First, I want to say a big, huge WOWOWOWOWOWOW to everyone's absolutely beautiful plants on this thread!!! I really have just enjoyed wiping my mouth with my drool-bib.

Everyone's displays are also really wonderful. It's neat to see how everyone has arranged their plants so as to really be able to enjoy them (and be the envy of all the neighbors - or at least the neighbor's who understand the obsession).

I think this thread is also really interesting because it really shows us the differences between plants grown in regular homes and plants grown in greenhouses. I take the size difference as a good thing because I honestly don't know what the heck I'd do if my plants grew to six feet - don't get me wrong, I'm the first to encourage mammoth growth - I just don't know where I'd put 'em.

David, I'm coming to live with you - don't worry, I'll just drag in a plastic-encased mattress and live in your greenhouse - you can think of me as your own personal Carolina Wren (hahaha) - I promise I won't lay any eggs in your greenhouse though ;-)

Ann

Holy cow! I've never in my life seen hoyas like the ones posted here---you gals & guys grow some gorgeous plants. I've only been into hoyas for about a year and started with cuttings some kind people from this forum sent me---all of them are still very small. Being that I live in MN and can grow indoors only (my outdoor property is all "full sun" with horrific wind), my plants have barely eeked out a few new leaves each. I had no idea hoyas could even get that big. If only I lived more SOUTH!!!

I found a few more giants!!!! Just 2 though that I could easily access to get pics. There are so many plants in that gh situated so that I cant get to them to take good pics without moving everything around them. Good thing or this thread could go on and on!!!!

this is pentaphlebia. The little leaved plant on the spiral to the left is pauciflora

Ann, I heat my home with electric and the gh with gas and have often said in an emergency if the power ever goes out during the winter that i'd sleep in the gh!!

Here's another jolly green giant!!! H. meliflua ssp. fraterna. There is just as much of this plant growing up in the gh rafters as what you see in the picture!

LOL Ines, I think of you when I see my adorable Mathilde, who intentionally resides in a non-mealie room! I haven't forgotten about that mac you wanted, and there's a future cutting with your name on it as soon as the darned thing grows. Two years it's been doing nothing!

Thanks, P. G., and good to "see" you again!

David--whoa! Those are some mammoth beer-guzzling monsters you have there. I'd be careful about turning your back on those, or *burp!!* Stunning, all of them!

David, you made me feel envious! Please check your email. I wish to know about the "beer formula".

Many thanks.

Xuan

Xuan,I didn't get your email so i'll post the info on the beer formula here.

This is the original beer fertilizer recipe::::
12 ounces--beer
1/2C --ammonia
1C--epsom salts
2C--water

mix the above ingredients together well. Mix 1 tablespoon of this mixture to one gallon of water. Water every 2 weeks with this.

Okay somewhere along the way this formula got revised and some things got added to the original recipe. By who and for what reason I don't know but the revised formula is the one I received first and it's the one I use. Below is the revised formula.

12 oz beer--I use ice house as it is my beer of choice for drinking myself so why not for my plants as well???

1/2 C --ammonia--plain not lemon
1C--epsom salts
2C--water
1/2C--molasses
4 TBS--bloom booster (I use dyna-gro bloom during the spring and dyna-gro grow during the fall and winter)
250-500mg--vitamin B12 ( I use 500)

I also mix 2 tablespoons per gallon of water as opposed to the called for one tablespoonful.

hello everyone, nice pics i keep coming back to this thread again and again

dmicheal:
i can only hope to have a greenhouse like yours one day its gorgeous!! you need that kind of space to grow those giants!

i have a question about the beer formula i made a batch but it goes real slow, how long do you store yours for?

Jsainz,

I have a ton of plants so it doesn't last long and I usually have to mix a triple batch when I mix it!!! Not only do I grow hoyas (over 300) but I have a cactus collection of around 250 + or - one or two as well along with a hand full of other plants. Every plant that I grow gets watered with this stuff.

I usually keep it in the gh on a dark shelf and it tends to stay for a while, i've kept it like that for a few months on end without it going bad. In fact i've been using it for at least 2 years now and haven't until now had any to go bad. I threw out about a quart today that I think had spoiled and that probably was due to the fact that the first 12 days of this month were in the mid-high 90's with equally as high humidity.

The new batch will stay inside my house where it's cool and i'll take out as much as I need to use at any one time. I water all of my hoyas by hand and it normally takes around 20+ gallons of water to get it done.

Beautiful Plants everyone, my plants are a bit camera shy since they got sunburned and I had to cut out a lot of foliage.

