Hello, my name is Tanya, and I am a hoya addict
it all started when I was flipping through an old house plant book that belonged to my grandmother. there was about 4-5 pages that showed these remarkable plants with crazy flowers. "oooo! those look cool!"
then I found one at Lowes. a krimson queen (that has since passed on to the great garden in the sky)
then I found a bilobata on the death rack that was actually in really good shape
then I found a big rope hoya....I've been hooked ever since
now I periodically prowl the garden departments looking for the odd hoya in the tray of pothos. I joined dave's garden after I lost a big krimson queen to unknown causes. I originally bought her because she had a HUGE penducle ready to pop with those pretty white flowers. I may have been unemployed at the time, but it was my birthday darnit!
I bought a bella last week ::sob::
I am a hoya addict
Welcome Tanya from another newish addict - this IS the place to be! We have enablers and we have enablers, and the rest of us follow blindly, smile and buy more plants! :)
Good Morning Tanya and Welcome to this forum
Don't feel bad about being a hoya addict, I am too big time. It all started not too long ago although my Mother had one when I was a little girl that started temping me even at a young age.
I didn't start buying a lot of them till just the last year or so and now they have grown and grown. Oh no !!! In quanity especially. They are still growing up though and hopefully someday will be Big and Beautiful.
Take care and see you around
Margie
it is hard not to buy those cute little 4" pots!
Hi Tanya, and welcome, you've come to the right place!
heh heh heh - vee ah all velcoming u, dahling....
(So sorry for the out of focus picture...but I am sort of like that this morning...out of focus)
This message was edited Sep 11, 2006 7:22 AM
Tanya, so good of you to admit your addiction openly :~) I didn't realize that I was addicted to hoya until I stumbled onto this site! I knew I was addicted to epis since I had over 200 but only had a couple of hoya. Well, I have many more now and it still isn't enough! Welcome to our world!
Are there any in particular you are looking for?
Welcome and God bless. -joanne
Welcome to the madness, Tanya.
Carol...what is that blooming in that picture?
Marcy
Tanya-Run while you can...The vines will pull you in !!!! Glad you are joining our fun..Sandyc
Marcy...it is H. mindorensis.
Hi and Welcome Tanya - you've come to the right place - to FEED your addiction!!! Karen
Christine, Heavens, 70 is not nearly enough! I only have 40 and can't wait for more! With this many the DH can't tell when there is one more :~)
God bless,- joanne
Hi Tanya. Expect it to be a life-long addiction! I've been growing Hoyas for 30 years, though it's just been since I got online that I've been able to find anything but common ones. And it's great that EA has been slowly adding more and more Hoyas to their lineup at Lowe's, HD and Walmart.
Speaking of which, your bilobata is likely really a brevialata. I got an EA plant quite awhile back with a tag that said bilobata, but in researching it, it's actually brevialata. See my pic below for comparison.
Denise in Omaha
gg: the EA tag actually said it was a carnosa. I did a search a while back and scrolled through hoya pictures until I came up with the correct leaf/flower description
and for the record, my "bilbo" isn't allowed in my room because the flowers make me gag.
Wild...makes you gag, eh? Poor you! Do you have a picture of your H. bilobata?
I have no pictures of any of my green children....yet..... I'll post them for you when I finally do set up a photo shoot
the bilobata doesn't have a particulary offensive smell....at first. but when your in a small room, it can become overwhelming. when it woke me up from my sleep.....that's when it got the boot from my room!
Does it kinda smell like butter, or butterscotch? Are the flowers reddish...like this,
https://www.bigislandgrowers.com/AHcomp/AHds701.php ?????
those are the ones!! I know that color is poorly shown on monitors (I work in screenprinting, so color is my nightmare) but my flowers are actually more magenta than the ones on that link. same rolled back look of the flowers, same leaves.
I think butterscotch is a good enough description of the smell! I can sniff on the lacunosa all day long, but I can only appreciate bilbo in a well-ventilated (re: outside) room.
and I just got through spending 20 minutes oogling the plants on your site. I'm definitely saving up to get some "children" from you!
Tanya,
The hoya you have, I am sure, is H. sp. DS-70. It has been around for years under the names H. burtoniae and H. tsangii and it is so confused, 'they' have gone back to calling it by its' original catague determination. EA sells it often labeled all kinds of names.....
The fragrance is one that gives it away... If you don't like it, don't buy H. heuschkeliana which has a lovely buttery fragrance.
