I call my H. cuminingiana my Octopus plant LOL....It is very shrubby, but grows all over like a bad hair day. I've tried cutting it back to see if it would make a big difference, but it seems to like the Octopus look no matter what I do. Mine has gotten so big that I can't keep it in a hanging basket, so I just put it on a plant stand outside. Now that I brought it in, I tied it up to a topiary form so it doesn't take up so much room. I'm not sure there is a way to grow it that it looks beautiful...but when it flowers, it makes up for it's messy habits.
I have to say I really like the H. merrillii much better. It has incredibly beautiful leaves that grow in a much more controlled manner. And now I like it even better since it has bloomed
October Flowers
I checked the IPNI site and they have it as:
Asclepiadaceae Hoya cumingiana Decne. -- Prodr. (DC.) 8: 636. 1844 [mid Mar 1844]
Although, that's not to say this coming Monday it won't have changed.
Thanks Tropic! I will now spell it with one m.
What does Decne. -- Prodr. (DC.) etc. mean?
Decne. - is the abbreviated name of the man of named it (Published it which is also called Determining it)...the wierd numbers I haven't a clue. I can't spell Decne.s name so please don't ask me to.
The remainder of numbers and abbreviations refer to the journal it was published in. It allows people (those in the know) to go back to check. Then if they disagree they can publish their own opinion and if it gets accepted then those changes are adopted as correct. In these days of internet it's so much easier to keep up to date with anything new.
I looked it up, the publication is called:
"Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis"
The "8: 636" refers to volume 8, page 636.
1844 refers to the year of publication
[mid Mar 1844] would just be an annotation further narrowing down the time (I guess).
There were apparently 17 volumes of this publication.
I had to ask, huh? Whew! some things are just too complicated for my old brain to compute (actually it's my old and lazy brain!) LOL, but thanks for the information! I doubt I could get past page 1 of the first volume, much less 17!
Well, I did learn something ... Hoya cumingiana was published 104 years before I was born.
The bloke who wrote it (final volumes completed after his death by his son) was Swiss, but worked a lot in France. His concept of "nature wars" influenced Charles Darwin a lot in developing his theory on "natural selection".
To all those who think H. cumingiana can't be grown to look beautiful, I offer mine as an example of how nice it can look when grown on a trellis. This is not the greatest of pictures, but it was taken this summer before I had a chance to tie new growth to the trellis. It is in the right hand corner of the picture.
Doug
Here it is decorated for Christmas last year. This plant is 3 1/2 feet tall and could easily be twice that If I had a high enough trellis. H. cumingiana is in my top five best looking Hoyas of all time.
Doug
When I got my order from DL earlier this year H cumingiana was the first to take off and grew rapidly. But towards the end of winter as the temperatures warmed up the growth ground to a halt. It hasn't done anything in a couple of months. H ciliata did much the same thing.
That is beautiful,Doug.
I believe the hoya likes to be dressed up
for Christmas.
Charleen
Doug: Your H. cumingiana is beautiful. I hope mine looks half as good some day! I do like the looks of it in your first photo, even though you hadn't gotten it all tied to the trellis yet! Are you using the wood orchid type trellises? I can only find them at Home Depot and all they have are the ones about 12" tall, but someone told me they come in taller sizes. You said it could easily be taller if the trellis were taller? Do you wind the vines back down and around and and clip them to the trellis when they get real long?
Love it all decorated for the holidays, very pretty!
Lin my plant started with a 2 (24 inch) bamboo hoops. When they out grew that I left them in place and inserted 2 (36 inch) bamboo hoops. So there is a lot of wood in the pot. I do exactly what you said "wind the vines back down and around and clip or tie them to the trellis." This year they put on about three feet of new growth, and I just keep wrapping. I could easily go to 48 inch hoops, but after a while the plant just gets too big to be able to handle. I had fun dressing it up for the holidays; the leaf shape of this plant works well making the plant look sort of like holly or mistletoe. Tropicbreeze I agree that this is a really fast grower. I've had as many as fifty open peduncles with flowers on it at one time, but boy is is messy - drips nectar on everything. I had to cut many flowers off before bringing it back inside.
Doug
Doug...your plants are beautiful!!! AND beautifully displayed. Fine Fine growing. HAHAHa I have a H. cumingiana that hasn't put on a new leaf for #$%$^%$&&^& months. and it came from a 5' x 5' plant . Go figger.
Really makes no sense at all Carol! Maybe the cumingiana is just so in awe of that Hawaiian paradise, it is afraid to grow:) Mine is just so happy to get outside after spending eight months inside a dark house looking outside at the cold, snow, and clouds that it goes into overdrive when finally given a chance.
