Holy sufferin' catfish that's bigger that a dinner plate! It's not pentaphlebia for sure. Bill, we've got to find out what it is and get it. What a Hoya.

Petrushka, I'll try to find you over at Aroids. This pink petioled ag is Pink Goddess, hybridized by Nat DeLeon, back in the 60s I think. It's one of 3 ags in my collection that produce many seeds every year, I grow them all out hoping there'll be some variation of color or pattern..

Russ - if I do manage to find out what that plant is, and am able to secure one - I will definitely send you a clipping. I suspect that a plant that size there will be enough for everyone to get a clipping. I'm probably going to need a chain saw to get through the stem though! (it'll be worth it)

Well here's Ted, this is a 2011 post I found in a Google search....

Ted maintains a sizeable collection of Hoyas and Orchids in Kaaawa, Hawaii. Since 1963, he has field collected in Australia, Borneo, Fiji, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Guinea, the Philippines, the Samoas, Tahiti, Singapore, the Solomons, Thailand, New Caledonia and Vanuatu. Ted also goes collecting at least once a year to the South Pacific or to tropical Asia.

Ted operates Green: Plant Research, a company that investigates problems in horticultural and agricultural crops, does plant exploration for potentially economic horticultural plants and introduces them into the U. S. They will also propagate, by micro and macro methods, endemic and exotic horticultural and agricultural plants - Hoyas, Dischidias, orchids, bananas, etc. Green: Plant Research also sells collected and propagated, select plant materials.

Green: Plant Research
P O Box 597, Kaaawa, Hawaii 96730
Telephone/Fax: (808) 237-8672
Email: GREENT010@HAWAII.RR.COM

Iochroma, would you volunteer to send an inquiry to get an ID and possible availability of this Hoya? If not, may Bill or I use your picture to send along with an inquiry? Thank you for letting us know about this amazing Hoya.

Sure, Russ, why don't you send him the question.

Okay, thanks. I also read other comments regarding contacting Ted, they said he ignored many attempts. So that doesn't sound good for us, especially in winter, but won't hurt to try.

Bill, I'm the new kid on the block here, this is your thread, and the pursuit of the mystery Hoya would keep your interest up on those cold evenings.

Russ, no problems at all. I start these threads in order to keep interest up, and to start these discussions. It's proven a great place to gleen information, share similar experiences, make new friends, and above all, learn.

I'm a relative neophyte in the Hoya world, but I'm also a sponge for learning. By all means, contact Ted. We all benefit from others with more experience and knowledge.

Now that being said, if Ted fails to respond to you, with my SF background I can make him an offer he can't refuse! 🤣

Keep doing what you're doing Russ. It's working.

Hopefully come spring we can all share some plants amongst ourselves.

Stay well, enjoy your holidays and I look forward to all of our continued discussions in the years to come.

Later,

Bill M....

since i transferred some of my H. carnosa from NJ to so FL, i have noticed that even some of the older leaves grew larger with more pronounced veining (almost 4" compared with 2.5 avg before).

i kept them in sev hours of direct sun in west window in NJ and in FL on southern balcony! in part-shade with direct morning sun. So..my thinking is unless you have the similar light intensity as Ted in Hawaii your hoya won't necessarily grow as large leaves as he has.

I gotta move to a warmer climate! 🤣

i'm curious if other people noticed or heard about size increase/decrease causes.

here's about 1.5 yr cuttings reverted H.carnosa.

bottom middle and top left u clearly see much larger leaves. petioles still red: new.

Petrushka, from everything I've read, it seems as though regular feeding with an orchid fertilizer not only speeds up growth but also leads to an increase in lead size as well as overall plant vigor.

I feed mine once a month in the winter with an extremity dilute solution of orchid /epiphyte fertilizer, and during the hot summer, twice a month with a dilute solution of fertilizer. My plants are still small with the exception of my krimson queen. She's probably 15+ years old, and since I started fertilizing her she's bloomed like crazy and has grown exponentially.

Maybe some others with more experience and knowledge can chime in with their experiences.

well, :) mine are on water-wicks: naturally i have fertilizer in the solution. so i feed them continuously too.. so that can't explain my leaves getting larger. what changed is the light intensity and warmer temps: was 85-87F most sep-oct.

