Stinky australis

I bought a hoya australis from Logees six years ago. This month it bloomed for the first time, with five beautiful flower clusters. The problem is, they smell terrible. The fragrance is so powerful that it permeates the house, and to keep the peace here I had to move the plant outdoors. My question: am I stuck with a foul smelling plant, or can the fragrance be modified with a change of culture? I am a little jealous when I read all the postings here about wonderfully scented hoyas.

Yes, australis can be a little overpowering when grown indoors and with lots of flowers. There are lots of hoyas with wonderful fragrances.

Christina

Australis doesn't seem to bother me as much as carnosa, to me carnosa stinks. I don't think you can modify the smell of it. Don't get discouraged there are alot of beautiful smelling hoya's. Just keep her outdoors while she is in bloom.

I love the scent of all of them. Stinky, sweet, whatever! It means they're blooming. I remember the H. magnifica thread a long time ago. Our european friends commented that it had a certain "stable" smell. I was able to stick my nose in blooming H. magnifica while visiting the Pimpette. It had an ok scent, nothing unusual, not foul. I think climate must have something to do with it.

The only thing I really don't like the scent of is cestrum nocturnum, commonly known as night blooming jasmine. The scent will have me running for the indoors. On the other hand, my DH loves it.

I guess we all appreciate fragrances differently. My own DH (who banned the hoya) thinks my Oriental lilies smell like bologna. Anyway I am anxious to try some of the other species now that I have gotten this one to bloom.

LOL that is to funny, I have never heard of any flower smell described as bologna befor. Sofi try a lacunosa it is wonderful, he will appreciate that one.

Good going Sofi! Post a picture if you can. Would love to see it. Baby powder and chocolate must be a better scent.
Susan

I have a succulent (some kind of sedum or something) that has little pink flowers all over it that also smell just like baby powder. I love that scent.
Some of the carnosas smell better than others. That one I guess is known as "aff carnosa" smells very good. However, most of them smell like baby chicken feed to me. I never do get any chocolate smelling ones. Ha.
Marcy

I've always found the desciption of flower smells funny because I can rarely pin a "like" smell on any of them. Maybe it's in my head, but they look "pretty" and so smell "pretty" to me. Most seem to have what I would call a "musky" smell that I can't get enough of. I will add, though, that australis (none of the 3 different clones I have...) has not bloomed for me yet....

This makes me think of how I aquired my first plain green carnosa many, many years ago... My step-grandmother had a large one over her kitchen sink. When it bloomed, her husband swore up and down that it "spit" at him! Eventually, she got tired of his whining about it and gave it to me. Thank goodness for grouchy old men!

Denise in Omaha

LOL...it probably DID.
I know that musky smell you are talking about. I'd recognize it anywhere.
The H. australises I have did not bloom until they were quite potbound and full plants. Now they bloom a lot. Usually more toward fall months although I did have a couple bloom recently just one flower out of season.
Marcy

H. australis is the ONE hoya that blooms constantly for me and produces seed pods!!!! All of the time! I have this dread that one day I am going to find a wall of hoyas coming at me from the bush.... Do I run or just surrender?

Here she is - seems to be a lot happier outside. Definitely pot-bound so maybe that is why I am finally getting blooms after six years.

What a beauty!

Ya know, that one is a bit different than most of the H. australises that I have. Altho I do have a small plant of one like that with the great big round shinny leaves like yours. The others I have are more oval shaped leaves and duller. They also get very red tinged in bright light. One type I have has the very light green leaves with the fuzzy feel to them (I believe that one is now determined to be H. australis ssp australis). That one does not get any red on it no matter how bright the light.
One of the things I have concluded in these few years of having hoyas is that there is certainly a lot of differences in even the same species.
Marcy

Sofi, lovely Australis!

do you happen to know the subspecies of your australis?...is it Tunipes?...I have this one too and another one that is much different...i love them both....my other one is like what you were saying Marcy, more duller, oval-leafed and more reddish in colour as the new leaves come out....the green one that Sofi posted, its leaves do not get red at all....I get confused with so many subspecies of australis!!

