September blooms!!!

Beautiful pics of onychoides, Mark. Isn't this the one your black cat successfully "de-flowered" a couple of years ago? Seems like I remember a pic of a mischief kitty doing that!

Barb

Good memory, Barb! It was an imperialis, but close enough for my cat. She is eying this one too, but it is sitting up on a table, just out of reach. Heh.

H. cagayensis. As advertised, it smells just like wintergreen.

Christina, I have been sniffing the onychoides blooms at different times to see if the smell changed- last night I woke up around 2:30 am and passed by onychoides to smell- wow! It smelled really different. A little still like tootsie roll, a little like gardenia, but really not like anything I have smelled before. A really fantastic, impossible to accurately describe fragrance. New.
I guess that's one of the appeals of Hoya, huh? A few species have scents that are impossible to miss- H. heuschkeliana smells exactly like melted butter, H. cagayensis smells very much like wintergreen, a few are almost like something, carnosa and chocolate, for instance. And then there are some that don't smell much like anything but themselves and are unique. H. onychoides seems like that to me, as does H. australis and H. lacunosa. You can compare them (to cherries, ginger, carnations), but the comparison always falls short.

I have a couple of lacunosa in full bloom right now. Love the fragrance!

another lacunosa

H. wayetti has some buds

I don't have any of the unusual and beautiful flowering hoyas as some of you do but I just love this ds-70 ... maybe because it blooms all the time and I've grown to love the fragrance on the pool deck. This thing has been blooming all summer.

Beautiful Lin!!!

We had our first light frost the other day...looking at those pics....I want to come live with you for the next 6 months!!!

My lacunosas just dont seem to like me. I see everyone with such lovely plants, and mine give me such grief...one of the only Hoyas that does. Have most of you bought them as large established plants, or grown them from cuttings? Once rooted, some hoyas seem to take a while to 'stabilize' then grow well..lacunosa just seem tricky for me..or is it just my climate? I see these lovely plants, and Im not sure what Im doing wrong

Lin, I think sp. DS-70 is one of the absolute best. If I had to pick only a handful to grow, that one would be near the top of the list.
Dominic, I don't know what to make of lacunosa. I've grown quite a few, all from cuttings. They grow well when they are young, but once they start blooming they seem to go downhill for me. The older leaves yellow and wither, leaving a lot of bare, leggy stems, and the newer leaves look strange, distorted and with a dull, unattractive texture.
Mine stay cool, I thought that might be the problem, but David Liddle lists them as cool growers in his catalog, and I have seen growers in warm climes have similar problems.
Wonder what the deal is with that plant?

Your description is perfect, Mark, how mine have gone..like they become diseased. I have a H lacunosa 'Borneo' now which is growing quite quickly at the moment. I have surprisingly large leaves on this type, we shall see if it goes the same way when it flowers. Problem is, once it flowers, you get hooked on the smell and want more.:))

Mark, is it called cagayensis or cagayanensis?

/Christina

Dominic...I seem to have marvy luck with H. lacunosa...they grow well here. Temps in the 80's, cool at night, humidity about 60% when it isn't raining, filtered light or indirect VERY bright light and I give them lots of water....they don't seem to like to dry out at all!!! They also do well climbing up trees....

hTH
Carol

H retusa

H retusa again

Christina, I believe it is "cagayanayanayanaanensis". ^_^
Just kidding. You are absolutely right, it is "cagayanensis".

Regarding lacunosa, I wonder if it could be a humidity issue for me? Dominic, do you have relatively dry air where your lacunosa is growing?
Nice macro of H. retusa.

Mark...Im a bit baffled by humidity readings....... Relative humidity, Specific Humidity..Ive looked it up and read all about it, and I still dont quite get it. ...which is which. (Im not thick, but I lean towards the arts.:))..100% relative humidity is rain...I think.
My weather forecast for this week is between 28 and 31 degrees celsius, 21 to 24 at night with 'relative humidity' between 80 and 93. Now , to me, that would sound very humid, its higher than Bangkok and Miami..but it doesn't feel it, which is why Im confused.
Trade winds keep the temperatures down here, but Im not sure what they do to the humidity levels ( Is there a scientist out there? ) We have a very high moisture content in the morning..dew, very wet, the farmers 'harvest' it with picon....lava ash, into depressions which water the crops, but then the sun comes out and shines all day, and we only get rain for say 3 months of the year, if that..yet the relative humidity stays about the same all year....
So, I would say, we have quite high humidity..but I might be wrong as Im an artist, not a scientist......I feel Im waffling, sorry.
At the moment, whist my house is being gutted, Im growing all my Hoyas under shade cloth outside. I have gravel on the bottom, and I damp this down a couple of times a day, Im not sure if its necessary, but it gives me a break from the canvas......Ive now put all my lacunosas on the gravel, and they dont seem to mind it..as nor do all my bella cuttings.
So, what do you make of those readings?

