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