I'm really sad that I longer have a yard now... I didn't know what to do with all that east and west lawn space and the perception that I had a brown thumb a few years ago. Now that I have a north facing balcony and have found the joy of plants...sigh. Hindsight is 20/20. I'll live vicariously through your photos, I'm excited to see what's growing for you all this spring and summer!

I have a few orchids, but don't find the foliage as enchanting as hoyas when they're not in bloom. Right now, there's only one no-ID, terminal spiked phalaenopsis from the grocery that's refusing to quit budding and start keiki-ing. There's no detectable scent to my nose.

I really enjoy the scent of oncidiums, but their blooms don't seem to last nearly as long as phals and they can turn into big, sprawling bundles of leaves and pseudobulbs that don't rebloom from old growths. Recently started eyeballing the minis, but gotta save room for hoyas :-)

Meyermike- if you ever cut back that variegated CC again and have extra cuttings you'd be willing to share, I'd be interested. I could also offer a Hoya cutting in exchange, depending on what's nice and big at the time.

I won't share all the Hoyas I bought during COVID (that would mean I have to acknowledge how I went overboard this last year), but I did get a couple of fun ones recently from a local plant shop and a local hobbyist/seller:

These are supposed to be H. sp Kalimantan and H. hellwigiana, though the second has smaller leaves than normal so they sold it to me at a discount.

O.K. I have a confession to make. I have gone even more overboard buying Hoyas. I made an order from AH Hoya a while back, but there were a couple that weren't in stock. Well, I ended up at Asean Plant Exports site and they have a lot of Hoya cuttings, so.... well you get the drift. I bought a couple of ones that AH Hoya didn't have, and, because the prices were good, a few others as well.

This was on March 9. This morning when I got up, there was an email waiting for me saying that my package had been shipped. I checked out the tracking number, and, lo and behold, they're already in customs in Miami!

I know this company has a lot of bad reviews, but there seem to be plenty of people that are happy with the plants they got. I'm kind of nervous, but hoping for the best.

Maybe we need a "confessions" thread. Haha! Let me know how you like Asean!

Us - "Hello everyone, my name is xyz and I'm a hoyaholic."

Them - "that's great! Whatta ya got to trade? Lemme show you what I bought. Where are the best prices? How's this supplier?...."

US - "I'm in heaven!"....

lol, isn't this the truth :-)

SLD, I've been eyeing Asean and hesitating because of the seriously mixed reviews. I'm maybe just slightly less anticipatory than you are for the arrival of your package! LOL Looking forward to an update!

@ Bill and popmama, sometimes I listen to the conversations I have with myself about plants and I imagine people would think I've lost it, it's really nice to have found my planty tribe!

Planty tribe... I love it. My kind of tribe for sure!

I watched lots of unboxing videos of plants from Asean, some good and some not. One was an empty box with a note from customs saying the plants were confiscated. They hadn't wanted to pay for the phytosanitary certificate. Another that didn't want to pay for faster shipping, and a bunch of bad ones last summer complaining about the shipping taking so long. Seems to me that if you're importing plants in the middle of a pandemic, when shipping within the country is taking forever, let alone shipping from Asia.... maybe, just maybe you shouldn't be surprised when your package takes a looonnggg time to get to you.

Anyway, tracking now shows that my box is in Louisville, Kentucky, and is supposed to be delivered tomorrow.

SLD....I’ve not ordered from them specifically but several ppl in Thailand, India, & Indonesia~a few hoya but mostly aroids, though I did just order 4-5 huge pots of Sunrise, David cumingii, nummularoids, for $50-70!?! )Who can resist??) khroniana black, yada yada but I’ve had ZERO issues & every box was at my door in less than a week! There’s some funky roots sometimes but whatever~anyone complaining about that but w a healthy plant probably shouldn’t be importing anyway but spending some time learning to actually care for their plants vs having them. Idk why but seems to be hit & miss w folks, but I deal w only ppl who are anxious for another order so they make any problems good.
@Mike~definitely not new to plants, nor houzz, but new to reading your posts. I make custom soilless substrate for all my plants, & they seem very happy given how much they continue to grow over winter now, so curious what your 5-1-1 mix is? Thanks kindly~

