first shot

second shot

bloom

It wants to live so badly and what a good looking hoya it is!

Susan

Love the bloom on this plant. I don't have one this color. Got to go shopping!

That sure is some beautiful flowers! And isn't it funny how hoyas always seem to do better when they're left on their own? Why don't they want our love, huh?? :)

My pubicalyx came to me labelled as 'Chimera' (not from a greenhouse in Stewart Ohio), but after reading 40-something websites my impression is that RHP and Chimera is one and the same...? Mine hasn't flowered yet, but I'm hoping it will one day give me flowers like the ones yours have given you! They are gorgeous!

Susan yes it wants life, like a frankenstein monster! There is another in the background if you can tell it is the same.

Bama it is touted to be a chimera of Red Buttons and purpureofusca. The bloom is similar to Red Buttons but do not know much more than what is said. No scent. The scale was a frustrating battle as the root nodes are misleading and when I thought it was clean...nope. Beware! I have some others started and hope they root out.

Klea I also received a hoya labeled Chimera but think the same as you it is RHP as it is not unruly like this one. That one has not bloomed for me as yet. Yes they just don't like the helicopter care like teens!

~ Mary

Just incase this is not clear to everyone who has a similar plant I wanted to clear up some confusion. If your plant came to you as Hoya pubicalyx 'Philippine Black' then that is the name you should keep. The flowers may well look the same as Royal Hawaiin Purple but this is a seperate cultivar. All of these plants that have a cultivar name attached to the species name originated from seed grown stock. Each seed grown plant is an individual and when one has a trait that the breeder wants to maintain they will often select the plant to use for further breeding or on some occasions they will give a cultivar name. If you don't know the cultivar name of a cutting you have then it's probably better just to stick with the species name because at least you will not be selling or trading a plant with the wrong ID.
Royal Hawaiin Purple, Chimera, Pink Silver, Red Buttons, Black Dragon, etc are all proper cultivar names and you reguardless of the fact that some may look very much alike they were seedlings selected for a trait and named. Yes they are all the same species (H. Pubicalyx) so if you don't know the proper cultivar name them just leave it off to limit confusion.

Mary the chances of having a pubicalyx x pupureofusca hybrid is very slim and I suspect an old naming mistake as the culprit. I would scrap the idea of that hybrid altogether.

Mike

Thank you for the information on the different cultivar names, Mike. :) That cleared up all the confusion I had about my Chimera.

Thanks Mike for the input. Can you hit me with a link for a reference to the official information on cv chimera? I had yet to find a good reference to this name. CB has an opinion that it is RHP. I would appreciate it. Just as with the carnosa/motoskei debacle I am going to keep the name as reference and the origination GH for my records. Thanks again! ~ Mary

Mary you would have to trace the cultivar Chimera back to the person who created it. As sometimes happens people simply make up names and this can cause confusion. I don't know of a source for info on the origins of this cultivar.
I mentioned earlier that all cultivars are seed grown. This is not true because I neglected to mention the fact that many plants spontaneously mutate and many variegated cultivars were obtained this way. Often this type of mutation is referred to as a sport in other plants.

Mike

I understand certain language coming from the african violet world. What I am confused about is are you saying a cultivar of h.pub such as red buttons or chimera does not have an iml or similar official listing and is not recognized as stable due to being seed grown? Thanks for the answer Mike.

No they are stable varieties. IML numbers are just catalog numbers that David Liddle used for his collection and they are not used as any sort of registration. I am used to the orchid world where everything is registered and there are registry catalogs etc so that looking up this info is very easy. Hoyas are not at all this controlled and you really need a veteran to help out with some of these naming issues.

Imagine that you had a Hoya pubicalyx that came from the Philippines. In your collection you had a couple of these Hoya pubicalxy plants from different sources and they eventually formed seed pods because a friendly moth cross pollinated the flowers. If you were to grow those seeds you would get a range of plants with different leaf markings and flower colours. From your batch of seedlings you could keep your favourites and name them. This is how these horticultural varieties came about. They were not wild collected plants.

Mike

Got it! Thanks much. ~ Mary