A note on the beer fertilizer. I use non-alcoholic beer, I've also used wine, but cognac gives a better result. My plants know the good stuff ;) The molasses makes the formula spoil quicker, I add this on the side about half the time. It must be blackstrap molasses, however a bit of sulfur would work as well without the attractant to ants. I have a lot of ants and the beer itself attracts them like nothing else without the added sugars.

I would love to have a linaeris and a retusa, do they burn quickly?

Thank you, David, for the beer formula. I wonder why my email didn't get through.

I've tried Eleanor's VF-11 on my hoyas and it has worked well. But it's difficult to get the stuff to Vietnam so I thought I should try something else. Your beer formula looks easy enough to fix; now I should try to find all the stuffs needed.

Once again, thank you.

Xuan

Xuan,your email apparently got tied up in cyberspace somewhere,it come through at some point overnight though as it was in my box this morning.

Mentha,if you mean burn as in sunburn, I grow both linearis and retusa in very bright indirect light and they grow very well and have never burned. Neither have ever been exposed to direct sun light so I can't say for sure if they would burn easily or not.

david

David,

Gorgeous plants! I've seen them on another forum, but I just had to comment again. I wish I had a greenhouse to grow mine in! Hopefully when I get a house :)

I saw that you mentioned you're single...so sorry to hear about your break-up with your bf. I had no idea. At least you have your children (AKA cats). By the way, how is that cat that you rescued doing??

Gabi

WOW! Amazing huge plants everyone!

Jo, that carnosa is a piece of history - How amazing to have a piece of your husband's aunt's plant, and to have been raising it like a child for 30 years.

David is right, plants and pets can be as loved as children. Ha! Sometimes more, since they don't cry, yell, talk back....

And, David, your hoyas are enormous - they really are FABulous. If you weren't such a great guy, and so generous with all of your huge plants, I could almost seethe with jealousy! I really love your pauciflora and your lambii. What different leaves on both.

I know that you were "a little" kidding about liniaris, but really, if you ever need the second one back, I would send it to you!!

Denise, I agree with everyone else - your macrophylla is beautiful. The size and texture of those leaves is awesome. Your pubicalyx "splash" is huge. Does it bloom for you now?

Jan, your lauterbachii is about 20X as big as mine. Where are you growing yours? Mine just sits sulking, and gives me one to two leaves each year.....

Gabi, good to see the multiflora again. It looks good, even after the cut and re-root. Did you ever figure out why the leaves were so papery, and failing? I know that root issues are so general that it is hard to pinpoint any one thing. It would be sad to loose your large healthy plant. Looks like you stepped in right in the nick of time. Phew!!

Gabi, tell me what happened to your multiflora---sounds like what just happened to me. My multiflora got about two feet tall, then suddenly the leaves started yellowing and falling from the bottom up. I quickly took cuttings in hopes of saving it, but I can't quite figure out what suddenly went wrong...it's been in the same spot for a year, and I didn't change any cultural conditions.

Ok, so this is by no means "big", but it is pretty big compared to most of my other hoyas. I'll show a before and after pic to show how much it has grown in 8 months (most of the growth was over the winter!). And thanks to a great GW friend who sent me these AMAZING trellises (in second pic):

H. diversifolia (in October 2007):

And here it is now:
{{gwi:956905}}

Oh, sorry Shiver...

Mine actually gets the occasional yellow leaf that falls off (from the bottom), and I found that happens when it gets too dry.

But as for what happened to mine, it looked ok overall, but the leaves were kind of thin and paper-like. This was a few months ago. I think it may have been due to a cold draft, because the roots looked fine. So I just moved it away from the balcony door for awhile. It didn't improve much after doing that, so I decided to repot it into a much "chunkier" mix - it bounced right back after that. So I'm not sure if it was a combination of a cold draft and not enough aeration in the soil, but it's back to itself now. I think multiflora likes a chunky soil. Also, make sure you water it A LOT!

As for cutting it and re-rooting it, that's not what happened. I was AFRAID that I might have to do that, but it didn't! I only had to cut and reroot the smaller stem in the front/middle, because that looked pretty bad. Anyway, it has perked up and been in constant bloom.

So I guess your guess is as good as mine! Did you leave your's in a cold spot over the Winter? I hope your's is doing better now.

Gabi

Found a few more giants today that wanted their pictures taken!!!! This is H. incrassata. It has kind of drab green very stiff,wavy leaves and finlaysonii type flowers with a very spicy fragrance.

I've already shown this one but here's a better pic of it. This is H. lambii and it's one of my favorite hoyas to grow.Now if I could just get this sucker to bloom!!!!!

