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clintdawley

Help with Hoya identification with Pictures

clintdawley
16 years ago

Hi! Any and all help in the identification of this hoya a friend gave me a cutting of 4 years ago would be appreciated. It hasn't bloomed for me yet, but I've included some closeups of the leaves and the plant. Thanks in advance.

{{gwi:953772}}

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Comments (34)

  • ines_99
    16 years ago

    Looks like your good old fashioned wax plant, Hoya carnosa. Fast grower, hardy, will get the pale pink flowers, probably soon - it looks very healthy too! I see you have it on a trellis, I grew some hoyas like that for a while but went back to hanging pots so they can be more "free", but it is a matter of preference. There is someone from St Louis who used to visit this forum who had carnosas in pots at the base of a wall covered with a 6 ft trellis in her sunroom - the plants just grew up the wall, so cool looking!

    If this plant blooms something other than the pale pink, then you may have to repost to get a proper ID, but it looks like the green carnosa to me.

  • clintdawley
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Thanks, I think you're probably right.

    I have one more question. What do the flowers look like when the come out? Where does the inflorescence come from? (Sorry...I'm an orchid grower and pretty clueless as to what to look for.)

  • ines_99
    16 years ago

    The flower "peduncles" usually appear as maybe 1" stems off of the extended (and sometimes leafless) vines. So, never trim those vines....the little stem will have a sort of nobby end, and from that end will extend several more little extensions, a bud at the tip of each one. It can take a while for the whole process. If you look back thru the hoya posts, especially in the hoya gallery, you should be able to find some clear pictures.

    I warn you, some hoyas can go over a decade before a first flower, I have had carnosas that have taken that long, but then I have had them take only 2 or 3 years... And then of course, some jerk will always come along bragging about a cutting blooming (god I hate those people!!) Your plant looks very healthy, give it lots of good bright light and it will happen...they need to be somewhat pot bound and have some good length on the vines before setting buds...you could fertilize as well, but I didn't for years and years and always had my hoyas in bloom. Can't hurt, though.

  • hills
    16 years ago

    Ines is right, it can take YEARS to see flowers - mine took about 8 or so. However, yours does look good so hopefully you should be seeing some flowers soon. The peduncles that hold the flowers come from the node where the leaves are - some people describe it like a microphone, and that's certainly what they look like on a carnosa. The peduncle will grow, and then you might notice many tiny buds growing from the end of it, that will grow, and eventually flower. Here's mine at the moment:-

    This one is a real happy camper at the moment - no less than 10 peduncles!. Smells lovely in my lounge.

  • clintdawley
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Thanks for all of the great tips. Upon further inspection, I think I did find that beginnings of flowers. I'll try to post a picture later, but the darned thing is so small now!

  • clintdawley
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Okay..got a picture. Is that the beginnings of the inflorescence?

    {{gwi:953776}}

  • ines_99
    16 years ago

    hard to say, could be a vine. Usually the tip of a future peduncle is just a little nob, this one looks like it has the makings of a vine tip or even a new leaf. The peduncle's "stem" is usually darker and imperceptibly wider as is goes towards the tip... You should be able to tell in a day or two. Don't be discouraged if it isn't, it will happen soon!

    Do you fertilize? Wouldn't hurt to hit it with a bloom encouraging fertilizer.

  • clintdawley
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Thanks, again, Ines..

    I do fertilize this plant about once a month with a bloom booster. This morning, I'm thinking I see the little red 'buds' starting to separate from the thing.

  • pirate_girl
    16 years ago

    Looks like new growth to me, but I hope to be wrong ont hat.

    What pls. are the two white ball looking things in the crotch of that branch? Looking white, pearl-like, I hope they're not insects or their eggs, looking too large for me not to comment on.

    Hi Hills,

    What a great pic of a super-healthy plant. Those white blooms look so pristine as to almost not look real, thanks for posting it!

  • Denise
    16 years ago

    CD - If you're seeing a seperation at the end of the new growth, it could be a flower peduncle. Peduncles have been described, aptly I might add, as looking like a little microphone - a little fuzzy on the end. Here's a new peduncle forming on my pubicalyx 'Splash'...

    {{gwi:939290}}

    Most aren't quite that long - they're more often just an inch or so long. My pubicalyx seem to shoot out excessively long peduncles...

    BTW, I see you use some kind of leaf shine. Although this makes a plant look fabulous, I read many years ago that it tends to "clog" the pores of the plant, which can deter respiration. This may be an old-wives' tale, but I thought perhaps I'd pass it along and see if anyone can deny its validity or confirm it. As a novice grower, I used to use it until I read this reprimand and have since joined the camp of "keep the leaves clean and au-natural."

    Last, but not least, whether you have new growth or a peduncle forming, I imagine you won't have to wait long for flowers. Good growing!!

