Pachyclada.

This is a Hoya that comes from North EasternThailand and is a slow growing succulant variety. It has white highly perfumed flowers, so I was quite thrilled to see the buds appearing. It is one of the more expensive Hoya's but well worth it. Providing the plant grows well and stays healthy we can expect to harvest some cuttings in future years. It can be quite a heavy plant due to the thickness of its leaves and it is said to trail rather than climb for this reason. Keep watching, I hope it blooms successfully.

Hoya Heuschkeliana

We were given our first Hoya by Larraines mum a number of years ago. This was a Hoya Carnosa traditionally Known as the "Heirloom Hoya" quite often handed down through families, hence the name. We have since potted cuttings on and given them to Tim and Kate and Peter and Sarah. So dear gran's Hoya is with the next generation. When ours first flowered I have to confess to being quite taken with it (I'm a bit of a garden tragic I think I'm taken with anything that flowers) and since then I've added a number to our collection.
I've started a fresh blog to keep a record of each one as they flower and to take blog friends to different parts of the garden where we have them planted.
This is Hoya Heuschkeliana and it originates from the Phillipines, It's a miniature Hoya suitable for hanging baskets, the little pink flowers are about 5mm dia and they can get up to 12 flowers per umbel, the flowers give off a lovely fragrance. There is also a yellow flowering variety.
For our records this Hoya started flowering the 2nd week of July 2006.