I've been meaning to respond to this thread since you posted it, GT. I looove the topic, and am just having a hard time finding time to organize my many many MANY thoughts on it. So I figured I'd just take my collection section by section and pull the plants that I feel fit in this category. Here is today's installment. Hoya australis ssp. australis This won't be my only australis entry, in fact it's not even my favorite australis, but let's face it, australis is one beautiful Hoya. You know how psychologists proved that we are attracted to faces that are symmetrical and prefer composite images (that average out features) to real faces? To me, australis is like that composite face. Round and full like the moon, perfectly proportioned, with a pure matte spring green color. Then australis ssp. australis has that peachy down all over it, like it's been gift-wrapped for a baby. Hoya sp. Lata Iskandar (Aleya) A lot of Hoyas fall into the "you had to be there" category because they have leaves that seem to be made out of special materials. These leaves are firm, thin, round and cupped, but unremarkable except that they have that same faint silky iridescent sheen as cagayanensis. And it's easier to see on this plant because the leaves are broader and catch more light. Hoya sp. Kunming Kina Hello, Kunming Kina. A lot of Hoya people like this plant and it's because it's very tolerant and the leaves are atypical for the genus. Classic "rare-plant-that-you-can-trust-a-beginner-with." You can't really tell from photos, but the leaves are thick and plump, like someone inflated them a little bit too much, and their veins dig into their flesh like the scoring on an unbaked loaf of bread. They don't drip or spring from the vine - they just hang stiffly, the way little girls hold their arms away from their bodies when you put a fancy dress on them. It's hard to describe but this is one of those plants where the vine and pedicels are very appealing - smooth and thick like plastic cables - the same is true of meliflua, but, of course, Kunming Kina is a discreet mannerly size. Hoya fungii seedling This is a bit of a departure because you can't see the leaves very well in this photograph and it's not a plant you could just pick up at your local Hoya vendor. This is one of the seedlings from Sue's fungii, maybe crossed with something else. I got it on a trade from a lovely GW member, who grew it, and as you can see the leaves are so heavily splashed they are 75% silver, and of course they have that amazing fuzzy fungii backing to them. I just really like this plant. Hoya dasyantha Ah, perfect. Now we have a perfect example of GT's criteria. The unphotographable leaf. Dasyantha has such interesting leaves, because they are this inky dark green, but they aren't that thick, so the light shines through them beautifully, creating this subterranean effect like light sluicing through the dark waters of a pond in deepest shade. It has very beautiful ornamental veins that make it look like a gothic window if you catch it right. Hoya oreogena (IML 1214) NOTE: I purchased this plant as graveolens - please note the IML#, and see the explanation of the naming issue here. Ah-HA! Another good criteria-meeter. You can barely see the leaves, and I took this photo at the same time and location as the others. It's because these leaves have this silky matte look, like washed silk, and dark green color like something you'd see at the bottom of a well. As black as they are green. I don't even know how to describe what makes them appealing. They're hard and uneven with crisp curling edges, and they're just interesting somehow, like that girl on the subway with the not-pretty-face you couldn't stop staring at. I've always liked this plant from the day I got it. Hoya balansae Actually, this is the plant that oreogena most reminds me of. They have leaves of the same shape and size, except balansae's are kelly green with thick lichen-y camouflage. I just really like the way the surface of the leaves have this rough granular look to them, from the heavy speckling, but when you touch them they are smooth and hard, like stones rolled paper thin, then shaped into leaves. Hoya parviflora I don't know whether other people see this plant the same way I do, but I just love to look at it. It's like lacunosa's edgy big sister, with spiky plum-colored hair and long sharp nails. I just love all these plants with small long dark dagger leaves. They look so ornamental and so mean. It's awesome. Hoya aff. thomsonii (EPC 215) "And now for something completely different…" This is probably the single most eye-catching plant in my collection. I'm not saying it should be, but it is. Even if you bury it in the middle of a flat, it catches your eye every time you walk past, almost like it moved. Which is fitting, because it looks like something that would move on its own. Hoya pandurata I bought this plant 100% because I'm a string musician and this is the Hoya named after string instruments. But I ended up liking it a lot more than I thought. Its leaves mayyyybe look like some kind of a lute, but their appeal is in that flat grey-green color, like dry lizard skin or a piece of sea glass. It grows kind of inconveniently, like lobbii, on long arcing stems, but since it's so little that just makes it adorable, as it's always sticking it's arms out and away from the group, showing off its pretties. Hoya sp. Queson If you asked me what one plant out of this group you should buy, I would hem and haw and never give you a clear answer. But if you quick held me out in front of an oncoming subway and wouldn't let go until I gave you an answer, I'd immediately shout "Queson queson queson" because in my gut, I feel this is the most deeply enjoyable Hoya there is. It grows FAST, like a weed. But it's pretty, like a model. Really pretty. It's like velvet wrapped around elegance. You expect even the leaves to smell like perfume. Hoya teletifolia (EPC 232) Look how pretty this is! It's like retusa's big sister! (And then acicularis is teletifolia's big sister!) The reason these plants are so likeable is that they are way out of proportion, like a daddy-long-legs or a praying mantis. They just end up looking like a jumble of bones or a sea creature. A photo can't capture the way every time you pass them, your hands twitch, wanting to gather all those long leaves up in a neat pile, rap them against the table to even it out, and put them back in place, organized. Hoya surigaoensis Cheater! Cheater! A photo can capture how awesome those leaves are! Yeah, I know. So sue me. Hoya aff. scortechinii (SRQ 3019) Ah, now here's a good candidate for sure. I will collect anything with the name scortechinii on it, ever since getting my hands on this little baby. But this is the best one. This is the real deal. The others are not the same, even the real scortechinii that I bought from CB, which is also cool, and will be on this list later. So what is so great about this plant? You can't see it at all from the picture, can you! No, you can't. Well, the leaves are nice. They are thin and crisp, like those expensive mints you get at symphony fundraisers that snap in half with a little snick. They are a cool mint green color, too, with hard sharp edges and a jagged claw tip and a hollow curving belly. But really what makes this plant beautiful is how they grow tightly together, like the huge scales of ornamental plate mail. This, I think, is what LOTR elves must model their armor off of. Hoya sp. Bogor, Hoya acuta (IML 0079), Hoya pallida Maybe acuta doesn't look too fancy, but everyone should have one. The leaves are so simple and perfect and elegant, like a raindrop. Even when they are massed together, they look fantastic. This is the no-bad-hair-day plant. The J. Crew model of Hoyas. The one that is so classic you forget to put it on lists, but really, it's what every plant wants to look like. The golden mean. I actually think the leaves on sp. Bogor are a little prettier - longer and darker, so the flecking stands out more, but the internodes are spaced further apart, so it's a toss up. Hoya aff. acuta (EPC 759) Speaking of acuta, here is my new love, aff. acuta. Jack calls these leaves "" and even in my conditions you can see an inky spray shimmering over the backs of the leaves. But what really makes these leaves beautiful is the fact they are long smooth spear tips that put all the neighboring leaves to shame with their tame round shapes. This plant is not the warm fuzzy part of the jungle, waiting to be churned up into medicine to cure cancer. Nope, it wants to be on the tip of a poison dart. It's hawkish.

