can't answer your question, but your plants look very nice!

Where's Denise? DENISE! I will have to see if I have her email around here somewhere.

I'll see if I can drop her a private EM to stop by.

I sent her an EM the old fashioned way.

It's all in the genetics, and basically it's humans that decide whether a plant is one species or another. Plants get no say in it. In nature there's always some degree of variability between plants. When they reproduce sexually, via the flowers, the variations go through a bit of a mix up and you get forms which might be different again. But when they're cloned (ie propagated from cuttings) the parent and the cutting have the exact same genetic material. They come out virtually identical. So if someone grows plants from seed and gets a seedling they think is really worth while they can grow it out and produce more identical plants from cuttings. They may name those a different variety but they're still the same species. For the most part species have been identified and distinguished on the basis of flower structure. These days mapping the DNA sequence is becoming more common.

Of course you can cross two different species, but the offspring are neither the same species as the one parent or the other. That another story in itself.

Your in Aus, tropicbreezent, I know you have most, if not all? the same as above right? Have any of your multifloras flowered for you?

Hi Triff. I'm no expert on multiflora/javanica specifically, but I've grown what I assume to be javanica for several years. When I want to know more about a species, I like to go to Christina Karlsson's website, MyHoyas.com. HERE is a link to her explanation of multiflora, which specifically mentions the speckled clone. It doesn't offer much help with that clone, but it's probably (as TB mentioned) just a seedling variation. Just an FYI about these variations - they don't always remain stable. Sometimes, as they grow out, or when you take cuttings and grow a cutting out, they can revert back to characteristics of the original plant.

Now, as to why you have gotten the unspeckled clone to bloom and the speckled one hasn't... that's a good question. You don't say whether either of your variegated ones have bloomed, but for me, variegates don't bloom as easily and when they do, they tend to be stingy bloomers compared to their green counterparts. But why the speckled one hasn't bloom is kind of a mystery. If you're giving them both the same care, especially light, you would think they would both bloom. But I suppose whatever in its genetics gives it the speckling could be a game changer. My pubicalyx 'Pink Silver' is a stingy bloomer compared to my other pubicalyx cultivars...

Denise in Omaha

Triff, I got mine from Bunnings too, but only the two variegated ones. They flowered after I got them during the dry season, not a lot though. With the wet season they 'shut up shop' and then started to drop leaves. Too wet, as we've had a lot of rain. I'm curious to see how they go when it starts to dry out a bit but at the moment no signs of flowering.

triffidmoss How can I contact you? Can you write your email?

Thank you