If I Could Only Grow One Hoya, I Would Grow?

I don't know if this kind of thread has been posted here before, so if it has, forgive me please. I know how hard it would be for many of you here to pick just one, but that is all that is allowed. I will start by picking mine, and give my reasons for my choice.

If I could only grow one Hoya, I would grow H. cumingiana. Here are my reasons:

1. It is the perfect size. It doesn't really outgrow its space. It is just a sort of great small Hoya that is easily trained and shaped.

2. The flower smells like cinnimon gum. I smelled the flower really for the first time today; it was amazing. I had been keeping this plant next to H. lacunosa, which overpowers anything nearby. After I moved the cumingiana, I smelled its wonderful arroma - fantastic.

3. The plant has staying power, and is an easy grower. I've had mine for over four years, and It is very undemanding. It took a long time to bloom, but I think that was because I was not giving it enough light.

4. Cats won't eat it. At least mine won't. They treat it as a non plant - sort of like it was made of plastic. I just brought in a beautiful specimen Begonia from the greenhouse last night and by this morning it looked like a tossed salad - darned Cats. So far the only Hoya they eat is cv. Iris Marie, but I try to not give them to many oportunities. Cumingiana is right at their eye level, and they totally ignore it.

5. It is pretty common and easily obtainable. After dropping a lot of cash on Hoyas recently, it is nice that this one is available in many places for very resonable prices.

Well those are the reasons for my choice. It was a very tough call, and there were many close seconds, but at least at this point in my Hoya life, H. cumingiana is the plant I would pick if I could only grow one.

My favorite's flower. I wish you could smell it!

Ohh fun! I'll play too. I have had that thought before. My kids love to give me scenarios like that: If you could only keep one of our cats, which one, and why, if you could only wear one sweater for the rest of your life...and so on and so forth.

Ok. So, originally I thought I would have to keep my lambii plant. After all, I spent three years literally begging everyone I know who grew hoyas to sell me either a plant, or a cutting, and basically cost was getting to where it wasn't a concern. Now, I have lambii - managed to get three cuttings all at once, and guess what - it is not the one that I would choose!

Then I thought maybe it would have to be kanyakumariana, or even endauensis - love the small ruffly leaves, and if I lived in a camper or motor home, it could live on the dash board. HA! Or, better yet, if I was homeless it would fit in my grocery cart, and I could just use the seat belt strap to keep it in place. Of course since that is super extreme, and if my life came to that, I would have bigger problems than just what hoya I need to keep. Like where my next meal would be coming from, or if I would be able to stay warm in the winter...

Sooooo, my final decision is H. aff. latifolia IML 1410. I can honestly say that when I wander around and look at all of my hoyas, this is the one that I am most drawn to.

Here is my picture of aff. latifolia. It hasn't bloomed yet for me, but hey, that is just a-ok with me- I love the leaves. Period.

Doug, your cummingiana is beautiful!! Really that is one of the nicest specimens I have seen of that hoya. I owned one for about 3 weeks before managing to kill it dead, and it looked no where near as nice as yours.

Thanks for starting such a fun thread.

S





This message was edited Sep 16, 2007 3:25 PM

What a great idea! I haven't smelled cumingiana yet , but soon maybe.
That's a really hard call- I think I would have to pick H. australis ssp. australis 'Brookfield' as my one pick, because:

1- the flowers are almost perfect- very elegantly shaped with long corolla lobes, pure white, and with a distinctive carmine stain under the corona. They stand out very strongly against the dark green/bronze leaves.

2- it smells fantastic, spicy and very sweet, something like cherries and ginger.

3- it blooms prolifically each fall, with dozens of umbels open at once, for around three months.

4-it is the stongest and most reliable grower and bloomer of any hoya I've grown, except for H. albiflora.

It may be cheating to mention, but H. pachyclada was a close second because of its great succulent stems and leaves, and the incredibly complex scent of its flowers, which has elements of rose, camphor, and nutmeg.

Hmmmmmm ... I think pubicalyx because it is easy to grow, the new foliage and stems are a dark (almost black) purple, and the blooms are MAGNIFICENT!!
edited to say pubicalyx 'Royal Hawaiian Purple.'

This message was edited Sep 16, 2007 2:36 PM

Sara, your H. aff. latifolia IML 1410 is stunning, and Mark and MsKitty great choices as well. This thread could be helpful for another reason at least for me. Most of the time when I purchase cuttings, I do it blindly just picking interesting sounding names, but with a thread like this it will give me a real opportunity to chose a quality species or cultivar that grows well for most people. Already I've got a couple of great candidates that I don't have, and we just started the thread.

Ann - when I grow up, and have enough birthdays to be as old as you are about to be, (ha ha - just kidding) I really hope that I can take pictures that look even HALF as amazing as yours do!!

Seething with jealousy here in MT,

Sara

Ohhh, I'd like to play, too!

First of all, Ann, Mark, Sara and Hoya24 - nice pictures!! I'd love to get a bloom on my cumingiana!!

Ok, my favorite constantly changes, but right now, I'm in love with australis "Kapaho." It's a new hoya for me (haven't had it long), and it's growing like a weed. It's the leaves that I love - they're HUGE! Of course, I've not seen the flowers, except on Carol's website - and they look beautiful! So, this is my favorite today - ask me tomorrow, could be something else!! (OK, I'll "cheat" like Mark - a close second for me is calistophylla!)

karen

The leaves on australis "Kapaho" are as big as my hand!

Karen, that huge australis leaf is wonderful! I really, really like the different leafed hoyas. I will be getting a hoya australis ssp. oramicola later this week, as Jen went to a plant show in Delaware, and offered to send on some hoyas for me if I was interested. I can't wait to see how different the leaves on that one are too.

