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quinnfyre

Hoya paulshirleyi, blooming again

quinnfyre
12 years ago

I might have mentioned before that this seems to want to bloom more than it wants to grow. So here it goes again. No new leaves, but this is new vine growth, at least. There is also another peduncle higher up on the vine. BTW, the flowers in the background are from obovata, towards the end of blooming (as in, just about to fall off). I didn't manage to get a pic in time, nor did I get to try and smell them. Oh well. It seems fairly willing to bloom so I will catch it next time.

This time, I noticed a scent! It's a light somewhat sweet floral scent, with another note of something I can't really describe, slightly sour, slightly dairy? Makes me think a little of yogurt, but that's not quite it. The scent is surprisingly strong for how tiny the flowers are. This is the third time it's bloomed for me, I believe. I got it as a cutting last year, with a peduncle already on it. But I didn't really notice a scent the last couple times. It was in my terrarium then, in lower light. Now it is in a south window. Maybe that's the difference?

Comments (25)

  • puglvr1
    12 years ago

    Quinn, that's gorgeous! Beautiful bright pink blooms. Will have to put this one on my wish list. I love the leaves on this one too. Pretty leaves are always important to me since space is an issue.

  • rennfl
    12 years ago

    I didn't realize how nice this one was. Congrats on it.

  • geosdee
    12 years ago

    Quinn, now I can't wait for mine to form peduncles and bloom. I just got mine a couple months ago and it sure is putting out alot of growth but hasn't formed any peduncles yet. I love this color.

    Dee

  • greedygh0st
    12 years ago

    Very cute blooms! This is a great all round Hoya, both in terms of leaves and blossoms. I lost my first cutting and had to replace it because I truly missed those unique leaves. I really like the way they do that rolling thing sometimes. Of course mine looks pretty ugly at the moment, but it's putting out a lot of new growth so soon... soon... I will enjoy it again!

  • quinnfyre
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Hmmm, interesting that everyone else's is putting out lots of new growth. I'm really not kidding when I say that this is the first time I've seen any sign of growth. It rooted quickly, I think, but not an iota of growth til now. It's about 2-3 inches worth, and over the past few months or more. On that little bit of new growth is this blooming peduncle, which I didn't even notice until there were almost blooming buds on it, and an itty bitty peduncle close to the growing tip. Maybe it's just mine?

    The flowers are completely open now, so I thought I'd get another pic. The color is really hard to capture accurately, but I did my best. Here's one with flash. It's really not that purple, it's more of a dark rose pink:

    One without:

    Not the best pic, but the one with the closest color:

    And a leaf. You might be able to see the skinny little new peduncle in the background, to the left:

  • kellyknits
    12 years ago

    Very cute! Is this the same as Hoya sp sulawesii GPPS 8845? If so, I, too, find this to be an exceptionally slow grower. The flowers on mine only last a couple of days, but they sure were cute!

    Kelly

  • jakalfoshakal
    12 years ago

    Such cute girly blooms, they remind me of the pink poodle skirts from back in the day :) Quinn are you growing in orchid bark with a reservoir? I have a couple of orchids like this but paulshirleyi looks very happy in there. may have to try this!

  • greedygh0st
    12 years ago

    Thanks for providing the extra comparison pics to clarify the color. It's sometimes frustrating and sometimes cool how much color can fluctuate in a photograph. When I upload my pictures and tweak the exposure, I'm constantly asking myself: wait, what color are the leaves supposed to be? And it's an interesting perceptual phenomenon, because, when you're actually looking at the bloom irl, you're never as misled about what color it is, even in the dark.

    My first paulshirleyi cutting never grew either, but this one is just a few months old and growing passionately. It did die back first, though. I just don't trust this plant. I love it, but I don't trust it. I feel it handles a bit like davidcummingi, which makes sense, because they both have full names! >_> Perhaps we should beware of loyceandrewsiana as well?

  • quinnfyre
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    No, it is growing in coco husk chunks. I had just watered it, so that is runoff in the saucer :) It really didn't seem to react much to drying out for a while. Not that I recommend that, but it didn't so much as blink. I'll be keeping it watered more regularly, so we'll see if that encourages it to grow an actual leaf one of these days.

    I think it is the same as Hoya sp sulawesii GPPS 8845? I went to go double check what Joni said but her site is down. Guess everyone and their mother went to check out her sale, ha. I got this little guy from Ted Green though.

    I don't always get fussy about color, as long as it is close enough. In this case though, the color seemed pretty far off. It was showing up as a bright bright pink, and it is more subdued in person. It has a rather elegant color, in fact. It is showing up more orange-y in these pics. Also, the pics don't quite illustrate how tiny these flowers are. But it's fun to share pics anyway, it gets the idea across at least.

    On another, unrelated note, it appears my finlaysonii bloomed, or tried to bloom, and hid that fact from me! I turned the plant the other day, and picked off a tiny dried up flower from what looks suspiciously like a peduncle that bloomed. There are no other hoyas nearby that have peduncles, except for javanica, and it is obviously not a javanica flower. Oh well, we'll see if it does it again!

  • greedygh0st
    12 years ago

    Ooo. I didn't realize the paulshirleyii name wasn't valid. You're right, that's what Joni's site says.