    Denise in Omaha

  • coey
    16 years ago

    Denise, using a substance to make the leaves shiny on plants can clog their stomata (or stomates, whichever school you belong to). That's where the plant does its gas exchange. Hoyas, however, have a waxy top to their leaves and very few stomata on that side. As long as the agent is carefully applied and it doesn't get on the underside, it should be fine, but I wouldn't recommend using it.

    Pirate Girl--you don't think they're advantageous roots?

  • clintdawley
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Those pearly things are roots. I've noticed that this hoya tries to make aerial roots when I put it outside in our VERY humid Spring.

    I don't use leaf shine. (I am an orchid grower as well and know the dangers of this product.) You see the remains of Neem Oil on my plant after it got some nasty YELLOW aphids..of all things..The Neem took care of it.

    Thanks again for all your help. You guys are so nice and friendly! I'll keep you posted!

    Clint

  • ines_99
    16 years ago

    Wow, I had heard neem oil leaves a little shine, but that is very shiny.

    If you compare the pic of the peduncle from Denise, you can see that your growth is probably just that - growth. But who knows, maybe the new vine that will result will be the one to get the flowers. I think the reason people get so excited about hoyas blooming is because it does not come so easily.

    And whats up with those yellow aphids? I had never seen aphids that color until a few years ago. Now I see them every year. They love the new growth on hoyas.

  • pirate_girl
    16 years ago

    I think it's new growth, not a spur 'cause it seems to have an angle or come to a point, at least from the angle of that photo. As said above, spurs or peduncles, like mini-microphones (old fashioned one) have a rounded, knobby end w/ little bumps on its surface.

    I really don't think those pearly balls are roots. I'm no expert but have grown Hoyas abt 8-10 yrs. now, currently 25 diff kinds & I've never seen anything that looks remotely like that (tho' I only grow indoors).

    From what I've seen Adventichous (sp?) or aerial roots are thin & hairlike, at least all the ones I've seen. Also, they grow from Nodes, not at the crotch of branches liek that. I have numerous Hoyas that do this, from Curtisii (they look like stubbly hairs that stop short (1/4" or less)), Tsangii, Nicholsonii & a brand new no ID that's something like Meredithii syn. Vittelinoides which I am rooting in a sealed plastic bag w/ a clump of long sphag. While there are roots growing in the clump of sphag, there are also aerial roots growing out from the main stem, long thin, cream colored & threadlike, growing perpendicular to the main stem (nothing fat, round & opalescent like in the photo).

    Amazingly, this cutting threw a spur while it's still in the bag, I've never seen this happen before. I was away for a few days & when I returned, while checking the bag for moisture I discovered the spur.

    I don't know what to tell you but I really think those are insect eggs of some kind. Could other folks pls. weigh in on this?

  • clintdawley
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Ines,

    I know! Those yellow aphids are scary. They attack plants in the milkweed family, of which hoyas are members. Here is what I found out about them:

    {{gwi:953777}}

    Milkweed Aphids also known as Oleander Aphids. The Aphids are bright yellow in colour with black legs. They have a pair of black posterior at the back of abdomen.
    The Milkweed Aphids feed only on oleanders and milkweeds. They start colony on tender young stems. Aphids usually cause very little damage to plants, although when a colony grow to very large, their high numbers and the honey dew they expelled make the plant look badly. Aphids suck the juice from plants but they do not need so many sugar. They pass them out of their bodies as honey-dew. This provides an excellent medium for the growth of a black fungus. Besides not good looking, the black fungus mold interferes with photosynthesis and somewhat retards the growth of the plant.

    {{gwi:953778}}

    Got more pictures, pirate girl..

    I still say roots. They are all over the length of the new growth and starting to wrap around the bamboo trellis

    {{gwi:953779}}

  • ines_99
    16 years ago

    Ah! MILKWEED aphids - that makes sense. Lovely closeup, a bit more detail however than I prefer when looking at a bug! Ick.

    Maybe different subspecies of carnosa could have roots that look like that, could depend on environment too, maybe lots of humidity?? I have two "plain green" carnosas that are very different in alot of aspects. I have never seen roots like that either, though.

  • hills
    16 years ago

    Looks like roots to me. Mine gets ones like that too. It might be the humidity. I'm very glad I haven't seen aphids like that on my plants. But some of mine are near mealies now - aaaaaaaargh! will have to move them and check they don't get infested!
    I love my carnosa, although the flowers only last about a week whereas the publicalyx goes on for at least two. The smell of those two in my room at the moment is really sweet :)

  • gabro14
    16 years ago

    I have those little white "bumps" on some of my stems too (I think on obovata and carnosa). They feel kind of hard and I just thought they were part of the stem. Never thought of them as roots. When I first noticed them several months ago, I tried to scratch them off (I was worried they were some sort of bug or egg), they didn't budge, so i knew that they were part of the stem and not a bug. Clint and Hills - are your little "bumps" (or roots) hard or soft?

    I had those ugly yellow aphids on some new growth of my obovata...they weren't that tough to get rid of though. But they were GROSS!

  • clintdawley
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    They are hard feeling "bumps"...

