This hoya has bloomed for me before...but NEVER....NEVER like this!!! There are two blooms on the plant and each one is totally hemispherical....like large tennis balls....amazing!!! They hang like Christmas ornaments..... bIGGER than big!!
H. coriacea...
That's lovely and as big as your hand! Can I ask the inevitable question - does it have any scent? lol
Matt
That's lovely, Carol. Looks like the bloom on a snowball bush.
That's what I was thinking.....it's a snowball!!
Amazing....obviously a very healthy and happy one!
I just went out to sniff it.... faint but lovely citrusy scent. I should weigh that bloom!!! The plant is my 'mother' plant that just went thru a bout with Cercosphora(a fungus)...and I sprayed the dickens on her... She seemed to appreciate it because I have 2 HUGE blooms and another forming!!!
Carol...not to change the subject but I knew you'd notice this question here.
I just heard on the radio that theres a wildfire spreading on the 'Big Island'....are you in any danger?
Here's hoping not!
Would that lava rock you're surrounded by protect your homestead in the event of a fire?
Beautiful! I can't wait for mine to bloom!!
Agape,
Awanda
Carol,
Sometimes when a plant is threatened it goes into 'overdrive' producing more blooms or seeds depending on what it is to insure proliferation of the species. There's an old saying (Appalachian folklore) that if you want your fruit and nut trees to produce more then you should beat them. I haven't tried beating my hoyas yet, but....it's a thought. ;)
lol! That's quite interesting, cicada!!
Carol, *are*you guilty of hoya abuse?! lol!
(I know, you were talking about the spraying, but I couldn't resist!)
Hey...if it works...!
No worries for us...the fire is on the dry side up North...it IS threatening some Million Dollar homes....and the winds have picked up which doesn't help...must have been arson....(says me) as there were a rash of brush firest on Oahu recently that were. No lightening out here.... Sad.
WoW !! Beautiful bloom. That will be something if it continues to bloom like that. I like the leaves too..
Karen
Hey, Carol, that really is amazing. I had always thought that coriaciae looked a bit washed out in color, but maybe a bloom that big would look garish if it were canary yellow. What does cercosphora look like? I have an archboldiana I got from Green last year that has recently gotten a strange yellow pitting on the leaves. There aren't any spider mites or other obvious insect pests. It looks like the leaves of a siriae I got from you which you said had had a bout of fungus and been sprayed, except that the divots in the siariae are solid green. Do you think it could be the same thing?
That is what that "Messenger" stuff I got & sprayed on plants this spring is said to do..(make them feel threatened or something like that). Then they bloom because they want to survive I guess. Seems rather cruel doesn't it?
Marcy
I had thought that H. siariae just had pitted leaves...UNTIL I sprayed for fungus (the Cercosphora) and they went away. Lots of wierdness on leaves "just go away" when sprayed.
On the other hand...I have had a cutting of H. archboldiana for 3 years that has horribly deformed leaves, and 3 nodes...I have done everything to it but put it thru the blender....no change. I think I will toss it in the burn pile!!!
OK...Cercosphora manifests itself with rough little bumps, usually on the backs of the leaves and yellow spots.... It is a VERY common fungus, non lethal but I have had to dump a number of H. obscuras that just looked awful. The best is to spray with a systemic fungicide as the Cercosphora is systemic in the plant...and change the fugucide every 4th or 5th application....just alternate.
HTH
Hi Carol;
Did your "snowball" hoya have any Messenger on it?
HI...from NZ...I hadn't sprayed for a couple of months. I keep forgetting to!!!
Carol