Saturday, March 14, 2015

Blooms before the Dry season

Some of you might not be appreciative of my post today! This might be too biased for my addiction at the moment. In the previous years they are mostly orchids, so please bear with me, hoyas are my current pre-occupation. They are the flowers that currently rule my consciousness. I am asking forgiveness from you, but at the same time hoping that some of you might get contaminated with this hobby. It has only been with me in the last 3-4 years, and it really is contagious. The nice part of it is that it is grown worldwide, despite its endemicity in the tropical climates like ours. The sad part is that, virulence emanated from the collectors residing in temperate climates. And we here in countries where they came from cannot sometimes get the species here because they are already not available, either lost from the wild or already in the nurseries of collectors. And the saddest part of all is that the price has gone up in the world market and our capacity to pay is not enough to get samples from these collectors with the shipping cost. We intently want to have samples be back to the country.

You might misunderstood me, but inavailability in the wild is not solely due to collectors, but also because of unjudicious deforestation. Moreover, these plants are not known in the past so they just slash and burn the wild to open for agriculture. These are sad truths, and we can just salvage whatever we can at the end of the storm.

Hoya crassicaulis, in bloom (above) and at bud stage (below)


 Hoya camphorifolia or bifunda i am not sure yet

Hoya naming has been so controversial recently, and there are some inconsistencies and doubling of names to otherwise the same species. Lack of thorough research on these plants predispose them to these controversies. It will only be DNA methodologies which will later give light to the chaos in their identities.

Hoya obscura

 Hoya mindorensis 

Above form is when it just opened the corolla, the photo below is the same flower a day after when the corolla already reflexed or turned backwards.


Hoya mindorensis

 Above is another color form of Hoya mindorensis. There are at least 12 forms reported here already.

Hoya ilagiorum

This is also immediately after flower opening. Those corollas eventually reflex too.

Hoya lucardenasiana
Its blooming has a story. It hasn't been growing nicely and looks retarded. After 2 years i eventually changed and cleaned the roots in January. To hasten recovery from stress i enclosed it in Polyethylene Bag to conserve transpiration. Then after 1 month we just saw that aside from growing lots of roots it also bloomed inside the bag. Oh i learned that it needs a lot of surrounding humidity. Another trivia is that it is named from a batchmate in college Lou Cardenas. Isn't if funny!

Hoya imperialis

Another species which challenge my patience is this Hoya imperialis. Its first time blooming was in December when i was out of the country. Then it buds again, but it has been already 2 months, already very big and yet doesn't show any crack yet. I am going home every weekend, no matter how tiring just because it might suddenly decide to open, of course i have to document it with pictures. My sister said that during the first time there are already cracks but they didn't open fully yet, so she got impatient also and tried helping it by hand! Hilarious don't you think?

 Hoya pubicalyx

Hoya pubicalyx is one of the most beautiful of the hoyas. It also produced lovely round umbels and stays on the plant for at least a week. When plenty of umbels are simultaneously blooming in one plant, it really is very attractive. Some people find the scent as nice, but i prefer the other species. It also has some color forms; pink, red, white, purple, variegated and black. 

Please bear with the bad quality of the photo, but i took it with tablet. My camera batteries were not charged last week and i forgot the charger in the city, what a shame! It also has another open umbel at the far right side, and 3 more are following. Do you visualize the total picture, and my delight looking at them? I hope you do, and i hope also i contaminated you with enthusiasm of owning at least a few of the hoyas. The Philippines has at least about 200 of its endemic species. Other countries have theirs too, like Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Papua New Guinea. 

Come on Garden Bloggers, lets try hoya in our gardens!



http://www.floralfridayfoto.blogspot.com/2015/03/fff174-blue-lotus.html

18 comments:

  1. Very beautiful flowers und images.

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  2. I can see why you're obsessed with them. They come in so many wonderful, colorful varieties! I'm obsessed with all plants, but I guess if I had to pick one that fascinates me the most it would be the Hellebore in all its species and cultivars. Thanks for sharing your beautiful photos!

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    1. Hi Beth, for temperate plants that only live in your climates, i also have favorites. Some of them are snowdrops, crocus, pansies, wisteria. I wonder why i didn't choose tulips, cherry blossoms, haha!

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  3. Such beautiful blossoms! I can see why collectors are entranced with them, but it's a shame that they are not as available to you because of collectors and the deforestation. I've seen them in nurseries here, but because I'm not very good with houseplants--which they would be here--I won't be buying any. I'll just enjoy your lovely photos instead!

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    1. Thanks Rose, actually those in temperate climes like yours have very good nicely growing ones inside their houses. Sometimes, i think it is much easier to control their performance when inside, unlike ours always at mercy of the environment.

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  4. No Hoya in gardens in my area, but they really have an interesting bloom as you have shown. Many colors too.

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    1. Donna, a very active hoya gardener and admin of our Hoya 101+ group is in Brooklyn, NY. He has a very fast growing collection inside his apartment, just like any hoya in temperate climates, they have to be supplemented with growing conditions and cannot grow well outside. Wight lights, humidity, air circulation, proper media and nutrients they are even more healthy-looking than ours here in the tropics. Hoyas are actively trated online these days. Hoya addicts, we call ourselves!

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  5. Hi Andrea, I haven't visited for ages, it's good to catch up again. Those hoyas are very distinctive flowers, they look as if they're made of wax. except the imperialis, that one's different. It's funny to think of your sister trying to get it to open, but plants are like children, they just do things when they're ready, no point having a control battle that you'll probably lose.

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    1. Hi Sue, i am glad to see you again. I am so happy that my garden blogger friends of old are here again to share with me with my posts.

      You are so correct, but i am also very impatient waiting for the hoya buds to open, so i sometimes do some C section also because i only have Sat night and Sun morning to wait for them, haha! Thanks again Sue for coming back.

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  6. Wow that Hoya pubicalyx is amazing!

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  7. These are immaculate-looking and blessed with beauty! Many of then are unseen, really... at least I'm seeing them first time. Great finds and nicely written :)

    Cheers :)

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    1. Yes i guess not many are familiar with hoyas, even here! Thanks for your visit.

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  8. They're all gorgeous! I'd love to have lots of flowers, but we simply don't have room for them.

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    1. Thanks Gunilla, in my case i lack time and resources. Thanks for visiting.

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  9. You are right to be obsessed with Hoyas, Andrea, they are quite magnificent flowers and your photos are quite amazing. We have two varieties growing in our conservatory and the fragrance is wonderful when they bloom.
    Many thanks for participating in Floral Friday Fotos!

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    1. Hi Nick, there are many hoyas in collectors' gardens in Australia. A few of them are my FB friends because of hoyas. Thanks also for hosting the FFF.

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