  • gabro14
    16 years ago

    Ok...so I think I have the same thing. I'll try to post pics later. I never thought of them as being roots...very interesting. I have aerial roots on a bunch of hoyas (lots on pachyclada, kentiana, picta, obscura...and also on cuttings I recently rooted using the baggie method), but these aerial roots look more "root-like" than the "bumps" on some of my hoyas. I don't have those "bumps" on my plain carnosa or my motoskei (thought to be the "true carnosa"), but I do have them on my carnosa KQ (I think). I wouldn't say that I have a lot of humidity in my apartment...so I wonder what kind of roots they are and why they are there. Hmmmm. I'll have to examine them some more later.

    Gabi

  • clintdawley
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Sorry about stumping you guys on the roots...

    ...if it helps, my friend that gave me the cutting said the plant was brought with her from India and was her mother's. I phoned her today and she said the mother plant is at least 30 years old...maybe more. *SHRUG*

    Maybe this is some sort of funky subspecies.

  • ines_99
    16 years ago

    India? That's pretty cool. It's always interesting to hear where the original plant came from...My first carnosa, which I still have, was started from cuttings that I brought to NJ from Fort Worth Texas in '83 - the original plant was about 10 yrs old, bought somewhere in that area.

  • gabro14
    16 years ago

    Ok...here are some pics of the "bumps" on my obovata and carnosa KQ. Not sure if they are the same, but....

    CARNOSA:

    {{gwi:953780}}

    OBOVATA:

    {{gwi:953781}}

  • clintdawley
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Ines,

    I'm from FORT WORTH! (Living here now.)

    So strange. SMALL WORLD!

  • pirate_girl
    16 years ago

    I have the same kind of bumps on my Hoyas as Gabi's pix show. I believe these are root nodes: were one to cut & root that stem, that's where roots would grow.

    I have these often & on many of my Hoyas, but they're not pearly, opalescent & perfectly round like the ones in the early pic in the post which prompted my inquiry abt them.

  • ines_99
    16 years ago

    I love Fort Worth! I have been to Texas many times, my grandmother lived there when her family first came to the US and I have some relatives there. My son just got a job in Austin, he's 23 and it is a great place for someone his age to live. I was there a few years ago, going to visit again in the fall...

    When I lived in TX in the early 80's, I got a job working in a greenhouse at a maternity hospital, I believe it was a place where the patients were all unwed mothers. Anyway, they had this little greenhouse where they grew all kinds of stuff both for office bulidings and to sell, I worked part time with the owner, just taking care of all the plants. I already knew alot about plants from my mom, but I learned alot more at that job. She had 2 big hanging hoyas, a tricolor and the plain green carnosa, for me it was love at first sight! When I left TX, I went to Florida first where I gave my aunt the tricolor cuttings and kept the green for me. A few years later here in NJ I bought an unlabeled Pubicalyx Pink Silver...It was years before any of them bloomed, I never thought they would unless kept in a greenhouse, but I love the way they look even with no flowers so I didn't care. Then I was dusting one day and found a whole peduncle cluster about to open on my Pink Silver, which was in a pot on top of the TV...I screamed, I was so excited! My boyfriend came running to see what was the matter, of course he did not understand but I know you all do. And then, of course, when I got a computer, I went crazy with the hoyas!

  • clintdawley
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    It finally bloomed! Really close to the bottom of the basket so I almost missed it when watering!

    {{gwi:953783}}

  • ines_99
    16 years ago

    Wow. You sure have the close up features on your camera figured out. Great shot!

  • clintdawley
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    I just got another flush in a more "strategic" location!

    {{gwi:953785}}

  • pirate_girl
    16 years ago

    Beautiful blooms, great shots, thanks for posting!

  • txmom
    16 years ago

    clintdawley...
    I'm in Arlington, TX.
    Where do you find hoyas down here?

  • plumygirl
    10 years ago

    Would anyone happen to know the name of a Hoya that has leaves that are dark green, ribbed on the underside and the top leaf is soft, almost like velvet? Right now I have three, each in a 4" pot and each with a support stick. All are perched inside the clay pot holding my Red Trigonis and seem to like growing upright. Any info. would be appreciated.

  • teisa
    10 years ago

    plumygirl, it is really hard to identify without a picture. There are hundreds of varieties of Hoyas and it would just be a guess. Do you have a camera or even cell phone? We can help you post a picture if you need assistance on that too. I had trouble for the longest.

    And it would be most beneficial to start a new topic. This one is very old and not many people will go through old posts. Also, welcome to the Hoya Forum!! You will get some good advice and help growing these wonderful plants!!!

    P.s. just saw your new post. Just put a picture up there and someone will definately be able to help you identify it.

    This post was edited by teisa on Thu, May 2, 13 at 11:56

  • sheilahanne
    10 years ago

    I have had this hoya for over twenty years. It just bloomed last month for the first time. It belonged to my mother and I inherited it after her house was sold. I dont know what its called, Anyone? It has the most beautiful aroma especially in the evening. I am over the moon in love!

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