Bill - Thank you for info on looking after cuttings etc.....
Progress after 7 days.... especially in neat perlite.... carnosa roots nearly 1 inch long especially on vine end cuttings, whether they will develop into plants ok as they currently are leafless.... normal cuttings with leaves have half inch roots.
Thankfully the rescue from very sad gracilis are also showing roots and looking more turgid apart from one cutting in lumpy substrate which went yellow and dropped its leaves. Carnosa in this substrate maybe just starting to show small roots.
This is getting dangerous..... I can see the house being taken over by Hoyas and the temptations to get more are getting stronger with all your posts and pictures!
Hoyaholics anonymous eh......

UPS tracking now shows my plants arriving tomorrow.

Heather, I have imported a number of plants over the years, starting with Clivia from China back around 2009 or so. Most of the others have been cactus and succulents, also a couple of Platycerium (no Hoyas up until now). All arrived in good shape. I've never had a problem with it. This package has me a bit anxious because of the number of bad reviews of this company. I have had good luck in rooting Hoya, so I'm not really worried about having to re-root plants.

Colin, congrats on having such success in rooting your cuttings! I've never tried to root cuttings with no leaves on. It will be interesting to see how those develop compared to the ones with leaves.

SLD - thank you 😊 I only tried the long vine ends as they were too long to fit in the container so I had nothing to lose by cutting them up!! I hate throwing out possible new plants.... yet another addiction!

We are all waiting in anticipation along with you regarding your impending delivery..... 🎁

Colin, I've taken some vines with no leaves and in a prop box they rooted just fine. These are really tough little plants with a great desire to live. I think your vines will root just fine.

Best of luck with them, and yes, it's very easy to get carried away with hoyas.

I too have been watching what others are doing with international orders and I think maybe next week I'll pull the trigger and place an order myself. I'd love to get some orange flowers like Brad has done, or greenish or red or.... 😁.

Stay well my friend. I'll tip one for you tonight.

Bill thanks for your kind comments..We have such a good group of friends here for sure)

So, I have been thinkin about taking a dive too, but I am afraid I might be able to come back up.. lol I am even afraid they will stay in the mail far too long and never recover, but from the looks of it, doesn't seem that bad.

I just have to know what I want and why..Lol

Wendy, did you get them and alive?? Christmas in March!!

OH and Hey, how much money would you estimate you have spent on hoyas these days? lol

Anyone???

I'll start. About 400 dollars and I'm done. I plant on selling a few cuttings to try and make my money back which I think would happen quickly on the 'rare ones'. Let's see what happens and of course share a few)

The government never knew I was going to use some of my stimulus on these. ha

I have been watching the UPS delivery like a hawk... this morning it said "out for delivery", but now it says "delayed due to incorrect street address". Logged in and corrected the address. They had the house number and road name right, but had the town on the same line. Had the zip right, I don't know why UPS was so confused. Anyway I'm guessing I'll get them tomorrow.

Mike, I don't want to total what I've spent on Hoyas. Think I'll just stick my head in the sand.

I'm willing to confess my sins but totaling them up is another story! Let's not go there. :-)

I can't wait to see what you get, SLD! Post a new thread when you get them tomorrow please please!

I am tempted to order a couple of full plants from the seller that I got the cuttings from.

Tomorrow I was going to order from AH Hoyas. They had some pretty decent reviews

Wendy, Popmama is right, start a new thread on international sales. It should be fun.

Good luck tomorrow.

W

Bill, I placed an order with AH Hoyas a couple of weeks ago. The process was quite confusing. Patience is really the key. Just follow their instructions and don't ask a lot of questions (because you won't get answers anyway, haha).

If they say you need import permit, which to me they did, I just went ahead and applied for the import permit. That process was fairly simple.

There's an e-file system.

https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/resources/permits

I applied for the PPQ 587. It took only a few days to receive the paper permit and mailing labels. This was the real confusing thing. I received 8 mailing labels. No idea why since I only listed 6 plants. Oh well...I sent all that to AH Hoyas.

If you need any other details, you have my email address. I'd love to know what you order. I'm happy to share my list.