Petrushka, you said your carnosa is 'reverted', what was it before it jumped back to original species?

Bill, I assume your orchid fertilizer has a high middle number for flowers, I don't have your brand but do have one for orchids which I'll try. That said, I grow hoyas for the leaves, not so much for flowers altho I enjoy them. Being mainly an aroider, I'm a foliage guy at heart.

I only have a single carnosa hybrid and I need it identified, I'll find it a post a pic. It has variegation and I'm sure it's one of the old ones. I have many books with pics of carnosa hybrids so I might be able to ID it myself. Are Krimson Queen and Krimson Princess close in variegation, or easy to tell apart??

yep, easy: queen is mostly green with white margin, princess is mostly white with green margin.

mine are princess: i cut off green sports, they grow faster and bloom faster.

Krimson Queen and Krimson Princess are not at all the same in variegation. Queen has white at the margin, Princess has the lighter colors in the center. There's a little saying that I've seen on the internet to help remember. The queen wears her variegation like a crown, the princess wears hers like a gown.

Petrushka, I don't honestly think that fertilizer has much to do with leaf size. My obovata puts out huge leaves and so does my kerii. Even my australis sometimes pushes out seemingly large leaves. My carnosa puts out small leaves and huge leaves. I just think it's normal variation in plant growth. Other plants do the same thing. Not all leaves are the same size. But if I were to hazard a guess, it would be that the plant is producing larger leaves to increase its ability to photosynthesize. So possibly larger leaves indicate less light. But that's just a guess since I'm not a botanist (although sometimes I wish I were!).

Thanks to you both for describing the hybrids. I believe I have Princess based on that, but I'll post a few pics.

Popmama, how big do your obovata and carnosa leaves get? Just curious. You could be right in the plant trying to increase leaf size to maximize photosynthesis. I have noticed that my pentaphlebia makes bigger leaves in higher light.

I noticed some leaves of my surigaoensis have pretty toast-brown areas where they were in almost direct sun, only diluted by the clear plastic cover in the shadehouse. Very pretty, I'll try to remember to post a pic.

This are some of hoyas I have and bloom.

I also collect Hoya plants. Some of the names I can think of right now is Hoya Patricia, Hoya cutis- porcelana, , Hoya Ghost fairy, Hoya michele Hoya elliptica, Noona NN , Onchoides, Kamuiki, Ah-247, Ah-001. I think I have about 50 or so of Hoya variety.

Couple of my new hoya blooms early this summer is Hoya Nona and cutis- porcelana.

Lovely, Cora! Those two are new to me. There is just a never-ending list of new hoyas to enjoy. Your greenhouse looks magical. What part of the world do you live in?

Merry Christmas all!! Such an awesome thread and beautiful pics! Thank you. B

I’m in Georgia,zone 7b. I can use the greenhouse for my hoyas during months of June-Oct.

Cora, you must have some great connections to have received so many rare hoyas whose names I've never even heard of before. That said, hoyas are a side group for me, I mainly collect aroids and sansevierias.

I assume you don't heat your greenhouse since you only use it during the mild months. They will definitely grow better out there than in the house when the weather is nice. Looks like a great greenhouse too, I built mine out of wood in 1993 and cover with 6 mil plastic in late fall. It's so old now that it needs to be either taken down and replaced or rotted lumber exchanged for new. Either way a huge project that exhausts me just thinking about it.

Russ, I bought mostly my hoyas from Thailand. Few of them from here(US), but you end up arm and a leg. I recently received my last order from Thailand, the day after thanksgiving. Couple of them did not make it but it was cheaper so that’s okay.

I have brocolli and cabbage growing in my greenhouse right now . There is a power line but I turn it of . I have my hoyas inside grow tent in the basement with grow lights.

Geez. Looks like I don’t belong in this conversation since my posts go ignored. By

Hey Mike, glad you're liking the pics here. Do you have any to share? I don't post here very often but I do like hoyas a lot, my main collections are in aroids and sansevierias. Houzz is keeping me from posting more pics from my phone, what a lousy website. Also having trouble transferring phone pics to my desktop so I could post from there.