Carol
Carol and the rest of you folks, this particular hoya in this link was being sold as H. bilobata long before either H. burtoniae or H. tsangii was named in the early 1990's. I still quite often see some of the catalogs with this plant listed as H. bilobata which of course it isn't. H. bilobata has the tiniest leaves and flowers of all of the Philippine plants. The leaves are almost perfectly round and only about 1/2 inch or less in size. I agree that it should be called DS 70 unless or until we can actually identify it without a doubt of what it might be. If we never find a name, then it should be given one and published as such. After dinner, I'll post a photo of H. bilobata.
annie W.
Welcome to the forum Tanya, your sure to get hooked..
I think I made a promise last night to send a photo of H. bilobata after dinner but got side tracked with a much needed nap. This is the tiny leaved little H. bilobata that so many of us knew only as "Ben Hardy" back about 20 years ago. I once asked Ben how this plant came to have his name and he told me he had sent it to a lady friend as a gift and since nobody knew at the time what it was. the lady just put his name on it to remind her where she had gotten it. And that's the story of how H. bilobata came to be called "Ben Hardy" The flowers are also very tiny with the entire umbel being only about 1/2 inch across. You will need a magnifying glass to see the details of the live flowers but I have used a very powerful macro-lens to take the following photo so you can see some of the exquisite details. It has no fragrance at all that I can detect.
Annie W.
Great photo, Ann.... Thanks!
Now, if I can just find a picture of the flowers.
Annie
Annie...thanks for the photos. I have that hoya as H. sp. DS-128 because I had lost the tag from David Liddle....I shall now put the H. bilobata tag on it.
Aloha
my plant in question is definitely the DS70. I still like the name "bilobata", so I will continue to call said plant "bilbo baggins"
That picture of the bilobata Ann posted looks like the cutting SandyC sent me in the secret trade which she had labeled bilobata....thats great to see the bloom too....thats great to have something actually named right for a change!..Now i can look forward to the bloom....thanks for posting that Ann..
This message was edited Sep 20, 2006 11:29 AM
So your plant is DS-70, Tanya! Lucky you! It's one of my favorites, but I notice absolutely NO scent whatsoever from my DS-70 (I have 3, two of which have bloomed... in fact, both are bursting with blooms right now...) That's disappointed me, but now I'm glad!
Ann, I think this is the first time I've seen a pic of bilobata, but it looks SO much like my picta. Please don't tell me now that picta and bilobata are one and the same?!! If not, how would you describe the difference? Is picta a valid name for another plant?
Denise in Omaha
my soc-called picta... http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1600/474163/624003/132496868.jpg
your picta looks alot like the so-called Bella I just got at Lowe's. now, I know it isn't a Bella because it's leaves look NOTHING like the pictures of Bella, but I can't find any pictures that show the leaves really well.
of course, it is on my list of things to take pictures of
Denise...the leaves have a similar shape...but the H. aff. picta has leaves that tend to be thicker and more succulent feeling....while H. bilobata/DS 128 has leaves more like H. heuschkeliana...thinner. The flowers on the H. aff picta are yellow...at least mine are.
OK...now I am confused (again..and as always..:-D).
I have a bilobata that I got a few years ago from a lady in Sweden that was going out of business (Henne was her name).
Anyway, the leaves on mine are hardly the tinyest hoya leaves I have seen). They are more like the brevialata in size, only they not as waxy or curved, and are even a bit bigger and flater as those so I know the plant is NOT brevialata. The tiniest ones I have seen are those on that one known as picta in some places and sold by Exotic Angel. It is different also from my heuschlianas too, (not sure I spelled that right)
so I know it is not that sp. either.
I will put a picture of my bilobata here and you see if you think it is that or something else.
Marcy
Marcy....are the leaves sort of 'matt'...slightly pubescent? It kinda looks to me like H. DS-70 (aka H. tsangii, H. burtoniae). Are the flowers small and smell of butter and sort of a yellowy red?
I've never had flowers. The leaves are not pubescent. Totally glaborous but not real shiny and waxy like brevialota. I have several DS-70s and burtoniae. It is not either one of those either. That is why I was sure it was correctly IDd bilobata...that is until this thread. I think the only difference in mine & the one Ann posted the picture of is the size difference. Mine must be a giant one. Ha.
Marcy
H. collina?
hmmm...maybe. These leaves are very thin and are a lighter color on the backs. Is that the case with the collina leaves?
I guess I will probably just have to try real hard to get a bloom next spring and go from there.
Marcy
Yes, Marcy. The H. collina leaves do get quite reddish in high light. Will take pictures tomorrow.
Carol
welcome Tanya, I'm new too. Enjoy yourself they seem a great bunch of people. Roy