Experiment time :-P

I had this nice large pot I wanted to use but the Hoya I wanted in it was still in a 4" pot. I grow a lot of Portulaca/purslane and they drink a lot of water and quickly become pot bound. I figured if I add portulaca/purslane to this large pot it would help so that my hoya would not rot in such a large pot. Not a bamboo experiment but a Purslane one :-D it worked.

It does look great!

Lydia, what species of Hoya? Gorgeous!

Its tagged Hoya macrophylla...it came from beastlyflowers

Theoretically, it could work. It just depends on the species of both the bamboo and Hoya. Thirsty species together, less thirsty species together, that sort of thing! I thought bamboo was a pretty thirsty plant, though (but I don't know much about live bamboo, lol).

Lydia, that macrophylla looks more like hellwigiana or possibly a pottsii? Macrophylla has some really thick leaves, similar in apperance to polystachya, clandestina and tjadasmalangensis.

I'll ask Susan if she recognized it. Probably a mixup of tags.

Looked up Hoya tjadasmalangensis and it looks exactly like mine!! Thanks, aurorawa!

I think you misunderstood me.

Your hoya does not match the polystachya lookalikes (which includes macrophylla, clandestina, tjadasmalangensis, sp. Blick Jesper, sp. Rangsan). The venation is wrong (see illustrations), and the polystachya group have leaves, that at maturity, are REALLY thick/stiff.

Doug Chamberlain (this one came to him labeled as Hoya tjadasmalangensis)- note the venation- all "major" veins originate at a single point on the leaf, near the petiole. Also note how thick the leaf is:

The leaf of your plant, for comparison:

Does the red leafed pic above look like mine? I thought the veination was very similar and mine is getting red like that too. Found it online labeled tjadasmalangensis. They must have theirs mislabeled too because It looks nothing like yours either ha...thanks for the illustration. I would have never looked at those details.

Your plant looks almost like my hellwigiana, come to think of it:

Sadly, the only way to ID yours would be to wait for the blooms. Perhaps yours is just a polystachya type I am unfamiliar with!

Does that Hoya get large leaves? Mine is starting to grow them large....I love it regardless of the id. Would be nice to tag it though....I haven't sent Susan a pic. I'll do it this evening when I get home from work. Thanks for helping us newbies :)

As for the photo from the web, it stumps me. The venation is very prominent, like that of a polystachya type species, and most of the leaves do show the venation starting at a single point near the petioles, but a couple of the leaves show a slightly different venation pattern.

That being said, the leaves do appear rather stiff/thick, and the deep burgundy coloration is what I see on my polystachya types, so I am keen to say that it IS a polystachya type. Whether it is tjadasmalangensis or not, I don't know (as there are actual issues with that name, anyway!).

I hope the mystery is solved, because it will definitely be on my list to acquire! The plant pictured reminded me of pentaphlebia, which aurorawa brought up in my red leaves post.

I have pentaphlebia. The leaves and vine are thiner. Another gorgeous Hoya!!

Yes, hellwigiana can throw large leaves! But, so can other pottsii complex species.

Susan confirmed that it is hellwigiana.

Aurorawa, what about Hoya clandestina? I probably mixed tags. I found a tag on one that looks like macrophylla (larger green leaf similar to "macrophylla pot of gold")....for some reason I can't post photos anymore :-( time for a new cell with more memory.

It's not your cell...it's the forum page!

As far as the above being clandestiona, no. But if you are referring to the plant in a picture you cannot post, then possibly!