What do you collect? I have succulents, ficus, hoyas, vintage crotons, lots of others. I got close to freezing last 3 nights here in central Fla, you get any snow or ice up there in Mass.?

Russ

Russ, how'd the plants fare with the cold? I hope everything made it through OK.

Mike, I guess many of us felt the Merry Christmas didn't warrent a response. Sorry for the confusion. (happy new year!) 😁

Don't leave, because everyone's opinion or comment is valuable. I won't lecture you, but I think the site has a lot to offer in knowledge and in sharing a hobby with others of very diverse backgrounds, political opinions or life experience. I think you do yourself a disservice if you leave, but it's entirely up to you.

Choose wisely grasshopper.... 🤣

Hey Bill, so far I don't see major damage on plants but I've only checked in one area. There wasn't any ice in the bird bath the next morning, so I'm doubting out got as low as predicted which was 31. Maybe trees, surrounding housing development and 6 ft wall modified to a slightly warmer temp. I've got a bunch of nights in the 50s coming up, so I'll have to move a couple hundred plants, many very large, out of the garage and water them.

I'm glad to hear that. I was actually thinking about you and how you fared. The trees and and concrete structures tend to mitigate the temps as they create small micro climates. Hopefully that was the case with you.

Usually late January and February are rough months up here, so I wish you the best of luck in the upcoming months. (My problem besides the cold is the relentless wind. It's terrible. Out of the north in the winter and the south in the summer.) Even a tarp thrown over your plants would help in keeping the frost off the leaves. Every little bit helps.

Best of luck and keep us informed.

Meyermike, I did send you an email to coordinate sending you a multiflora cutting. Haven't heard back. Is that not an email that you check frequently? Hoping the conditions will be perfect in a couple months!

Bill, a couple of years ago I used old sheets to cover a big bunch of Pink Princess philos in 6 inch pots on the ground. It was below freezing and they showed no damage whatsoever, so that does work but I have too many plants now and they're bigger. A couple of those temporary carports with plastic over them would help a lot, but don't have the energy to set them up.

Yeah, Jan and Feb are the worst months here too, I complain a lot but I know you northern folks have it way tougher than I do. I've never lived further north than Oklahoma City, I thought it was pretty brutal there but that's from a Florida boy's perspective. People born and living in places like upstate New York, the Dakotas, around the Great Lakes, etc are used to it and some even love it for the winter sporting opportunities. My brother in the Miami area always says when winter gets close.... it's time to break out the fur-lined flip flops.

Don't think I've posted this before, first time I've ever got a plant to grow from a leaf. There's no stem attached, so no node. I've planted hundreds of leaves over the years and was beginning to doubt it's a possibility, but here it is. Of course 1 out of hundreds is a lousy average, so no one in their right mind would try to propagate leaves thinking they're going to get lots of plants.

This is verticellata variegata, propagated last summer. The new plant even retained the variegation.

Wow! I'm certainly impressed!

I'm like you in that respect. I know the odds may be against me, but even so, I have to try. I know also how satisfied you must be, that even after 100s of failures, you've reached success. I'm sure that you will, as I will, continue trying well into the future.

It's a great hobby and gives us a lot of satisfaction, so why not continue trying right?

Go for it my friend.....

Russ, you should start a separate thread with information about your single-leaf propagation. While I agree that one out of a hundred isn't the best percentage, if a leaf falls off or you have only a leaf, then it's at least worth a try! But I'd like to know more about your process.

And that's a beautiful hoya! Well worth the attempt.

Thanks for that suggestion, popmama. Well, there's no real process, nothing scientific or a special technique. I just stick leaf petioles down in soil mix, usually where there's room in other potted plants. When I take a Hoya cutting to propagate, a few lower leaves must be taken off to make a bare stem that will go into prop mix. These are mostly the leaves I root rather than throw them out, but damaged or broken ones also get stuck in soil. I probably have 50+ rooted leaves in pots all over the greenhouse right now, most planted last spring and early summer. But no plants have developed other than the one verticellata variegata. However, this is the only plant that has arisen over decades of planting leaves, so the success rate is way less than 1 out of 100. But I thought it was interesting that it's even a possibility.