S

Sara, what are you feeding your Kapaho? LOL. Mine is growing but the leaves are 1/4 the size and I don't any long spaces between the leaves.. Your plant looks like it could take over your place the way it is growing! LOL
I have never seen a lacunosa that I didn't love. Maybe that is why I have 8 EA baskets of it plus a lot other varieties. The baskets of snow caps are so pretty. They don't have any peduncles yet but it shouldn't be to long before they start blooming. I am alway s looking for a lacunosa that I don't have. All of them are wonderful and hold a special place in my plant collection.
Karen

Lacunosa is also one of my very favorites, but lately my MOST FAVORITE HOYA is H. obscura...it has the most beautiful reddish leaves and seems to be a very easy and prolific bloomer. I don't have a current picture, but this is one from last January (one of the few months it wasn't blooming) Right now it has 15 blooms in this same plant.
Sue M

Hmmmm, I am going to have to think about this one.

Beautiful plants everyone

I would have to say australis 'Lisa' since it has the most beautiful foliage ever! Just took a new plant photo of it this morning when I checked the buds... which are about to burst any day now!

/Christina

I can honestly say that I don't really have a favorite as I like them all. Like Sara though if there is one hoya that I grow that I keep finding myself drawn towards every time I go into the gh it would have to be my H. lambii. Sara you knew I was going to say that didn't you!!!!!

I havent seen it bloom yet but the foliage on this one is really fascinating to me as I havent seen another hoya with foliage like it. My aff. latifolia 1590 would be a very close second.


dmichael

Well, there's another latifolia with a different number. I keep asking Mel if she has any available latifolias and then everyone keeps throwing all these different numbers out. :) I think Sara's latifolia is to die for and as I look at her post again, I gave Mel the wrong number.
Sara's plant gets my vote for the most drool-getter hoya. :)

In my collection, I would say my obovata because of the ease it grows and the huge dinner plate leaves. Foliage, not flowers, is my favorite thing. I wouldn't care if they ever bloomed but just to keep putting out those gorgeous, large leaves.

Susan

Susan, I agree with you; it is mostly about the leaves. The flowers are a bonus, but a lot of us don't have enough light to get them to bloom reliably anyway, so we had better like the foliage. There is also one drawback to some of the flowers; they drip nectar which gets all over everything - plant leaves, windows, and furniture making a mess and in some cases drawing ants.

Doug

I can honestly say that I don't have a favourite, and if I had to grow just one hoya I'd be at a complete loss as to which one to choose.

Some, I love their names (pallilimba, blashernezii, kanykanumariana, etc.), some I love their leaves (obscura, citrina, vitellinoides, etc.), some I love their flowers, by the way the look and their scents (archboldiana, lobbii, heuscheliana, pubicalyx, etc.), some I love the way they grow (cummingiana, bella, australis, etc.).

I can't choose. I'll let you guys play, and I'll just sit back and enjoy them all, unselfishly and in undying gluttony.

Christine.

I guess my favourite would be the lauterbachii. I bought it after I'd seen pictures of the flowers but the fuzzy fuzzy huge leaves just blew me away! I'm content with the plant not flowering for years with those leaves, and the bonus is it grows so well I end up with a whole load more of them!!

I've only been hoya growing for 1 year so I'll say my favorite based on the leaves is sp. dmc 5655B. And I like the assurance that obscura & Ds70 are giving me of blooms, as they are blooming already and here in the North (obscura continuously scince before it was even rooted - thankyou Nan for the cuttings).
......By the way, they're in a South window where they're getting sun most of the day right now (a Fall blessing of clear days - thanks Lord).

It would be FUN to project now for the future, my favorite, so looking at the pretty pink waxy blooms of Glabra. That's my guess. I'll keep this thread in my hoya notebook.

sigillatis for sure, and buotii with it's little "starfish" flowers coming in second.

oops, I don't work too good with computers either! Here's the picture...

Love the picture and hopefully some day one of my hoya's will give me the same show.

That is lovely Jen. What kind of light has that one been growing in?
I have one in filtered sun, and one in shade, and one in the house in a west window.....AND NONE ARE BLOOMING. Grrrrr.
Marcy

Awesome show Jen!!! Does it smell as wonderful as it looks? I think that you have much better light than you give yourself credit for.

S

Beautiful plant, Jen! Same question as Sara - how's the fragrance?


Karen

you know - this picture was supposed to be in Sept blooms ??!? How I managed to post it here I do not know...
Anyway, it does smell nice, just like roses. I had expected the scent to be stronger, I have heard it will practically chase you out of your house.

And Sara, this is the one bright area in my house, because it has 2 skylights, plus the 3 glass panels of the front door are right to the plants right side. It gets good strong light on all sides.
I have alot of my really big floor plants in this room, but have plans to move some out this winter and make room for some more of the hoyas, because every hoya in there does very well.

Marcy, I don't know what to say! I have always heard that nummularioides is a reliable bloomer. Last year I had this plant outdoors and all the buds blasted. Maybe you need to knock a few skylights into your ceilings!

Hey, Jen. Show us some pictures of your room, please. I always like to see what works for others that don't have greenhouses.
Thanks,
Ann

Oh, Gee- I don't know .............Hey, I have a solution- everybody send me cuttings of all your Hoyas and I will decide which one is my favorite. LOL, LOL

Half joking aside... really some beautiful Hoyas , guys!!!!

..................and I am just a newbie to Hoyas ...I have a Hoya Carnata Variegata- Krimson Queen , a NOID one and a H. Curtisii "Stripes" , mislabeled as a H. Bella. Lowe's ... don't you know

Sharon

Welcome to the Hoya Forum Sharon. If you hang around here very long, it won't take you long to become seriously addicted to them.

Doug