Dominic

Carol, did I read somewhere where you hadn't had good luck with lacunosa until you got some in a medium with wetting agent in it, and then you found it thrived? Im wondering if I should abandon my clay pots for this one and grow it in plastic.....I just have this thing against plastic

It sounds plenty humid there, no?
Maybe it is the watering? I always have watered my lacunosas as I water most of my Hoya- letting it approach dryness before watering it again. Maybe they would prefer more?
I should try lacunosa in semi-hydro, I have been using that for some troublesome species and they are mostly doing very well in it, as they never dry out but have constant oxygen at the root zone.

Well, it does read humid on the chart, but it dosent feel it...which is where my confusion comes from. Maybe its a mixture of high heat and humidity which makes it unconfortable for humans, where as lower heat and high humidity is much more tolerable...? I think Ill get a Barometer

Here's australis ssp australis - I'm proud of this one because it started as a cutting. The scent is divine!

Karen

Here's the whole plant - it's got four umbels of flowers - wonderful!

Beautiful plant and blooms, Karen. You should be proud!

Barb

Karen, that is a beautiful plant and the flowers are wonderful! I have a small one and can't wait for it to bloom now!

I'm so happy to finally be able to post Hoya blooms I can hardly stand it! LOL

Here's H. obovata (complete with ants).

A NOID Hoya. It's in the pot with a Krinkle 8 clone, but this vine shows no "krinkles" at all. Don't know what it is, but it's pretty anyway!

H. kentiana. Really love the color!

A side view of H. kentiana, because I think the droplets look so neat!

Great plant Karen! And, I know it must be really exciting since you grew that one from a cutting! I know if my cuttings from the spring DL order ever show blooms I will be doing a happy dance for sure!

Rain: Love that obovata flower! And, Wow, look at all the ants, they must be loving the nectar ... very cool picture! That noid bloom is really pretty too! And, don't you just love kentiana?


Here's a picture I took last night of H. lacunosa speckled leaf. I don't think this is a very pretty picture, I think the lacunosa photographs much better in daylight, but it could just be the person behind the camera! LOL. The aroma in the air out there on the deck at night is just heavenly!

Dominic...I must not have explained myself well....it was the lacunosa with the wetting agent I was always killing....too much water stayed in the pot. I water my H. lacunosas a lot... I generally treat the hoyas from the Philippines with more water and it works. Lacunosa, obscura etc. - I know lacunosa is found other places...but those places are usually humid and rainy too!!!

I hate plastic too...but I find that the clay pots aren't good for hoyas....at least mine. The sides where the tender young roots attach can dry too fast and the center is still wet...and drying out the roots cause rot if they stay too damp. Plastic is yucky but it works!!!

Karen, pretty australis blooms. I don't care for fragrance on mine. Must be a different variety.
Rain, I love your obovata and the noid is beautiful. Your kentiana is cute too. I love when I see the nectar. One of these days, I going to 'lick and taste' ^_^
Linn, the speckled lacanosa I got from you is growing beautifully. It bloomed a few weeks ago with one peduncle. It is such a dainty plant. I love it. I can't wait until mine is as large as yours. It's beautiful.
I have to go back and read all the old posts from last week. I was away and must catch up.

Hoya pubicalyx Pink Silver

Hoya obovata

Hoya pubicalyx Royal HI Purple

Hoya carnosa tricolor aka Krimson Queen

Wow! Beautiful blooms, BJ!

I can spend hours gazing at the beautiful blooms on the AV forum and the Hoya blooms here! So gorgeous!

Thanks, Lin. :) I do love these plants!!

Barb

You are welcome Barb. I am really taking a liking to them too! Very easy to become addicted to the beautiful foliage on some and of course the beautiful blooms ... and if they are fragrant, even more so!

Dischidia ruscifolia plant with dozens of teeny tiny blooms

Dischidia ruscifolia - closeup of blooms