I will post a thread though, as you suggest.

Yes! I always feel bad about those leaves that sometimes have to be removed. Seems like such a waste. The idea of putting them into existing pots is a good one. Space saving and will not contribute to my growing propagation hoard!

Popmama, thank you for sending that. I will double check and see if I see it. About what day did you send it? You are sweet.

Russ, I see you like air plants, so do I. I am always looking for fragrant ones. I hear the more sunshine the better. Recently I moved them all under lights and in a sunny window for winter, so hopefully they will do better. Lots' of ice but not much snow. It's been a strange winter up here. Temperate. No severe cold and not much snow that sticks around. Mainly rain between the cold.

I will try to find time to take pics. Thanks

Bill, thank you and I hear you. It's good to see that a feew are seeing what I have to say. Makes coming here a more pleasant.

Have a great day all)

Yep Mike, we do listen. Sharing a common hobby is a great way to interact. Makes these dreary days go a little easier.

Mike, I wouldn't be able to handle winter in your part of the country, always wanted to visit Mass and Maine seacoasts though... in the summer.

Hoyas are a side interest but they're very interesting and many are beautiful. I admire the flowers but I grow them for the foliage with impressive veins, color, size, and shape. I'm attracted to oval and round leaves for whatever reason, one of my favorite hoyas is obovata. I have propagations of it, if you or anyone needs it for your collection, contact me in the spring. Among my small vintage Croton collection is a highly unusual oval leaved one called ovalifolium with yellow variegation and occasional red accents, another favorite.

Maine is nice, but too much winter. Massachusetts is meh! The interior is pretty, especially in the fall, but I've lived and worked up there for many years when I was in the service and even afterwards in the defense industry - I can tell you it's no fun in the winter either, unless one likes snow, which at my age I can now do without.

Hi Meyermike. I sent the email on December 10. I double-checked the email address you posted in the other thread and it seems correct. If you did not receive it, let me know and I will try again.

Russ, it gets worst every year for me. I get jealous when I see my neighbors move to the south. Ugh. I dream is to live in Florida west coast, St Petersburg. Then at time I love to watch the snow fall. I can take this winter since it has not been as brutal as years past. I hate temps that don't reach above the freezing mar by day and we have been able to every day this winter thus far, thank God!

Popmama, thank you so much. I will look for it))

Bill, I agree, meh. lol I am getting tired of living up here. Maybe someday that will change.

Question for you people - How do I send private messages on here? Does the person I am trying to send to have to have that option enabled? I wanted to talk to people off line, but unfortunately can't. If some of you would pm me if you can (I don't know if I have that option enabled or not), with your email addresses, I'll respond with mine, otherwise tell me what I'm doing wrong that I can't PM within this site.

Thanks all....

Bill.. i'm having the same issue on trying to send a private message myself.. been reading so much here, enjoying every moment of it... but totally get what you mean, i've tried on several different people and have not had any luck

Chuy

Chuy - I suspect it's some obscure option we need to check but so far I haven't found it. I also notice some posts have "comment" under them while others do not. I imagine that too is an option. I'll go skulking around my account and the various options to see if there is anything pertaining to it. If I'm not back in an hour, it means the electrons have discombobulated me and I was probably transported to an alternate universe somewhere. Hopefully it's one with hoyas in it!

I'll let you know what I discover later tonight or tomorrow.

CHUY415 ! I'm back and found the information, and I wasn't even transported out of this universe! Go to "your Houzz", edit profile and settings, then to Advanced settings and all the way down at the bottom, the very bottom, there's an option to allow people to message you. I guess the default is only those who follow you since this was what mine was set to and I never accessed it previously. I changed it to everyone (why not?). Hope that works for you, and all the others too.

Later....

Bill,

you ROCK!! so glad you weren't transported out of this universe!! you're the best!! thank you SO very much!! what would i have done without you? :)

Chuy

Chuy415 - I don't know, but my wife might have some suggestions! ;-)

Bill, thank you for posting the instructions for turning on messaging. I have my messaging turned on.