    That's good to know, although I have to admit it will keep being paulshirleyii in my head. I love the way they always say things like "an attempt was made to publish it as..." It makes it sound like publishing a new species is akin to entering a jousting match in Wonderland. Everyone gathers for the tourney and it lasts several years/decades, until a champion is established, then Alice hands out comfits for prizes. I get the gist of how all this works, but one of these days I want to sit down and learn it cold.

    In this case, it appears the publication is "invalid" (for now), because name publications must be written in Latin and because the wrong IPPS number was used (8844 vs 8845). So, I guess we're saying it's not paulshirleyii yet because of some careless editing. hmmmm. hmmm!

    Mine's from TG, too.

    And your finlaysonii is a PUNK!

    Here is a link that might be useful: paulshirleyii = IPPS 8845

  • mdahms1979
    12 years ago

    Quinn those are some beautiful blooms. I love the intensity of the colour which must make up for the small size of the flowers. I have Hoya sp GPS 8860 which is a close relative (or perhaps the same species?) of Hoya paulshirleyi but with much less colourful flowers. My plant flowered as a cutting but has not flowered since although it is putting out new growth now. These Hoyas also develop nice red colouration on the leaves in bright light.

    Hoya sp GPS 8860

    Mike

  • mayyan
    12 years ago

    I got a very similar hoya flowering at the moment which I bought as hoya camphorifolia:

  • puglvr1
    12 years ago

    Beautiful bloom Mike!!

    Is it me? I can't see Mayyan's picture?

  • mayyan
    12 years ago

    puglvr1,

    Its not only you. I tried to post a 31KB jpeg image with imageshack link.

    I put the imageshack link here: img src="file location and name" ( with the ) . Can one of you tell me why?

  • greedygh0st
    12 years ago

    If you are using that code, it should work.

    To post the photo below, I am using:
    img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3058/5788512177_805bd28648.jpg"; with

    You are pasting it in the [Message] area, right? And the link is right? (dumb question, I know, but it bears checking). Occasionally, I have trouble posting pictures this way, but never from an image hosting site. If your image host provides html that you can simply copy/paste, maybe that will work for you. If you still have trouble, you can just put the link down in the [Optional Link URL] space (without the code, of course).

    /Mike I like that Hoya sp GPS 8860. That coloration is pretty, too. So, the leaves are similar/indistinguishable?

  • greenman28 NorCal 7b/8a
    12 years ago

    Fantastic little blooms...!
    I like the way you're growing them, too.
    The clear glasses are cool ;-)


    Josh

  • quinnfyre
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    I would like to know too, Mike... are the leaves similar? I've seen pics of the leaves on paulshirleyi in good light, and they look amazing. Mine are not so colorful. But it is a pleasant little hoya all the same.

    Josh, they are actually growing in clear/translucent plastic orchid pots. I like to see what the roots are up to, so it is by far my favorite pot to grow in. I try to do the whole decorative pot thing, just doesn't work for me. Now I just use them as outer pots, for the weight. Otherwise, some of my more vigorously growing hoyas get too top heavy and tip over. There is another kind of orchid pot that has slits along the sides. That works pretty well too, but you gotta watch when watering, sometimes it comes out the sides if you're not careful, ha.

  • mayyan
    12 years ago

    Second try here it comes (thanks gg).

    Hoya camphorifolia:
    {{gwi:962298}}

    another veiw:
    {{gwi:962300}}

  • mdahms1979
    12 years ago

    The leaves of my Hoya sp GPS 8860 are very similar to those of Hoya paulshirleyi but with less noticeable secondary veins.

    Hoya camphorifolia is also quite similar but with different leaf veining. We would have to compare the official descriptions of each species to see where they differ, flower morphology seems to be very similar between the species at first glance.

    Mike

  • puglvr1
    12 years ago

    Beautiful blooms Mayyan!! GG gives great directions doesn't she.

    Mike, its no wonder I have problems identifying most hoyas,lol...SO many leaves look similar to each other.

  • mdahms1979
    12 years ago

    Pug it gets even more confusing when you throw Hoya tomatensis into the mix because it looks just like paushirleyi and GPS 8860! One thing to remember is that not all these species will have natural ranges that overlap but without knowing the collection data etc. identification is best left up to an expert.

    Mike

  • quinnfyre
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Mayyan, that is a lush looking plant! Maybe looks are deceiving, but it looks to be larger in all ways to paulshirleyi... bigger leaves, bigger flowers, thicker stems and clusters of leaves that give it a fullness. How do the blooms smell to you?

    Well, blooms on my paulshirleyi are done and gone. So that would be about 4 days, more or less? Good to know, for reference's sake. Happily the other peduncle is still progressing and much easier to see.

  • greedygh0st
    12 years ago

    /mayyan That is such an absolutely gorgeous plant! I'm so happy the picture will post now! I agree with Quinn that it does look like it's larger scale. What size are the leaves?

    /Mike Thanks for the elaboration. It would be interesting to compare the publications on these plants. I totally forgot about tomatensis, but you're right there.

  • golden_ca_2000
    12 years ago

    It does look very similar to tomatensis - I have a photo of my first flower on tomatensis - so you can compare... it is a little different...IMO

  • greedygh0st
    12 years ago

    Thanks for the picture, Golden. Now we have collected here a nice little assembly of Hoyas with tiny lilac-rose blooms. Any chance you have a photograph of your tomatensis' foliage?

    That name always makes me think it's going to have something to do with tomatoes, but I have no idea what it was actually named for, since I don't own this plant myself.

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