Don, the pink silver is very easy but the fragrance is very strong for your partner. Australis is very easy too but strong scent. Canosa, fungii, obovata are very good choice. I would add obscura, globlosa, macrophylla green or varegated(my favorite) they are fairly easy plants.
But I have mine outside all year long so I don't know if everyone would agree with me.
Jan

None of the hoyas will really tolerate drought. If you're a couple of days late in watering that is usually no problem, but these plants cannot really go for weeks without water without having problems. For plants that can truly take drought, you would be better off looking at the genus Sansevieria. Many, many different species and many with some very unusual leaf forms, but even sansevieria will bloom every so often and for the most part, sansevieria flowers are fragrant as well.
Mike

You really can't go wrong with obovata or kerrii. They tend to take less water than their cousins. multiflora is a nice srong plant, but needs more water than most other hoyas. I would not go with smaller leaves, if you don't want to water often, but stay with thicker and hardier hoyas like carnosa or pubicalyx. With the pubicalyx, I've found that pink silver wants more water than red buttons. Polynerua is a tempermental thing, I lost a huge plant of it last winter.
Being a beginner, I would wait on the more expensive hoyas until spring, and use a carnosa or pubicalyx as a test plant.

I agree that Hoyas will do better if not allowed to get too dry. I also agree that obovata & kerrii are more drought resistent than other species. Tsangii is a good choice as it's leathery leaves make it a little more drought resistent, also. Some of the thick leaved species like nicholsonii, arnottiana, aldrichii, macrophylla, finlaysonii are good choices. But I'd stay away from imperialis and javanica (aka multiflora) if you're not a diligent waterer as they're both real guzzlers for me.

Denise in Omaha

Thanks to all.

Is kentiana or x shepherdell (carnosa x shepherdii) likely to be significantly more challenging than pubicalyx? I really like the long narrow leaves.

I have grown a Hoya in the distant past, and it did pretty well for me---I suspect it was 'Pink Silver', though it was sold as carnosa. Maybe my question should be, "Once a beginner has had an initial success, what are some of the easier Hoyas he/she might try next?"

mentha, I do understand that attempting the small leaved species would be tempting fate, which is why I'm sticking to the thickleaved species.

Mike, I'm also experimenting with other plants---so far I've acquired a huge self-heading Philodendron from HD (maybe 'Imperial Red'), ZZplant, a Scindapsis, and an enormous Clivia my partner's dubbed 'Audrey lll'. But I just can't get excited about Sansevierias, and I want some things that'll climb or drape. And yes, I'll also try a Ceropegia.

I'm not really planning on letting things go for weeks and weeks without checking soil moisture. I guess "drought" means different things to different people.

I know my urge to experiment with Hoyas is ill-timed---I'd do better to start in spring, when they're entering active growth---and I know I'd be better off starting with a single larger plant than the several 4-inch pots I'm contemplating buying---but I'm furnishing a new roomy well-lit apartment and I'm champing at the bit.

Don

Don,

Don't worry about amputating the peduncles on all the hoyas you get. Some have scent and some don't, and you will appreciate the beauty of the ones that you can keep (the ones with no scent).

The hoyas that you and others listed above are great choices. Obscura, like Jan mentioned, is a nice choice (really pretty leaves, especially if given lots of sun -they get very red). But it has a very strong perfumy scent. But if you have to take the flowers/peduncle off, then you can do so once you or your partner detect a fragrance.

Here are some that I'd recommend that don't have a strong scent and have nice foliage (the type you seem to be looking for): H. motoskei, H. lobbii, H. kentiana/wayetii, H. kenejiana, H. globulosa, H. pottsii, H. lamingtoniae, H. hellwigiana, H. caudata.

Good luck,
Gabi

Tsangii definitely goes on my short list. I love the rosy tones to the foliage that I see in the photos, and I see the vendor has it.

And macrophylla and obscura go on my list for spring, assuming my enthusiasm survives the winter.

I find it's easy to be overwhelmed by the size of the genus, and it's hard to remember so many names. And it's hard to grasp a species' personality from what I find online---so many photos of the inflorescences or a leaf or two and so few of the plant as a whole.

But I see these three are just my cup of tea. Assuming I can find and grow them.

Yes, Gabi, I won't plan on performing any amputations preemptively, only if and when I start to get complaints, however likely that seems. I know I liked the flowers of the plant I grew.

Thanks,

Don

That's a very interesting question in light of what I recently did with my Multiflora.

I have never liked how it grows. I got rid of my large plant recently, but before it went off I took three small cuttings and stuck them in a glass of water on the windowsill. Promptly began neglecting them.

I just noticed this morning the cuttings are forming buds!