Last but not least here is another 6 footer!!!! This is one of 3 clones of H. diversifolia that I grow. It's a very easy hoya to grow but getting it to flower is a horse of another color!!! This plant did produce some peduncles earlier in the year but the buds all blasted and it hasn't formed any new ones yet.

David, again, your plants are just AMAZING!!

I have a question about the beer fertilizer. I have made a batch a couple of months ago or so, what I was wondering is the epsom salts on mine doesn't seem to dissolve. I have used hot water to try and dissolve it when I first made the batch, but when the mixture cools I can hear and see the epsom salts again when I shake the mix to use. Is this normal or is there a trick I am missing? Thanks...

Pug, I usually put the salt into the mixing container first and then start adding the liquids. I also shake it up quite a bit after mix to try and melt the salts as well. It usually all dissolves after a short period of time and I shake the mixture before each use also.

David,

You must be the Hoya-wunderkind! I have a feeling YOU might be the next one writing a book about our beloved plants... I have been lusting after lambii for so many years, but just haven't been able to afford it... Is it fairly easy to grow? I can, of course, afford a cutting, but I'm leary to buy cuttings of notriously hard-to-grow species. But I've read so little about lambii that I just don't know what to expect...

Though I'm a solid advocate of VF-11, I will try this beer recipe. Do you water 52 weeks a year, or do you give your Hoyas a rest from the magic potion??

Denise in Omaha

Gorgeous plants everyone!
David I had Hoya lambii at the top of my list when I ordered from David Liddle in the spring. I fell in love with the growth habit and flowers after seeing some photos on the web, I just hope I can flower it. I rooted my cutting in an old aquarium under florescent lights and it is now doing very well in a 6" pot and has developed two growth points and many roots. How many years have you been growing your Hoya lambii?

Mike

This is my obovata before it got a sunburn, and I had to prune it back.

{{gwi:956909}}

After it's haircut, poor thing! Luckily the cuttings I took rooted within days and are now planted with their mama. It does seem to be happier outside now that I have some shade cloth up.

and my largest hoya, some came from my mother-in-law other parts from various nurseries. I decided 5 pots of the same hoya was a bit too much, so I combined them.

Denise, I water my hoyas 52 week of the year!!!!I use well water,with the well being right outside the gh. It only took about 10ft of PVC pipe to run to the gh and get a spigot hooked up. I water straight form the hose during the spring and summer months once the ground water has warmed up enough to safely do so. During the winter months I keep one of those 20 gallon rope handled buckets full of water heated with an aquarium heater so I can always have plenty of warm water to use when it's cold outside. I found that watering with cold water during the winter even in a gh made the leaves turn yellow and drop.

Growing my plants in a gh (heated with propane during the winter) I have active growth all year long and have had the occasional flower here and there over the winter months.

I mix my own potting medium which drains very fast and tends to dry out quickly in the gh this time of year so I have to water about every other day or so. My watering routine is for waterings 1-3 to be with the beer formula. Waterings 4 & 5 are with straight water to flush the soil and then once a month when I can remember to do it I water with fish fertilizer.

I've been criticized and harassed to no end on other forums for even talking about the beer formula,people saying that i'm harming my plants and that it doesn't work and so on and so forth but i've been using it now for over 2 years and as you can see from my pictures my plants are very happy and healthy and HUGE!!!!! Basically what those people on the other forum couldn't understand was that I didn't need them or anyone else to tell me how to grow my plants,simple as that. I'm obviously doing a great job. I do not try to push the beer formula on anyone. People ask me what I use and I tell them. I also tell them that what works for me may or may not work for you,all you can do is try it and see.

As for H. lambii,it took me quite some time to track it down as it was one of the first hoyas on my want list when I first became interested in growing them. When I finally did find a source for it I managed to kill at least 2 different sets of cuttings before I got one to root and grow. That would be the one that you saw in the picture. I didn't know about David Liddle my first 2 attempts and I got the plant in the picture from him on either my third or fourth order to him.

I don't at all find it even remotely difficult to grow. The trick was getting it to root,stay alive and grow!!! I also find it to be a very fast grower or at least for me is.My plant has put on almost 3ft of new growth so far this year and is still very actively growing.

Mike,i've been growing that lambii plant now for about 3 years. The foliage is what drew me to it instantly. I saw a picture somewhere online of the flowers which I thought were AWESOME but then I saw the leaves and knew I HAD to find this plant!!!

The plant has quite a few brand new leaves forming right now and I check it every day to see if there are any little baby peduncles forming anywhere!!!

I also use an old aquarium to root in sometimes depending on what time of year it is,usually during the fall and early spring when its' still cool outside.

david

Lots of NICE large plants.

