Another mystery unfolding....

I love to share my mystery watches: Ok...this is a flower that bloom ONE flower for me 2 years ago. So, finally, transplanted, it has been growing away in a 12" pot with a pig wire cage around it to grow on. And grow it HAS.

That one flower measured 2.5" across in the form of a beautiful white star. Chris Burton and David Liddle both got involved in the IDing...and came up with 'O'...the closes David will say is H. aff albiflora....he has some clues but won't say until he is certain and has done more research. The flowers have very very long sepals...REALLY long. The leaves can get 11" long and are very very pubescent (furry)...and it grows like topsy...is a very heavy feeder, needs lots of water and constantly wants to be potted UP. I haven't done it for over a year.... pot up, that is!

So...here is a link to see the flower that first bloomed...it was a solitary flower. http://www.bigislandgrowers.com/products/detail_item.php

Here is a photo of the umbel and the buds forming. The buds are about 1/2" across.

Here is a picture of the plant. That long leaf is about 11" long. I will be watching closely as these buds form...there are 4 more umbels forming as well. OMG...this is better than....than.....well, you know.....

Wow, Carol, those flowers are gorgeous even just in bud! Is it an eriostemma? By the was, your hyperlink to the photo of the single flower dosen't seem to work...

Yes, the link is not working to the other flower.
Hey, are you sure those leaves are furry? On top too? Cause they look so shiney in the big picture. Those are sure cute little buds. Looks like little lillys of the valley.
Marcy

Maybe this will work....flower is 2.5" across.

Marcy...YES the leaves are very fuzzy.

Milan...yes, better than THAT even!!!

Of course, better than chocolate:-).

Blessings,
Awanda

Oh, I thought you meant better than puppies! Ha ha!
Heather

So....here is the umbel, opening. The flowers measure 2.5" open flat. Note how different they are from the flower of a year ago...they now have red under the corona...which makes me think of H. calycina...but, WOW...the flowers are SO much bigger than my H. calycina. I have send the photos off to David Liddle and to Ted Green...to see what they say.

OH, yes...the fragrance is soft and lovely!!! This is a very STRONG grower, and like H. calycina and H. imperialis, needs to be potted UP and UP and UP. I haven't tried trimming the roots but perhaps I should. This hoya is growing in a 12" shallow (5"deep) pot. I will need the Army Corps of Engineers to pot this one up.

Hej...Rosita/Christina/Maria...have you seen this one?

Carol

Now a closer upper This IS the exact same plant that produced the flower I posted of the first and only flower that had NO red under the corona and the corolla was/is shaped differently. Drives one to drink!!!

This message was edited Oct 4, 2005 7:38 PM

Looks more like magnifica to me. Especially with the little red under the corona.

Christina

It looks like H. magnifica to me, scent is like hourses. Or it could be New Guinea white with a good fragrance. Carol can you send a photo of the leaves and the plant?
Rosita

like horses and stable. That´s the words.

AH...Las Swedes are right... I am sure it is H. magnifica...and a magnificent one it IS, too! The fragrance, to me, is more like Gardenia... Rosita...leaves and plant are in photo #2. I was focusing so long on that one bloom (the first flower it bloomed two years ago) that I didn't connect with H. magnifica on my website!! DUH!
http://www.bigislandgrowers.com/AHcomp/AHmagn1.php

And it is covered with umbels coming out....! OH, glory days. With all the hoya talk, I had forgotten about H. magnifica and how stunning it is. Did I say that the new flowers are 2.5" across!!! So, everyone who got H. aff. albiflora from me received H. magnifica!!

Yippee!

The corolla shape thing happened to me with sp. Tanna. Here's a completely flat one: http://www.myhoyas.com/Hoya%20sp.%20Tanna%20one.htm and you saw the normal ones the other day, but anyway here they are again: http://www.myhoyas.com/Hoya%20sp.%20Tanna%20pink.htm

Oh, and Carol, if your nose thinks the horse s**t smelling magnifica smells like gardenia I am glad for you. When mine bloomed the flowers were cut off about 2 seconds after I took some photos of them. Before that I almost killed my cat and dog for what they might have done in my apartment...

Christina

Oh darn Carol, and I wanted it to be aff. albiflora.......NOT! I'm happy it's Magnifica.

Blessings,
Awanda

Interesting observations, Christina. I wonder if the two noses smelled the SAME flower they would come up with different impressions...or....it is also an environmental/nutritional thing?

Gotta work on that!!! I will get DH to help experiment. I know I can smell something quite differently than he does...but this time I will keep notes.

I do notice that when this hoya starts looking wan, it is probably time to pot UP. She, and H. calycina thrive in potting UP...or shaving roots maybe?... I have been growing H. magnifica outside in the shade with indirect VERY bright light and we have had a very wet summer/fall...so she has had a lot of water. The leaves do protect the pot from being flooded, tho'....

Carol

I really don't think it's the same hoya, our magnifica and yours. Mine has lots of peduncles and produces tiny buds that grow just big enough for me to start hoping and then they fall off... It's been doing this since that time when it flowered and I cut the flowers off. Is it getting back at me?!!!

I just might send a piece your way and YOU get it to bloom. THEN we'll see what it smells like! Good or bad idea?

Christina

This message was edited Oct 5, 2005 3:02 PM

Carol, is there any posibility that your once mystery plant came from me? The leaves you are describing sound like the one I bought from Sept. Song a few years ago. My plant has big fat peduncles, but, has yet to give me a bloom.
Mel

Christina...YES...send it along!!

Mel: 'could' be...but I think I got this one from Gary when he first let me take all the hoyas from his yard. Actually, the peduncles on this one are small, very short and almost invisible until the buds start!

FLASH!!! I just received this from David Liddle re: the H.magnifica pictures...thought you guys might find it interesting too. .So, I am going to continue to call mine H. aff. albiflora...

".....since we described H. magnifica a long time ago I have studied a lot more collections. The result is that I suspect the H. magnifica/ H. albiflora group is a more complex group of taxa than we realised at that time.

H. aff. magnifica or H. aff. albiflora would both be correct. The calyx and corona are not that of H. magnifica as pictured in the type description.
David ...."

And this is from one of the publishers of the species....so I follow his lead.

Have a great night!!!