Pug this particular one is not 8 yet!!! I've only had it for maybe 4 years if that. My hoya ciliata is 8 years old though and is finally producing it's first set of buds!!! These eriostemmas are so fussy about being moved or tampered with. Each time I got a new one i'd find a spot that I planned to leave it in as I know they don't like to be moved around. I had thought at one time about just getting rid of all the eriostemmas in my collection,they must of known something was up and decided to bloom!!! These flowers are rather large and quite hard to the touch,almost feels like plastic. I haven't smelled them yet to see if there's a fragrance or not.

@ David That juanngoiana is truly lovely. I'm not sure I even know how to say the name once, though... So, those soligamiana flowers, they are a kind of strawberry orange color? What would you compare it to? The skin of a peach? You might as well try for another IML 0022. It's a nice pottsii to grow since the leaves are smallish and pretty. @ Mike That's a beautiful set of photos. I especially like the erythrina one. Just gorgeous against the dark background. The meliflua buds, on the other hand, are very gorgeous, but with that lighting they look like some kind of alien pods that are going to burst open and drop squiggly fast-moving blood-drinking predators. Of course, you're used to that, since you grow orchids, which are geniuses at looking like beautiful nightmares.

It could be. Hoya sp. Tam Dao is a carnosa relative. It does appreciate cooler climates and less light. I am unsure if the name is valid or if it is truly a species and not a cultivar or hybrid.