Wish I could show you such clear, delineated pix of my hoyas, but they are in this tree, see???

I have some older pix BEFORE they became tree bound...

Trying to show you the plant...
Here is a bloom, and the mother plant behind.

Well, it will be better if I take a set of photos, tracking length, breadth, hmmmm, maybe not.
Let me keep looking at pix......

Bella, three years ago.

I'll have to go see if I can get pix of 'the biggie' or piece meal them together (then see if they make sense!).
What a Good Idea!

I find lambii extremely easy to grow and a pretty steady grower too. I got mine last year from David Liddle and it rooted in about 7 days using the baggie method. It quickly grew several leaves and is now vining out. I just love it. Mike, I'm with you...can't wait for blooms! It's not the color of the blooms that I love - it's their shape and how they look on the plant. Stunning.

Cena, your bella is HUGE! Looking forward to seeing more of your big hoyas.

Gabi

Pubicalyx (Lord help me, work has rotted by my brain and I can't spell!)
Mother plant. To the right is kerrii, left is australis. We'll get to them later!

Well, I'm pretty much frustrated with my photo site@!!!!

So, this will have to be it for pubicalyx.
Perhaps I can educate myself on how to use the slide show. The pix were awsome, and of good size.
I'll try to be more patient with my other Ginormous plant photo sharing ops...

Thanks for all the kind words!

Tried to post a few more last night, but I lost the knack half way through...

Kerrii, attached to the tree three years now. HATES cold weather, and shows it in extreme!

This is a group shot, (new) bella, Krinkle 8 and another I got from Thirston (and my brain has a cramp, gone blank, hopelessly over drawn... does it help I worked Saturday, got up at my regular time and smiled myself into cramps most of the day! I'll remember tomorrow, or find my notes! Even better ;) Obovaa is hanging out there too!

Now, I must confess, I grow a LOT of my hoyas in self water pots. The previously shown bella lasted about two months past that picture.

This is last years purchased bella... (NOT in SW pot!!!)
You can just see my 'item for scale' there.

Please understand, you folks have seen more of my yard in broad photographic record than collectors who live in my same city!

Geez, don't tell me about the weeds, I know EXACTLY where they are.
Thanks for taking a look though!!!

Weeds! What weeds?

I did however see some very nice Hoya, Good growing!
JO

Ok, I'm a dummy that has tried and tried to post "normal" photos without success. So to view the pictures of the big publicalyx I inherited when I bought my house in S. Florida, you will need to look at this link to AOL photos and see it with Adobe flash. Then AOL may require you to sign in, I'm not sure.

Anyway, she is a beauty. Starts blooming in December with 25-30 blooms at a time. Throughout the summer she pops up with intermittent blooms - there are six coming up now, but it has been a few weeks with just an occasional blossom.

The gnarly stub pictured is the base of the vine. You will notice that there is no soil there. Somebody tucked her into the crotch of the cabbage palm many years ago. Enjoy, if it's worth the trouble to you. I also have photos of a monarch butterfly on my blooming Hindu Rope plant. Gorgeous, but again, I'm not sure if its worth it to you. Let me know.

Here is a link that might be useful: AOL Photos

Imatallun, where in Fl are you at? I am in CapeCoral. Your pubicalyx is pretty big and beautiful!
I am wondering if monarch would lay eggs on the hoyas because it's in same family as milkweed.
We love all the photos so keep posting.
Photo posting instruction by another GW member.
Here's the basics:
I think it's easier to do all this if you have two browser windows open - one on photobucket and one on gardenweb.
Go to photobucket(dot)com and open an account. It's free, takes only a minute, and is no harder than signing on to GardenWeb. There are other photo posting services but I think this one is the easiest to use.
Once you have the account you'll see how easy it is to upload your photos to photobucket. You can set up sub-albums with one click of the mouse, so you can sort your photos into different subject (more on that below).
When they are there, you'll see three little 'addresses' under each picture. Highlight the middle one - the TAG line - and 'copy' it. (You can copy it by right clicking on your mouse and selecting 'copy', or by clicking on EDIT at the very top of your computer screen.)
Once it's copied, go to the GardenWeb message you are composing and paste the TAG line directly into the text of your message. Don't put it at the URL line under the text box. At this point you will only see text, but once you choose to view your message you'll see the photo. If it comes out too big, then go back to photobucket and choose the EDIT button over that photo. You'll have the option there to reduce the photo by 75, 50, or 25 percent. 75% makes it a good size for these messages, but 50% works too. Try both on different photos and see what you like.
Technically I think you can post as many photos as you want in each message but remember that not everyone has a high speed line and try to keep it to 5 or less. More than that makes it pretty slow to load for some.
Here's the sub-album tip about photobucket or any other service you use: set up sub-albums for different subjects so you don't end up with 200 photos in one album. For example, I have Garden 2005, Garden 2006, House Shots, Yard Sale (where I post photos for things I am selling through the newspaper or eBay), All the Muffins (pet pictures), etc. Besides making it hard to find something if you have it all in one album, if you ever decide to move photos later, any link you've posted on the web will be lost.