Sandy

Nice australis, Sofi!

Sandy, I wish I still had the tag, but I believe it said H australis and nothing else. By the way, what does yours smell like?

Louise

Mine hasnt bloomed!.....so i cant tell you..my plant looks like yours but smaller version of course....the blooms gotta make up for the smell :)

Sandy

I LOVE the smell of them. To each his own I guess. I think peoples noses smell differently sometimes.
Marcy

Wow sofi :) What a lovely plant :)
I don't know about the smell yet (Laugh) but not looking forward to smelling it now :)

Sofi, what a pretty australis. I have one like yours and it came labeled H. australis tenuipes, but I think now it is supposed to be labeled H. australis ssp. australis. I think.!!! I love the leaves on this australis. Mine really gets yellow leaves if I forget to water her. Yours looks very healthy.... What kind of light are you giving her?

Wow, Louise. That is a beauty!!
Ann

She is a beautiful plant! Nice growing. They sure do seem to take their time, don't they?

I hope someone can tell us the correct subspecies for this australis. I read the "hoya of the month" post (thank you, thank you to those of you who are writing these!) but I still dont know if mine is a ssp australis or tenuipes. It has always been grown indoors in a south facing room, no direct sunlight, but lots of bright light throughout the day. Now that she is outside (mostly shade) I can see lots of new growth so obviously the new environment suits her. I wonder if thats why the flowers smell so much nicer now. The first blooms were powerfully rank, and my husband described the fragrance in a way that I cannot repeat in this forum. Now he agrees that there is a "chocolate factor" but still doesnt like it too much.

Husbands! they just cant appreciate the scent of a beautiful flower ;)...I too would like to know the correct subspecies...i thought it was tunipes also..

Sofi, I'd guess that you have the pacific island form of australis ssp. australis, from the leaves. Does it bloom primarily in fall/winter? If so, thats what you have.

Mark, it bloomed for the first time in June so I dont know its habits yet. Only one of the six peduncles bloomed this time around. I noticed that the place where I originally bought it now calls it H australis "Subspecies" and claims that it was formerly listed as H australis. Doesnt sound quite accurate to me after reading through this forum for a bit.

Sofi, I don't usually go out of my way to criticize other peoples labeling, but I have seen that one, and I have to say that calling a hoya H australis "subspecies" is one of the dumbest and most counter-intuitive labelings I've ever seen. Beyond lazy on their part. It looks to have really large leaves. (your plant) but I guess that could be the picture. Here is a photo of my ssp. australis from kapoho- from AlohaHoyas. This is a form that appears on some pacific islands, but not on the Australian continent. David Liddle says he would be prepared to designate it a seperate sub-species if his data backed it up, but for now he says it's ssp. australis. The main diference in this form is the very large leaves. Carol has some great photos on the forum in past posts. So yeah, watch the flowering habit- it's the only way I can tell for sure with these two ssp., since the leaves can vary so much and the flowers look extremely similar. Ssp. australis is mostly fall, very heavy flowering, with a few flowers at other time of the year. Ssp. tenuipies is almost exclusively spring.

This message was edited Jul 11, 2006 6:28 PM

Thanks, Mark. I went out and measured the largest (and oldest) leaf on mine and it is seven inches long. It looks identical to your last picture so maybe I do have ssp Australis - hope to experience the "very heavy flowering" part in the fall. I went back to the vendor's website only to be more confused: The picture they show for their H australis (just plain H australis) is the same picture that they use for H coronaria in their book on container plants. The picture of their H australis "Subspecies" looks more like my own plant. I will ask them to clarify it for me.

Sofi, a local dealer to me sells ssp.australis as coronaria. Maybe they both got it from the same confused source, or one from the other. Glass House Works is not known for their labeling savy, so take it with a grain of salt. Whatever it turns out to be, it's a lovely plant.