Yours looks nice and neat and lovely. Mine is also a rampant grower, but no where near as neat as yours.

Very healthy plant!, it should have flower soon.
Congrats.

Once upon a time, I had a very small piece of Tanna Island. I had it for a year and it never grew . . . and it died around February of this year. :(

Yours is BEAUTIFUL! Makes me want to try it again. :)

Carolyn

It's fantastic the way this one grows for you. I love the before and after photos. xD

I always feel like I'm glad not all my Hoyas grow like this, but everyone should have at least one that is a hyper out of control little thing. Mine's paziae.

You should nick name this one your weed. LOL
I find that the super fast growers never seem to be the fast bloomers, what gives?

Mike

Funny enough, buotii, which is also in that pic from Aug 09, also grows as crazy as sp. Tanna Island. Or at least almost as crazy. Believe me, if I left sp. Tanna Island alone at all, it would not be neat; I have to keep it contained or else I could never move it. I have removed it from the curtain, the cord, the shelf, the other shelf, other hoyas, tubing (when I had the drip irrigation system set up), picture frames... And this is what it looks like AFTER I removed about 3 ft of it to send off to a new home. Could you imagine if this were a weed in your backyard? Maybe then I would see flowers, ha.

I don't know, Mike. My speckled lacunosa, which grows pretty well, has bloomed numerous times, but my regular lacunosa, which grows super fast, has never bloomed once. They are roughly the same age, but regular lacunosa is two to three times as big as speckled lacunosa. That's just one example. Buotii is another one that grows super fast but doesn't bother to bloom. Whereas paulshirleyi and subcalva bloomed far sooner. Actually, paulshirleyi bloomed just after rooting, and is really no bigger today than it was then. But it has bloomed two or three times already.

Sue, did I send you some of this (Tanna Island, I mean)? I feel like I did. If so, how's it doing?

You know, we need to have a race one of these springs. We can each pick a pony and see which one puts out the most growth before winter. We'll have to figure out how to empirically define "most growth." I'm thinking the vines get marked and the collective growth past the marks is measured?

We wouldn't all have to submit ponies to the race. Those of us without a promising filly could put our wagers down on other people's.

And then the winner gets... idk... a real pony.

Hmmm, it's a little hard with Tanna Island. This one, more than any other hoya I own, branches out all over the place. Otherwise I'd say we could tie a ribbon loosely around the starting point and measure from there.

I would like a real pony :)

Mike---I totally agree with your comment. I have tanna and buoti and I am DYING to see blooms on both of these...they grow like weeds, I've cut back, let them grow wild, started new cuttings and no blooms! I wonder if there is some secret were not aware of!

Debbie I am beginning to think that species like Hoya buotii and sp Tanna Island are the kind of plants that like to have their own rainforest tree to smother. I am almost shocked at how fast Hoya buotii can grow but still now blooms. I wonder if humidity plays a big role with these Hoyas because they have thin stems, their peduncles must be very thin as well. I have many orchids that refuse to bloom unless I grow them in an enclosed environment so this may be a possibility with Hoyas as well.

Mike

Well, buotii seems to bloom constantly for David, so it doesn't seem likely that it needs a terribly fussy environment, just good conditions. Maybe they're species that don't like to be constrained. Like, if you just let them climb where they will, they'd play nice.

Also, I seemed to recall that Joni had pictures of sp. Tanna Island posted and sure enough her site describes it as, get this, an "easy bloomer." So, clearly these aren't actually selfish plants, or fussy plants, we're just a little off with something.

Wow...that's a fast grower! I also love how neat and tidy you grow it. Great job...we're all looking forward to seeing some blooms...I bet sooner than you think!

Mike, my humidity down here is high - very very high. Tanna gave me a penduncle this spring, but has dropped it now. I'm giving it more light than I used to, to see if that works, and during the winter, I did let it dry out a little more.

I noticed when it started to dry out a little too much, it dropped leaves, but a new growth has now started from all of those spots where the leaves dropped. It must have 10 - 15 different growing points now.

Hopefully all this will pay off and I'll see flowers someday.

Renee

I do remember we were trying to crack the sp Tanna code a while back and had tried to figure in a slightly drier winter as a possible bloom trigger. Hopefully it just takes a really hot and humid summer now to get those blooms. I seems the people who bloom this one easily are either in South Florida or Hawaii so that hot humid weather may just be the key.

Mike