Jan

Wow, Jan thanks for the very nice response. I tried Photobucket before and the uploads were very, very slow, but I'll give it another whirl. Probably not today, since I toasted myself on the previous efforts (I'm just over it!) and gardening in the sultry heat of S. Fla today. You can surely relate to that!

I greatly appreciate the kind instructions, and will follow up later.

I live in Stuart - on the east coast. That Monarch was definitely on my rope plant long enough to lay eggs! I sure would be a proud Monarch grandma if she did - they say the population is down by 50% or more this year.

Hi all, I stalk here quite a bit but don't post often. My big one is in bloom now, a carnosa when it was unraveled to repot and re-string onto support it was over 26 feet long! It's got 15 umbels right now that I can see more on the way.
Heres a few photos.
Chaz
{{gwi:420582}}
umbel up close, the nectar drops are tastey like sugar water
{{gwi:420583}}
heres just view of the top

Chaz
Very nice huge carnosa!!!

thanks for posting
shanna

Chaz, really Super B. recurvata just to the left!!!!
Nice carnosa also!

Shanna, my pleasure. I wish there were a way to post the wonderful scent in the house right now. I'm on the second floor and the scent has permeated the house tonight.

Cena, the Beaucarnea recurvata / pony tail palm, was inherited from a friend who had plans to bonsai it. It's an old one that was kept pot bound for many years. It has a nice base and leaves that trail to the floor from the top which is about 6 feet including the stand it's on. Thanks for noticing it! More of it shows in this photo from last year, again next to the hoya.

Hello all,
I stop here quite a bit but don't post often. My big one is hoyas carnosa, it's about 20 years old. Actually two plants, one in both side of my over head. We love these vine so much.
Snow:)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v72/lovegarden/Hoya.jpg

Chaz,
That is one of the coolest lamps I think I've ever seen, I want one! The hoya is beautiful also ;)

Lovely plants as always Cena!

Mentha,
The lamp was a gift years ago, from a catalog! It has a glass shade that I can't find, been unpacking for 4 years now from the move! LOL It's a really neat etched shade for the reading lamp. Thanks

Chaz,how long have you had this carnosa? It's so big. Hope one day mine would grow to that size.

As always, thanks for sharing.

Xuan

Hi Chaz, gorgeous Hoya you got there. Looks like you had that plant for years. WOW!
Jan

imatallun, that is so cool your Hoya just growing up a palm tree, thanks for sharing your pics...

Chaz, your hoya Carnosa is HUGE!! and beautiful, nice pictures!!

Puglvr,

I'm starting to wish I'd never found this forum. There's a whole world of hoyas out there that I never knew existed until now, viewing the pictures posted on this web. They're beautiful, exciting, exotic, intoxicating and downright addictive. Even more so than orchids, and orchids are like peanuts. You can't have just one.

My mom had a hoya pubicalyx (its 40 or 50 years old now: mom's 84) so I appreciated mine, but didn't have proper respect. We have to continuously cut everything back in south Fla or it takes over. The saying is to cut when the blade is sharp, and always keep the blade sharp. I only cut to give cuttings and am fertilizing the base more now. She has another dozen or 20 umbels in the works.

Have you read about the beer formula? What are your opinions about that?

All I can say is

BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL!

(and I am very jealous!)

This hoya has survived two winters in my garage. For the rest of the year it lives on my patio where it is protected from afternoon sun by a couple of junipers. It is now about four feet long. I have forgotten the genus and species so I welcome help in identifying it. It has never bloomed. The epiphyte hanging in the background is night-blooming Cereus. It has never failed to bloom and I've seen as many as five blooms at a time. My kids and I like to wait and watch them pop open. The blooms are about the size of a softball! Here is an example.

Ok I've been meaning to show this guy for a while, he's just a bit camera shy having to compete with all the huge obovatas. He's been cat chewed, sunburned, and thrown out of the house, so he's not looking too good at the moment. This is my monster. Soon he'll be eating me out of house and home again. He has about 6 4 ft tralers with no leaves yet, I had to braid them to keep them from breaking off. He's too heavy for a hanging pot. I guess I should get him a trellis to climb.