Doug
Mine needs the taller hoop.
Jan, that is a great looking plant that is really out of control! That would be a hard one to tame - now I know what they mean when cumingiana is described as shrub-like. Your plant gets more sun than mine could ever dream of. It goes to show how adaptable many of these Hoyas are. They can really perform well under a variety of conditions. It looks like you live right on the water, or you bring your plants with you to the beach! Really nice looking ,healthy plants.
Doug
We have had a really rainy summer and I think it wants to be drier... OH well..
Ah, rain...hasnt rained here since March....would love to see some...;))
Dominic
Doug your plants are so pretty and healthy too!!! The display looks great!!!!
Can some one point me in the right direction for getting those bamboo stakes for training your hoya on?
Home Depot sells them but our HD only carries the one size, I just measured and they are not quite 23" tall.
I repotted my cumingiana today (again!!) for the umteenth time. I wired two of those bamboo trellises together to make it about 36". I think I better leave this plant alone for awhile ... every time I decide to mess with it and re-pot I end up breaking off at least eight or more leaves. I did root a branch a couple of weeks ago that I broke off ... it rooted quickly too.
Thanks for the compliment Jeri. Pdoyle for a long time dollar stores carried the 24 inch bamboo hoops 3/$1.00, but it is the wrong season for them now. We have a store around here called Agway that had them in the 2,3 and 4 foot sizes, but once again, it is not really the season for them. You could check Home Depot like Lin suggested, or I'm sure you could find them online.
Here is H. linearis with its last hurrah before I have to start it over. Three blooms, but the plant itself doesn't have a lot left in it. I lost six more valuable leaves just taking this picture.
Doug
Lin, you might try a local nursery, not the box stores. I got some 4 ft er's from a local nursery. I only paid $4.00 and they had 3 in a pack.
Dee
Are those seedpods? they are laying on? Does it smell beautiful??
Love the blooms, Doug.
Charleen
Doug, are the leaves on this one really touchy or is this just a difficult plant?
Thanks,
Dee
Charlene, those aren't seed pods; those are what the leaves look like. Dee, I think it is just a difficult plant, but I really like the darned thing so I would like to keep it alive. If I can reroot it, I and going to try to keep it much drier. I may be wrong, and please someone else jump in if they know the answer to this, but I would think that you could shake a healthy linearis and the leave would not fall off like dried out pine needles.
Doug
Doug, I'm so sorry I didn't mean to add insult to injury.
I wish you great luck with the poor baby.
Charleen
Does it always pack in after its flowered Doug ?
I don't know Dom; I don't have enough experience with it. These flowers come from cuttings started last fall. I really think that a good healthy plant would be able to last for a long time after flowering - maybe years. I have never seen a good healthy linearis so I don't know what happens when you shake it. My theory is that the leaves would stay on.
Doug
* * * sigh * * * My linearis packed it in within weeks after I bought it a year ago. It was a huge, healthy EA basket that I purchased from their website. I think I grew it too hot and waaay too wet! Within days it began looking pretty pitiful and within about six weeks it was gone! But, it was pretty while it lasted! I just seem to do better with the larger, thicker leaf hoyas
... so sad :(
No, leaves should not fall off like that Doug, and flowering should not cause the plant to die. Yes, grow linearis dry, but I've also found, contrarily, that it likes its leaves to be misted daily (I do it at bedtime). Right now mine's still in the 4" pot I started the single cutting in two years ago. I'm watering it about every second week (but I really soak it). I always dig down with my fingers to make sure there's no moisture in the pot. For every cutting I take, it sends out two new vines. I think that it has 10 vines on it now. And for the record, you got flowers a full year before I did.
Christine
Thank you Christine, I think your reply answered all of my questions! Lin, it is too bad about your linearis; I've never been lucky enough to find one around here, and I'm not willing to take the chance and order it. If I found it around here, I'd buy it just for the chance to take a bunch of cuttings to play around with.
Doug
Here is H. bordenii, one of the clones. I have another clone with different colored flowers...
and H. sp. Kunming Kina...this blooms prolifically in the spring and the fall...lovely fragrance....
Doug, It wasn't one of my favorites, although it is pretty, I prefer the ones with the big fat leaves, they seem easier to me! I could kick myself for not giving mine away to someone who would have wanted it, instead of just ignoring it and letting it die! Grrr ... smack me!
Carol, I love the contrast in color on that bordenii, very nice!
That H. bordenii is spectacular!!! The leaves are wonderful also!!!! It doesn't even look real!!!
I agree with Jeri; Carol, H. bordenii is spectacular!
Doug