I'd go with Matilda. Ease of growing, flowers easily and plentifully, cool weather ok, and grows very quickly into an adorabla little plant. The other two are cute but rather touchy to maintain in my experience.

I find serpens hard to grow. I have both 'Mathilde' and thompsonii and would have a hard time choosing between them, but MD is right - 'Mathilde' is a faster grower and an easy bloomer. But I gotta say I love the "petable" leaves of thompsonii!

Denise in Omaha

I was under the impression that 'Mathilda' also had fuzzy leaves. Whether it does or not that isn't a deal breaker. Serpens really is that difficult? Thank you both for the help. My Krimson Queen has been a great grower, so the cross would be a good choice. Maybe in the future I'll try thompsonii. Thanks again.

Hoya thompsonii is a wonderful species to grow but it's very slow for me. If you are getting a plant vs cutting I would go for it because the blooms are supposed to be very fragrant and the plant is quite different from many other Hoyas with it's very thick/succulent and hairy leaves. Hoya thompsonii is less available than some other species so finding a plant vs a cutting is a huge bonus.

Hoya Mathilde is a great little plant and you can't go wrong if you choose it.

Mike

These are all excellent choices, but I recommend thompsonii!!

It is one that I fell head over heels with the moment I held it in my hot little hands. Definitely would never part with it. When its leaves are young they are all soft and feel (and look) like lambs ear. (The plant, not the animal, but I suppose also a bit like the animal, if you want to split hairs).

As Mike says, it a little less common than the others, which you'd probably be able to get in a trade with some effort.

I am a serpens lover, though, too. It's one of my favorites. I don't have difficulty with either of these plants. Mathilde I don't have.

So that is three votes for thomsonii and two for 'Matilda'. Mutiple votes per person are allowed. Greedyghost if you don't mind where do you live? I live in western Mass. It can get very cold and dry here in the winter. Serpens was said to need high humidity. The best I can pull off in winter with humidifiers is 50%. Oh and yes I was planning on buying rooted plants. I don't have a problem with cuttings, I just prefer rooted plants, a mixture of laziness and instant gratification. Thanks everyone.

I live in Omaha, Nebraska and I've grown serpens without any difficulty both here and in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It does seem to me that serpens flourishes in high humidity, but I've always dealt with the humidity dip in the winter too and it doesn't complain. I wouldn't be surprised if that sort of thing affected its tendency to bloom, but it doesn't dry up or drop leaves for me. It seems quite happy in winter. So, I wouldn't be concerned.

What is the difference between thompsonii, calycina, and burtoniae? Well, I actually have both calycina and burtoniae, so I guess I can answer that part of it, but I don't know much about thompsonii other than the fact that it is fuzzy. Calycina is very pettable, especially the back of the leaf. When it is a new leaf the whole leaf is very soft, but as it matures the front doesn't feel as plush. The back stays nice and soft though. It has medium sized leaves, or at least, mine does. Basically, leaves that are a wee bit bigger than your standard Krimson Queen leaves. It grows very nicely for me. Right now is has a 2-3 ft vine that is attempting to traverse my ceiling. Or bust through the roof, I'm not sure.

Burtoniae, on the other hand, is a little guy. It has leaves that are smaller than DS-70 or nummularioides, and is similarly fuzzy. So not super plush, but the leaves are plump, again, more like DS-70. It doesn't seem to color up like DS-70 though, it stays a soft grey green. My little guy is finally deciding to grow for me, it had a patch where it was losing more and more, but not growing. I also kept it a little too dry too often, partially because I kept it in the mix it came in, which is some sort of soil like potting mix (or soil, not sure). I was afraid of rotting it so I tended to wait longer to water it, and then it kept getting overlooked. I'd say this is like DS-70's little brother, fussier, smaller, but very similar.

So how does thompsonii compare to these two?

I don't grow serpens, I've avoided because it sounded picky and I have enough of those already. I do have Mathilde, which is not really fuzzy at all, and cute with those spotted leaves, but my Mathilde has not been a good grower for me. I have it in my terrarium where it has done nothing for at least a year if not two. It is now finally doing some real growing, but I admit being a little disappointed with it.

Quinn, personally thompsonii reminds me a lot more of patella or even sp. square leaf. Its vines are fuzzy and have a very similar growth and look to those two. Its young leaves look very much like those of patella or hypolasia and then they get rigid, but they still have that soft hairy feel, like velvet upholstery. It's not really in the same fuzzy category as calycina and burtoniae in my opinion - those have a much softer finer fuzziness.

Ah yes, we can discuss a Hoya fuzz like wine connoisseurs.

My vote is for Hoya Serpens! OK, she may be a little challenging to grow, but her blooms are worth the effort! And if I can get my Serpens to grow and bloom, then anyone can.

TammyPie

Actually, I don't think you could go wrong with any of the three: Mathilde is a good grower and blooms well, H. serpens is one of my top 10 favorites, humidity doesn't seem an issue, but it does like it cool. H. thompsonii is a gorgeous plant and grows very well...the leaves on long vines look spectacular. My only fault with thompsonii is that, due to its fuzzy leaves, it always looks like it's dust-covered....perhaps mine needs a good leaf soaking in water, as spraying it doesn't seem to remove what looks like dust...though I'm sure it's potting soil that got on the leaves and doesn't seem to wash off. All 3 are great choices...but, serpens and thompsonii are the most difficult to get ahold of. Serpens has nice blooms, but I detected no fragrance. Mathilde has a wonderful fragrance, and my thompsonii has yet to bloom...but, considering its size, it should bloom soon. Best wishes and let us know which one you decide on. Fondly, Patrick

Thanks again everyone. I thought I had posted a response yesterday, must have not gone through. I have decided to buy thomsonii. I love speckled leaves and fuzzy leaves are adorable. If I strike out horribly with thomsonii I can always try the other two. About the H. erthyrina, that would be similar care to a macrophylla, yes? - Frazzled

Congratulations on your new Hoya then! I hope you'll let us know how it goes.

H. erythrina is actually easier than macrophylla (I'm basing my opinions off of the variegated macrophylla), in that it tolerates running dry and high sun. As far as I can tell, it is in the 'very tough Hoya' camp. Contrastingly, macrophylla doesn't like to go quite as dry, as it almost always has new growth in the works that would drop. It isn't an extreme sun candidate either.

So, if you treated erythrina like macrophylla, that would be fine. But treating macrophylla like erythrina not so much.

Well that is very good to know. I did accidentally let my variegated macrophylla get too much sun and let it get too dry. I was rewarded with a long leafless vine that died and some washed out leaves. I cut the vine back and now it is setting peduncles everywhere that I cut. I feel bad I had been getting annoyed that it wasn't growing more leaves. Very tough hoyas have always been my favorites! I will make sure to stay in touch about how things go. Thanks again. -Frazzled

I bought a Serpens from Joni and it hated being shipped. Some of the vines died back and the peduncle fell off. I have it hanging outside in the hot humid weather and it is starting to grow like crazy. It was out in the torrential rains we got lost night and it loves it. I had a really small one that I lost because I forgot to water it. It doesn't seem hard to grow as long as you don't let it dry out.

Mivhelle