Xuan,

Good growing! I have latifolia, but it hasn't bloomed for me yet. It's just grown a new leaf, and a cutting I took off of it quite awhile back has rooted nicely. But as you obviously know, there are a lot of Hoyas that look a lot like latifolia, and until they bloom, who knows what it might be. I look forward to photos of the blooms when they open.

Denise in Omaha

Denise, thanks for replying :-)!

Yeah, I know it's hard to ID hoyas just by comparing leaves. So I'm really looking forward to the blooms. A note about this plant, though, that it has grown a very long vine without any leaves at all and the vine is very "skinny"; yet it bears two peduncles on this leafless, skinny vine! I could have cut off the vine because of the ugly sight!

Xuan

Xuan,

I know what you mean about the long, leafless vines. So many of my Hoyas will get those, and once they lose what I call the "leaf buds" (those teeny-tiny nubbins that usually turn into leaves...), I cut them off. Today, I found two Hoyas, rigida & aldrichii, that had grown a vine with 2 or three leafless nodes, then a single leaf had popped. I don't much like that look, either, so I cut them back and am rooting at the node before the sigle leaf. I find that any kind of pruning automatically starts the growth process, so I anticipate that both of these plants will now kick out some new growth. In a matter of about 2 weeks, our days are going to start to get a few minutes longer each day, which should also initiate some new growth. Even though it's absolutely frigid here right now, I'm looking forward to the few extra minutes of daylight we'll start seeing here after the 21st...

I imagine where you are, your days don't grow significantly shorter, do they? We're down to right about 9 hours of daylight a day. I lived on Guam for a couple years back in the early 80's and I'm pretty sure it's geographical coordinates are pretty close to Vietnam's and the days stayed almost exactly 12 hours of sun every day, year round. And the weather was pretty much the same, 365 days a year - about 20 minutes of rain each day, then heat up to about 90 F or above. Ideal for growing Hoyas, I bet! I didn't have any back then, because they wouldn't have let me bring them back to the states...

Denise in Omaha

I've noticed that the Hoya forum is a bit slow these days. Is it because hoyas are not "doing anything" at the moment?

You're right. Our days are not that significantly shorter but they're shorter. Actually we have about 11 hours of daylight nowadays. I can see that my hoyas are not growing as much as they used to during the summer and some of their growing tips have dried up. And the few peduncles on some of them seemed to have stopped growing too (except for this one on the "Latifolia" and another one on Pubicalyx). I don't know what caused this. Maybe the cooler weather we have now??? Here in Dalat, where I garden, lowest temperature is about 63-65 inside currently.

I also think Guam and Saigon, Vietnam have similar weather, it's hot and humid almost all the year round. But in the Central and North Vietnam there're 4 different seasons: cool and wet in Spring, hot and humid in Summer, cool and dry in Fall, and colder (to our standards) in Winter.

In my Saigon garden, the hoyas grow well but never bloom!!! I usually start cuttings in Saigon and then when they have grown a bit, I'd bring them up here for them to flower. So I don't really know what is the best climate for them?!?!?!

Xuan

Xuan, congrats!!! It is a busy time of the year for lots of people due to the Holidays. Some people are very stressed out due to the job lose, bad economy, holiday blues, many diffrent reasons I am sure.
I've been guilty of not posting much either because one of those reasons.
My H australis(planted in the ground) and H brivialta(bad spell) :) are getting ready to flower soon for the first time.

Hi Xuan,

Do you know the zones for North & Central Vietnam? If you mean cool and dry that the temperatures run between high 60's to high 80's with the majority of days in the 70's...then the weather there sounds like South Florida since we have hot & humid summers, and cooler, drier spring & fall with the occasional cold (40's to 50's) days in the winter.

I noticed that my hoyas (most I got since early last spring) have really seemed to take off and seem to be growing like crazy since our weather has cooled off. They did ok during the long, hot summer but they seem to be thriving now that the real heat is over. From what you have said, this may just end up being the best weather for hoyas and getting them to flower.

Someone gave me a latifolia. It had maybe 2 giantantic leaves when I got it. It has multiple so now it has maybe 15 leaves but none of the new leaves are quite as big as the original ones were. Do you know how I can encourage them to grow larger?

Thanks
Helen

Hi,
Xuan,
I have been so busy with getting things wrapped up at work,( I work with children with special needs)trying to shop,and
moving my hoyas into other rooms. The Christmas tree is placed in the bay window where my hoyas thrive the rest of the year.So far they seem to be doing ok,but no peducles on any of them yet. Sure hope they take pity on me, and decide to surprise me this year with lots of BLOOMS! Please continue to send pics of your Latifolia's progess.
Merry Christmas,
alba tucker in CA

Hi Helen & Alba, I will surely post pics of my hoya when it opens. I forgot that you folks are getting busy during holiday season.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.

Xuan