Unbelievable but true story! I’ve been watching these buds form on this plant for weeks. I watched the buds for several more weeks. Then one day I glanced over and they bloomed!
I can’t believe my eyes! What lovely little flowers. Not much smell to them but they last quite a while.
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Holy smokes!! What happened here?! I bought this sweet little plant with small to medium sized heart shaped leaves. I gave it some light, water and fertilizer and the next thing I know it’s pushing out these gargantuan leaves. Soon it will be calling out, “Feed me, Seymour!”
I guess if I’d read the description I would have noticed the sentence, “Hoya balaensis has wide green leaves, somewhat heart-shaped that can reach up to 6 inches across at maturity.” But, I didn’t because in the picture it was a cute little plant with smaller leaves. I purchased this plant from Steve’s Leaves in mid-April.
It’s an awesome plant, no fuss, steady growth, big leaves. Here’s a link to a photo of the bloom off the Vermont Hoyas website. Something to look forward to someday. A little reward for preserving the biodiversity of Southeast Asia in my living room in Iowa.
Kidding. I’m just crazy about Hoyas.
Hoya Balaensis was first published in 2007 in Blumea by Kidyoo & Thaithong. The native range of this plant is Thailand.
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I purchased H. cominsii from Steve’s Leaves in the middle of April. It’s grown quite a bit since then. This plant has been very easy to care for and is quickly becoming one of my favorites. It is a native of the Solomon Islands.
Turns out H. cominsii is a synonym for H. nicholsoniae which is another favorite Hoya. This is good to know. I’m now at the point in my Hoya collecting that I need to check Kew Plants of the World Online
to make sure I’m not purchasing a synonym of a plant already in my collection. See below for comparison. H. nicholsoniae is on the left and H. cominsii is on the right.
To my untrained eye there do seem to be differences between the two plants in leaf shape and venation. H. nicholsoniae has slightly more heart shaped leaves with scalloped venation while H. cominsii has elongated ovate leaves with more linear venation. H. nicholsoniae also has a dark margin and sun stresses a beautiful red bronze color with yellow venation. I’ll have to give H. cominsii more light to see if it develops the same sun stressing. It will be interesting to compare the flowers one day.
Hoya nicholsoniae was repotted and retrellised mid-May and is growing again. It’s a vigorous grower that looks good even when I forget to water.
H. nicholsoniae was published in Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae… Melbourne in 1866 by F. Mueller. It is native to New Caledonia, New Guinea, Queensland, Samoa and Solomon Is.
H. nicholsoniae has 10 heterotypic synonyms (Heterotypic or Taxonomic synonyms are synonyms that refer to different types with which different names are associated, but which the scientist concerned considers to be the same taxon but different type).
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I ordered Hoya tomataensis from Steve’s Leaves and it arrived mid-April. It’s been growing well since then. The vine is getting quite long and I think it’s about time for a trellis. There are a couple leaves with yellow tips. Initially, I had this plant in a west facing window and even with a sheer it was probably getting too much sun. I moved it to a shelf in another room. It gets light from a Sansi grow light and some indirect midday sun. It’s growing new leaves and they look healthy so I think I just need to keep it out of direct light.
I have this plant in my regular mix and water when dry. I use 1/4 tsp azalea fertilizer in a gallon of water so it gets a little fertilizer each time. I leave a little water in the tray until the top of the mix is hydrated and then dump the rest in a bowl. I use the discarded water on my HOA approved bushed out front and they’re doing pretty well this year.
I made a quick 1×1 SuperTrellis tower for this plant and it has plenty of room to grow.
Hoya Tomataensis was first published in 2004 in Fraterna by T. Green and Kloppenburg. It’s native range is Sulawesi. The lanceolate leaves are on the small to medium size with a little white veining. It’s an excellent Hoya for a smaller space. Thus far it’s been easy to grow. It seems fairly happy in average household humidity. H. tomataensis does like to be watered once in a while.
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