I am sure by now you are maybe already concluding that i am so deep into hoyas! And you are correct. I go home to the province more in a month than i am used to, just because i need to tend to my hoyas. I entrusted them to my sister, who hates them at first, but when they started to flower she is also now watering them with love and caring. My posted photos previous to these are all hoyas too!
The only thing not favorable for me is the hoyas inability to bloom when i am at home. It is very difficult to see them opening during weekends, so most of the time i can only photograph the still closed flower buds, like the one below. But even at this stage it is already alluring, don't you agree?
Hoyas need to have pot-bound roots for more flowers to come out. Sometimes i use recycled plastic bottles as their containers. Are you familiar with the bottle above? I am sure you do because the 1.5 L coke bottles are the best suited for them. The bottle's bottom half is inserted below to collect the leachates from the media during watering. That way a higher humidity is given to them for better growth.
The above umbel is not intentionally placed at that position, it serendipitously flowered there. This hoya knows how to get attention! And this species got my sister hooked.
This is how it looked when the flowers fully opened. Those corollas recurve backwards, leaving the protruding corona fully exposed. Don't you think it is amazing!
Your hoyas look like highly decorative ornaments. Its no wonder you got so hooked on them. I myself have never started on them as the vines look so puny and delicate and I have no place to hang them.
ReplyDeleteHi Elsie, you should see the post previous to these to see the variation of some species. I am sure you will be awed, and eventually you might get one too! Those vines are trained, so no worries about them.
DeleteThese are amazing flowers which I had never heard of before reading your blog! I presume that they hang down from the containers you grow them in? Where would they naturally grow?
ReplyDeleteHi Nick, as i suggested to Elsie above, you must see my post before this. A lot of temperate country gardeners have a lot of hoyas in their care, and they surely enjoy the challenges.
DeleteI can see why you're fascinated with Hoyas. They're definitely unique plants! How long have you been collecting them? You seem to be an expert on them, too!
ReplyDeleteBeth, please look at my older post before this. If that is not enough to entice you, i don't know what will, hahaha. I'm into this only for more than a year, so only a few species are already flowering. When i learned from Hoya FB groups that there are temperate country growers who are already caring some for 5 yrs without flowering, i am challenged to grow them too. They gladly are mostly endemic with our climate.
DeleteI have seen hoyas on photos many times and would love to have some, but I have nowhere suitable place indoors for even one so I think I need to continue enjoying them on photos. The flower looks fantastic, so special and different!
ReplyDeleteHello Helene, i know some successful growers from cold countries like yours like Belgium, Norway, Sweden, France and of course the cold US states. If they don't have a nursery, they make a room or a balcony of their house dedicated to hoyas. I even know someone whose hoyas are in her bathroom. A successful hoya grower is in Vermont where temperatures are very low too, he put it everywhere along the windows.
DeleteOh, I know we can grow them indoors here, it’s just I live in a Victorian house and I have only one small window in the kitchen, currently occupied by all my orchids. My living room is east facing and very dark, and the window there has a big radiator under it so is not suitable for any plants at all, it gets too hot near the window and too dark for plants away from the window and the radiator. And I am afraid my bathroom is too dark for a hoya. So as I said, I don’t really have any suitable place for a hoya, but I would love to have one.
Deletehahaha, maybe hoya is not really for that house, but that doesn't mean it ends with you! When i see or read the posts of people with extreme temperatures,or someone with a heated nursery in Canada, or one with artificial lights in Sweden, i am so awed. If i were them, i don't think i will do that. Moreover, i can't also imagine someone who waited for at least 5 years for her hoya to flower. OMG, i salute those people. At least in our climate and conditions, it several folds easier. I know how organized your garden is Helene, i still remember the cut cylinders as margins, they are so nice!
DeleteHi Kalantikan, just stopping by to say how delightful your blog is. Thanks so much for sharing. I have recently found your blog and am now following you, and will visit often. Please stop by my blog and perhaps you would like to follow me also. Have a wonderful day. Hugs, Chris
ReplyDeletehttp://chelencarter-retiredandlovingit.blogspot.ca/
I do not think I have ever seen one before, at least not like the one your have.
ReplyDeleteHello Ruth, thanks for dropping by. You should also see my post previous to this one, where many different hoya species are much better shown.
DeleteI cannot open you blogsite, it says my company prohibits us to open sexual and adult sites. Haha, maybe you registered your blog as that, which means more of porns than the general adult posts like gardening.
Those Hoyas are extraordinary, Andrea! I've seen my first Ladybirds of 2014 now. I'm nominating you for a Lighthouse blog award. You can read about it here. Please feel free to accept it if you so choose.
ReplyDeleteI am honored with your award, but i can't just accept it now as i will still screen for my nominees! I am touched that some well meaning people are reading my posts and found them worth reading, thank you so much.
DeleteHi Andrea. I'm visiting you via NF's 'Blo-Ma page. I'm not familiar with the Hoyas, but looking at your photos, they are very interesting. The flowering display in the second photo is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThey're gorgeous. I've had a few hoyas over the years, but I really don't have much space for flowers.
ReplyDeletewow, these are gorgeous! I have three kinds of Hoyas but none of the beautiful ones you have. Did take a look at the link as well. :) Never seen the bottle arrangement before. Thankd for sharing :)
ReplyDeleteIt is so lovely. I need to try to grow one in the house.
ReplyDeleteAmazing flower and I see why you are smitten with it.
ReplyDelete