So... for the new Hoya owner I recommend Multiflora for the reason that you are more likely to get blooms on this plant before any other. I have a bunch of Hoyas and never once have any of the others bloomed for me.

I am going to pot up these cuttings and train them to grow in some way other than sticking sideways straight out from the pot!

GG, Try a tomato cage or stakes. I let mine go every which way, I had it in a hanging basket. This next year it's going onto some of those metal loopy flower stakes. Remeber this is one hoya which loses it's penduncles after blooming, and blooms on new growth.

Don, I find many of the 'scented' ones listed here have no fragrance to me. (But growing up in a house of smokers, I have a "stunted" sense of smell!)

I would recommend H. austrailus ssp. tenuipes. I recently did a huge hack job, pulling it out of my tree (I also grow 98% of my hoyas out of doors year round) because the pot hanger broke. I did a real 'hack job' on it, and threw the bits in a tin wash tub... only to have it root quickly and rampantly. I took bits and stuck them in the ground around my property, and they've put on new leaves; deep burgandy with a lime green dot at the tip. The leaves are aging now so the burgandy color is fading to the usual lime green.

(SueTran this goes for you too!) I'd be happy to provide you both some cuttings from the mother plant as I am thinking about moving the 18 inch pot in to work and I can almost guarentee some damage from that transport!

For the neglectful type (as I am, also) I usually pot my hoyas up in self-water pots. Mostly hanging pots, but I've branched out in many directions. I can't recommend H. bella for S-W pots because it has seasonal fluctuational needs for water and S-W tend to kill them in fall! I've hade austrailus, kerrii, pubicalyx RHP, multiflora, obovata, fungii and carnosa in S-W pots for nearly four years now, and they really do aid in the 'neglect' arena!

Good luck, I've been branching out recently and this Neglect Post reminds me I need to go water my newly arrived plants!

Good Luck, Don!

Don and SueTran, leave a note here, I will contact you. GW ate my DropMeALine ability! Tough having been here since '97, lots of changes!!! (Sue, you can reach out and contact me!)

Hi Cena,
Go to your member page and see if the "send me an email" (or some such wording) box is checked. You may have accidentally unchecked the box and that's why your email link is gone.
Mike

Cena,

Perhaps it's time I tried some SW pots, then. They have a reputation for inducing root rot, so I've never tried them myself.

That offer is extraordinarily generous of you. Thanks. I'm new to this site and don't know how else to contact you except through this post, but I've unblocked my GW email link.

Thanks again,

Don

PS Like you, I'm almost anosmic.

Hi Don,
If you look around the board, Cena has posted many of her plants, all are amazing. They really love living in San Diego. She sent me some of that australis, already I have a full pot of roots. She is also very generous. I do want to mention I have had kerrii, pubicalyx, and obovata survive the winter with little water on my part. They looked horrible, but they did survive.

PS I could send you a bunch of carnosa cuttings for postage. Many of them already with the beginnings of roots.

Hi Don,
I have a wayetti/kentiana and I've had no problems with it, it seems very unfussy. However, it did sit there for months not doing anything (to the point where I seriously thought it was going to die), then I hung it by the window, started feeding it and it just started to grow! So I would say it's fairly robust.
Also, the x shepherdell, if it really is a carnosa cross, should be easy to care for as well.

I have no problems at all with bella - but I've found that it might just be the environment that I grow it in, as I'm from the UK, is just different to those of people in the States, as a lot of people just can't grow it. I had it in the smallest pot where it didn't get watered enough, and it was fine. Of course, it was much happier when I potted it up!

However, if I were you, I'd start with just a few for the winter, and then add on next spring. There's nothing worse than buying a plant only to see it suffer and die because it's travelled from somewhere warm to somewhere cold and can't adapt quickly enough.

hills,

Thanks for the weyetti/kentiana report. Sounds just like carnosa.

I am trying to temper my enthusiasm, but I do want to keep up the momentum.

I suspect that in going from Cena's garden at this time of year to my kitchen the temperature adjustment wouldn't be insuperable---but the difference in light levels will be tremendous, I'm sure. It's an experiment I'd like to perform.

Don

Nummeralies (spelling not sore of) australis Brookfield, obavata (fav), ds70 (the think leaved one) they call it by many names but the think one is very hardy. So I think they go by burtoniae, ds70, and another name.. hope that

i am an under-waterer as well and although they’re not as fleshy as others, my lacunosas (one green form, one v. Snow caps) been tolerant of my neglect and dry Michigan winters (got a few crispy leaves and a withered vine or two). They have the more elongated leaves you are seeking, however both are prolific bloomers. The bad part: one has odorless flowers and one has flowers that are quite strong and lily-like and I don’t know which is which. My Snow caps seems to have reverted back to its natural coloring and my green form has some speckles.