Wow! There are quite a few with huge leaves, I see! I had no idea!
Hoya in Hawai 2
Jan, those are great. I have never seen a kenejiana leaf that big- a Food of the Gods leaf, or are they all that size?
Mark, just that leaf is huge. hehe
Carol, I say H. monetteae samples for everyone along with Leonard's samples mmmmmmm. I can smell both already!
Carol has all sorts of Hoya growing in her garden, but the start attraction are the section Eriostemma Hoya. These species are different from most Hoya in that they are rampant, terrestrial vines. They grow like crazy, climbing trees to their very top, dangling to the ground again, and then starting back up after crawling on the ground in some cases.
The flowers are usually very large, though the leaves are medium sized. Not a whole lot of scent, but the flowers are amazing in being large, very shiny and brightly colored- they almost look unreal.
This one has gotten out of hand- it is I think H. susuella, growing in a back corner of the garden, and has started to kill the host tree by breaking off branches and stressing the branch crotches.
Another huge Eriostemma Hoya.
A Hoya susuella that has been kept form growing very high on the host tree.
Hoya 'Optimistic', a hybrid Eriostemma. Often the flowers occur high in the tree, other times they will sprawl on the ground. Sorry, focus problems.
The nicest Eriostemma I have seen is 'Ruthie', a hybrid that Ed Gilding produced some years ago. 'Ruthie' has fiery orange and yellow flowers, and is a prolific bloomer. I wish I had gotten a better photo of 'Ruthie', one plant had huge clusters of flowers open every few feet along the stems.
Carol had this one growing in eight or nine places in her garden.
I also saw 'Ruthie' for sale in a local nursery on the Big Island- this one seems to be posed to become a valuable tropical ornamental.
(Dominic- try this one in your garden.)
Hoya affinis (?), flowers are over 2" across.
Me, Carol and Randy (DG name- rjuddharrison). Randy was visiting Carol from Texas, and is active on the Tropicals forum.
I think Im going to need bigger plant supports......:))
LOL
Mark - I envy your visit! Are you doing research for Stemma, or just having fun? Either way, how cool to see hoya growing rampant like that.
Carol - Would you care to explain the "Cheshire Cat" smile on your face?? LOL Looks like you guys were having a good time!
Karen
Wowsers! Carol REALLY DOES live in Hoya Heaven!
H. optimistic is nice but that Ruthie is just awesome! I like the foliage and Love the color and size of those blooms.
Now, that H. affinis? is really something! I think I could handle having only one single plant if it were that beauty!
Aaah ... a trip to Hawaii, that would be a trip of a lifetime! It would be very, very hard not to buy a lot of plants to ship back home to myself!
Great photo of the three of you!
I really get confused with H. affinis, H. sussuela and H. guppyi...so I call them 'the red one'. Saw a photo the other day where that flower was called H. guppyi. - oh well!!!
Man...I was in heaven surrounded by such good looking hunks...You can't see Kevin in the photo and he is just as wonderful as Mark and Randy.
My husband refuses to let me plant anymore eriostemmas out on trees because they are starting to be top heavy and break them!! Hmmmmm - gotta be clever about it...."OH, it's not an eriostemma, I don't think...just a NOID"? Sound convincing?
I read somewhere you wrote Carol that you were running out of trees to plant hoyas against..I can see why now.:))
I read somewhere else about someone who grows, or grew them upwards , and then trained them outwards on ropes at 45 degrees, I suppose a little like the Victorians did with Roses, and this instigated good flowering too.
Dominic
This message was edited Sep 7, 2008 4:59 AM
Karen, it was a bit of both, heh.
Those eriostemmas travel horizontally all on their own!!!
Wow, Carol! When I finish my Master's degree I just have to come and see your hoyas in person. Wow, looking at these pictures all I can think of is wow....
Come on over!!!! If we haven't been totally devoured by them...!
Wow! I would love to see those wild hoyas, beautiful Hoya heaven.
Looks like you all are having such good time.
Jan