Eagerly awaiting to hear how you all get on with your imports 😀
popmama - for many years I was seed exchange manager for the alpine garden society and all our US members had to apply for permits.... they all used to get 8 labels and were valid for 3 years whatever they were ordering!.... some used to send the whole lot and we just returned unused ones back with their seed allocation..... also different states were much more efficient than others!! Things of course may have changed! (as they invariably do!) Hope you are successful in receiving some great plant material.

Mike - sounds like great use of your Government stimulus 😊

Bill - Thank you for your encouragement and the tipple!!

Best wishes and keep safe everyone

Out for delivery again today, hopefully they'll get here this time. If they do, I'll start a new thread to let you know the results.

Bill, I initially ordered 11 plants from AH Hoya (figuring I could order 12 and under). They told me that I would need the import permit, because my order had more than 12 stems, and the limit was 12 or under stems, not plants. Anyway, I told them that I didn't have an import permit, and asked how many of the plants I wanted I could get. They removed one from my order, so I'm getting 10 plants from them. In the future, if I want to do this again, I'll probably do what popmama did and get the import permit.

Asean has this info on their website:

Dear our loyal customers, We strongly advise to all USA based buyers to obtain your import permit. Reason is very simple; many of our plants are produced with 5-10 cuttings in ONE pot. (picture 2) US customs now see this as 5-10 plants (picture 1) and not ONE. So when you order 12 plants/pots, this will suddenly be stopped as “more than 12 plants” And then they demand your import permit. Therefor if you buy these plants, then we will reduce this to ONE plant per pot. If you want the full pot then we need your import permit.Some of the plants I ordered from AH Hoya are their medium size, not small, so I wonder if they do something similar. I just ordered rooted cuttings from Asean.

Just dropped in to say: Thanks for all the info on importing plants. I have been thinking of buying some but backed out each time. Do you also need a phyto certificate or is it that the kind of plants you are ordering does not need one?

tropic, yes you do need a phyto for importing any plants. Some people take a chance and order without, but you run the risk of customs confiscating the plants.

Thanks. I am trying not to buy anymore but looking at these wonderful Hoyas it is very tempting. I have a couple only. One is the very standard H. carnosa and another I grew from cutting last year and have no idea what it is. Any idea what it is and whether it is hoya at all?

Here it is when started the cutting last summer. It is a bit bigger now.

Tropico - Unfortunately I can't help you on the ID. Maybe someone with more experience will chime in. Maybe a peperomia possibly?

Bill you may be right. I usually do not grow these types of house plants and so do not know much. Someone gave me these and told me they were some kind of hoya.

Well, it's nice to know that my good friends here are big spenders, sinners and ostriches..lol I just had to. It's the first laugh I have had all day)

Wendy and Bill, I am seriously considering getting some from across the pond. but I don't know much about them, what is worth it, or really what I am looking for is VERY fragrant, easy to grow, and of course leaf color or patterns. Any idea's?

Just a thought, but if anyone gets any of theirs to grow to the size to make a cutting or two, I'll be the first to offer to purchase for a reasonable price so I can help anyone make back a little of what they paid. Just an idea))

Tropico, what's going on? You need to stay more often and hang with these great people and catch up on a few. I am truly surprised with your ability to grow so well, you have not had a lot more of Hoya up your sleeve) Nice cuttings by the way.

Colin, me too. I can't wait to see how our friends did here with their international deliveries.

Wendy, like you. Way back in the day here, I use to get variegated and some of the most beautiful Clivia from China in great condition. Sad part is, is that I don't have one to speak of now. I have no idea what I did with all of them..

Tropic, sorry I don't have an i.d. for you. I don't think it looks like a Hoya, but I certainly good be wrong.

Mike, I'd say ordering internationally is mainly worth it for plants that are super hard to find and/or way too expensive within the states. As for Clivia... it got so that all I had in my greenhouse was Clivia, and more under lights, lots of seedlings. One year a few guys (other members of the North American Clivia Society) and I did a display at the Boston Flower show, lots of fun. They certainly were beautiful, especially in bloom, but started taking up so much room and I wanted room to grow other things. Now I don't have any :-(

When mine are big enough, I'd love to trade/share cuttings.

