I'm not as disappointed as I thought I was going to be. Both umbels slowly opened yesterday evening. Before dark all I could get a good look at was the coronas and I told DH it was starting to look like a H. pubicalyx.
Very interesting....this morning.....blooms fully open. It looks like H. pubicalyx Bright One but the leaves don't look like the plant I bought from Jodie Shumaker. In fact the leaves don't look like any H. pubicalyx I have in my collection. More later.
Maybe we can all compare notes. Will post leaf and flower photo's tonight.
H. carnosa Snowball - NOT! But it's interesting....
Here are the leaves. Veins are visible. I don't have another H. carnosa or H. publicalyx with leaves this size or shape.
Don't look at the leaves in the back ground of the photo. DH propped it up with H. purpureo fusca leaves. Does the flower look like H. carnosa? To me it looks like H. publicalyx of some type. Yes, the flower is as bright pink as it looks in the photo.
1)Guess I should take the time to adjust the date and time on my camera so it wouldn't be so confusing in the photo's.
2)I would be curious to see what anyone else bought as H. carnosa Snowball, the leaves, flower and the source just to see what we come up with.
Susan
This message was edited Jul 14, 2005 9:16 PM
The mystery deepens! Here are the leaves of my plant bought from smoley as "H.carnosa 'snowball'". First, I should say that the plants I have now are cuttings from the original I took long after I gave away all the plants in my "first" hoya collection. It was about four years ago that I gave it away, and I can't swear that I saw the flowers on this plant. I may be misremembering the flowers on a fungii. The leaves, however, look identical to the leaves on mine, so he seems to have sent us the same thing (he dosn't allways, I recently received a H.kentii labeled as a H.waymanae, after having previously received a correctly labeled waymanae from him). The flowers are really nice. They do look the color of a pubicalyx, but the shape seems a little wrong, more like a carnosa. How does it smell? Like carnosa or pubicalyx or neither?
mark
On second thought, maybe they just look that way because they aren't all the way open. Are the petals reflexing more, now?
mark
Mark...my first thought of the leaves was H. fungii too. But I don't have my pictures of the flowers so I can't compare...the leaves are right. I think Ir emember H. fungiii flowers being pink...
Susan...Is H. fungii on the Photo Compendium?
All the pictures I've seen of fungii are whitish with a red center, but I'm not sure I've ever seen one in real life. Maybe it's a hybrid? Whatever it is, it's really beautiful.
This message was edited Jul 15, 2005 2:23 AM
I recently bought a hoya labled as H. carnosa 'Snowball'. It has a partial bloom on it that is very typical of carnosa blooms and white, but she said they are usually bigger and rounder (thus the name snowball). I do believe this to be the one called 'Motoski' (sp) as the leaves are a bit different, but do not look quite like yours. They are rounder and fatter than regular carnosa leaves. Yours look rather oblong. Maybe your plant is a cross of pubicalyx and carnosa. It surly has a pubicalyx bloom.
Marcy
My H. fungii from Logees is in bloom. You're right about the leaves being similar. Will try to get a photo of the leaves and bloom on H. fungii.
Marcy, can you post a photo of your "Snowball"?
Here are pictures of a new cutting, probably newer foliage as well, someone from here just sent me this, labeled cv Snowball, white flowers, and I believe it has bloomed for her - the pics don't do it justice, gorgeous and glossy deep green leaves.
The second picture is motoskei, a very slow growing cutting I got last year I think from someone in St Louis. The color is lighter, and I don't keep it in very bright light, but the leaf shape is different too. I was never told what color the flowers are.
My understanding is that motoskei has lighter flowers, pale pink to white. I would think that Snowball could be a similar clone, but I don't think that the two I have are the same plant. Personally, I think snowball is prettier...I have been seeing pictures of the flowers for some time and wanted it, but didn't realize how nice the foliage was...when I first started collecting hoyas there was a picture on The Correctly Named Hoyas website of a similar looking plant labeled carnosa, but it looked nothing like the 3 plain green carnosas I already had, and I wanted that plant! Couldn't find it though.
So, getting this cutting was great, I feel like I got two plants I wanted in one! If you wait long enough, things will come to you on their own. You can tell by the pictures though that they are not the same.
The 'Snowball' I and Nightbloomer have is really a tough, dependable plant, that grows very steadily and never seems to look bad.
It's so refreshing to find a "new" hoya that isn't a self-obsessed attention-seeker, like some other hoyas I could name.
JUST today I bought a H. carnosa 'snowball' and will take photos of it...no flowers, tho'. I think 'Snowball' is just dealereze for H. motoskei and has NOTHING absolutely to do with what the plant really is. Heck...they would call H. linearis 'snowball'....
you think some of your hoyas are self-obsessed attention seekers, Mark? I know one of mine is paranoid schizoprhenic, always saying he is hearing voices or that the pothos are out to get him. Might be time to get him into therapy.
(and I thought i was the only one who was nuts around here!)
Oh, and the wost of all is H. subcalva! The thing I resent the most about that princess is that no matter how much attention is lavished upon her, it never seems to fill some gaping hole she has in her soul! Never satisfied, that one.
Maybe, Mark ... I think the problem is that she doesn't understand the joyous rapture of doing the happy hoya dance. Once she learns it, she might settle down and become a good little hoya.
Amen, my sister.
I think all of mine are on a runaway rampage to see who can twine up into the olive tree the fastest and highest. That and to see if they can keep me running around back and forth untwinning them from each other. Ha.
OK...the one I have labeled Motoskei has white flowers that look very much like regular carnosa except there is more of them in the umble and there are more flowers on the plant usually. Also the backs of the leaves on that one are fuzzy (pubescent).