Thanks SLD. At least it seems like it is not a hoya. Means I will have to rethink what to do with it. May be companion plant to one of my bonsai.

Mike I do hang around here mainly to live vicariously off the beautiful collections of all the talented crazy folks here. As I said earlier it is very tempting - perhaps it is the beautiful spring days we are having. I will heading to a nursery here in a bit to get some supplies. Let me see what they got.

Tropico, I am pretty sure none of us here could ever walk into a big box store or go a season without checking the plants they have.lol I have been to Lowes 12 times in 12 days to see what's new there in the garden center and at my local nursery 6 times in 3 weeks. I already have plenty, just a habit I guess. It's seems like therapy for me. Still have to pick up cow manure and mulch. Thinking about planting another fig tree up near my house. A Brown Turkey to be exact. My Chicago hardy survived here again. 6 feet tall))

• Wendy, strange right? I don't get why I was so into Clivia, and in fact a very active member on that forum and one time, probably the only one by the time I left and I had all kinds of rare and special plants. I have no idea what happened? Very strange.

Mike... am very envious of you being able to walk in somewhere local and find anything other than carnosa....even if you find that, it is soaking wet or half dead.....
local proper nurseries are very hard to find here (mostly sold off to be built on ☹️) and places like your big stores are hopeless with just imported forced stuff from Holland mainly.
It is good your nurseries are allowed to stay open with Covid situation... hopefully classed as essential shopping 😊

Colin, that would really stink if that is all we had, nothing. I love going to the nurseries for good therapy if anything and of course to find something new. You are right, the big boxed stores have nothing. I am only 45 minutes away from my favorite place, LOGEE"S!!!))

Mike - 45 minutes from Logees? Aughhhh - I'd be bringing a lunch and spending the day! They'd have to kick me out in the evening.

Enjoy....

Mike .... Have looked up Logee's!! A place like that would be wonderful but very dangerous to the bank balance!
I will have to stick to eBay and Etsy UK but prices really variable. US prices seem high.

Bill..... The prop box is working well thank you.

Nothing better than wandering around the Logee's greenhouses on a cold February day. Mike, you're closer to them than I am... I'm about an hour and 15 minute drive away. Right now I'm dying to go there, but I'm not sure I have the energy yet. Also don't think I can count on not having a headache for that long. I am thinking of getting my husband to drive me to a smaller greenhouse about an hour away :-)

May I share my crazy H. davidcummingi, sld? Six peduncles, two of them new!

I'm still stalking H. mindorensis on eBay but the auctions keep ending whilst I am asleep. Sigh.

And I hope you feel well soon.

Your davidcummingi deserves its own thread! Far too pretty to be down this far on the page!

The Hoya plant is great.

I agree - great looking plant.

How old is that fantastic davidcummingii? Looks superb thank you....

Wendy. We are lucky for sure. I wish you would get better fast. I feel so bad. You must of had the virus and didn’t even know it. In my prayers.

Pagan. Wow. Beautiful. Love all those buds.

Hello All, Happy Weekend! Wendy, I hope that you're feeling better and that your cuttings are rooting and growing prolifically.

I keep stalking HD hoping that those australis Lisas that have been running rampant in CA turn up in CO. No luck so far, but I did cave on a small pot of Krimson Queen that had one particularly splashy vine. It's been chopped and is currently in the prop box, hopefully to make me a whole splashy queen plant I've day. We'll see...

Pagan, lovely plant! I've been out of the forums for a while and catching up, but if you haven't yet, please post some close-ups of your blooms of you can. How long have they lasted for you?

Hey everyone, thanks for all your good wishes. I have been slowly getting better. I feel much more myself now, although I still get more tired than usual. At least the headache from hell is gone :-)

Great that you are improving 😊
Happy Hoya growing.....

Wendy, so glad to see you're back and hear you're doing better each day. We missed you.

Hi Wendy. Thank Goodness. Been hoping you would get better. Bought a 'Black Dragon' and
a Hoya obscura recently..That and a few other hard to get ones))

Mike - what are the few other ones then? !!!!
do you buy as plants or rooted cuttings or unrooted cuttings? Hoya collecting is definitely addictive 🙄