Jen...the first picture looks like a regular carnosa to me. What makes it seem different?
Marcy
Mark...I shoved H. subcalva into a corner and told her to sit down and be quiet. I ignore her, water her if I feel like it and ........................whoa.......................healthy sister!!!! She does like warm, I know that much!!!!
I've never purchased a subcalva because it seems so temperamental - but it seems to like dry, warm conditions in Carol's humid climate - interesting.
The one that gives me the greatest fits is the sp. Tanna Island. However, I think I have stumbled onto something that, for the moment, seems to be working in my less humid conditions (humidity here hovers around 20%) - I keep the soil wet - not moist - wet! I water that stupid plant just about every other day and have it in a really bright spot. It has gone from a dying plant that I nearly tossed when I lived in Eugene to a vibrant plant putting on new growth - go figure. Maybe it finally learned the hoya happy dance too! I'm still too chicken to try the subcalva, though. But my cv. Snowball that Mark sent me last year is growing like gang-busters.
Ann
The first picture is a carnosa - but we all know what that means or am I the only fool with 3 solid green carnosas....I would take pictures but I don't want to bore you all, so take my word for it - all three of them are very different!! All beautiful, though I think the new one in the picture will be the prettiest God willing I get it to root. There are probably hundreds of carnosa clones out there, maybe there are more than a few motoskei and snowball clones, and maybe trying to sort it all out is the same as banging my head against a brick wall!!
What I am trying to figure out, I am not sure why because it seems that it isn't figure-out-able, is what the heck is REALLY a motoskei? What is a true motoskei? Is it just a carnosa with fat leaves?? And is Snowball just another name for motoskei? It seems to me that they are all really JUST carnosas....So, so far I have learned that a carnosa is a motoskei is a carnosa is a carnosa is a motoskei is a carnosa is a snowball.
PS- second picture, the motoskei, has the fuzzy backsides..
Both my fungii and motoeski are in bloom right now - both received from Carol. Here's a picture of the leaves - motoeski on the left, fungii on the right.
Karen
And the flowers - although similar - the motoeski (on the bottom, left) has "rounder" lines than the fungii (on the top, right). The fungii is slightly more star shaped. Also, the fragrance, to me, is very different - more "perfumey" on the motoeski rather than the very faint "spicy" fragrance on the fungii. Coloring is the same.
Hope this is helpful
Karen
This message was edited Aug 8, 2007 9:03 AM
I am with Jen...A snowball is a carnosa is a motoskei is a................ The first time I ever got a H. fungii it was labeled H. carnosa from Vietnam in a collection.
I first got my H. motoskei from a lovely lady here on the island, who had bought it from Logees as H. carnosa 'Snowball'. I saw her yesterday and was reminded of this when I came away with 3 more HUGE plants of 'Snowball/motoskei/carnosa/wattevahs'. Betty is going on a trip and doesn't want her big plants to die from lack of care so she gave them to me...12 of them, all pubicalyx, obscuras etc. and I am going to plant them all around my house. She uses the soggiest soil (dirt) in the world, just like clay, and I have never seen such GREAT leaves!!! Will take photos!
Carol
Nice photo Karen.
Ann.... H. sp. Tanna Island ISS a fit giver...it is prone to Spider Mites by the way...and it LOVES to climb!!!!! The rule is never let it dry out!!! and lots of air circulation.
As a wise woman I know is fond of saying- "Hoya carnosa- WHO CARES!!!"
Seriously, though, the subject of H. carnosa and H. motoskei has been covered very thoroughly several times by Christine Burton, most recently in her P. S. The Hoyan V.4 #4:
http://www.psthehoyan.com/psthehoyan4_4.htm
A very helpful photo comparison of the flowers was placed on this forum by Christin Karllson a while ago. I'll move it here, I hope you don't mind Christina!
While these two plants confusion in horticulture and taxonomy is an interesting topic, it is also confusing and very involved. The thing to keep in mind is that these two species involve different collections from different locales and have consistently different leaf and flower size/shape, the easiest way to distinguish them being the leaves, as seen above.
An argument could be made that these are two different ecotypes of the same species, but that would be the subject of long debate and needs more study- not an easily answered question for amateurs (like me) to argue out.
It does make you wonder how Hoya taxonomy is ever going to progress in the public eye, when so much confusion is continuously generated over the two oldest (to cultivation) and most common hoyas in existence.
I should have noted: Hoya carnosa on the left, Hoya motoskei on the right, in Christina's photo.
I received this hoya in a recent trade and of course it was labled NOID!!! Does it resemble the leaves on anyone's snowball ???? I have motoskei and fungii and it doesnt look like either of those. Doesnt look like anyof my carnosas either.
dmichael
Michael, it does look similar to my 'Snowball", except your leaves seem to have more texture.
Maybe we should stop calling it that, actually. Maybe motoskei should be 'Snowball', as that seems a really logical candidate for that name, and the pink-flowered one should be "BS Snowball", for Bob Smoley, and also for something else. Smoley's is known for mislabeling, sometimes, I think, by accident, sometimes not, and he seems to be the source of this plant lately.
Good Lord, this one grows like a weed! I don't believe it has been rooted much longer than 6 weeks and I have 5 or 6 new leaves and at least 5 places where new stems are coming out. It's so glossy and vibrant, I have a feeling I will really enjoy growing this plant!!!! :D
I just received this one from another forum member and yes it does seem to be a very agressive grower!!!
Ah, D, I bet we got it from the same person...you are gonna love it! I would imagine I will have this one in a h. basket by the spring.