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dmichael619

my favorite hoya!!!!!

dmichael619
13 years ago

I've said this on several occasions,that if I had to give up my entire hoya collection and just be allowed to keep one it would have to be hoya lambii!!!! This hoya is well worth growing just for it's awesome foliage,which by the way I forgot to take a picture of!!!

I can recall the time that I first saw it online on an Asian website and said to myself right then I HAVE TO HAVE THIS HOYA!!!! So I set out looking for it and just as I had suspected,it was not an easy one to track down. Everyone who had it listed in their catalogs was either sold out or had a wait list for it. Well I had no intention on waiting for it so I kept my keyboard hot looking for it!!!

My first cutting came from David Liddle on the very first consignment that I ever took part in as a group order for cuttings. It was a very nice healthy 3 node cutting but since I was still the new kid on the block I didn't know very much at the time about rooting hoyas and I ended up loosing the entire cutting. I got a new cutting the next year on my second order to the Liddles. By then I knew a little more about what I was doing and managed to root this one. it rooted rather quickly but proved to be somewhat of the slow grower!!!! The following season the plant took off like a rocket!!!! It's picked up the pace a bit when it comes to putting on new growth but i didn't think i'd ever see it bloom. It took at least 3 years to develop it's first peduncle and bloom.

Of all the hoyas that I grow this is my favorite and is one that will always be in my collection. The foliage is killer, the flowers are breathtaking and it's just an awesome plant to grow. The only negative thing I have to say about hoya lambii is the fact that the flowers,pretty as they are,only last for 24 hours and then they're gone. I thoroughly enjoy them while they're open though. They smell like a combination of expensive vanilla and fine spices!!!

The plant has bloomed several times already this season but I seemed to have kept missing them while they were open. I got em' today though!!! These aren't quite as green as they have been in the past but growing conditions and lighting are all possible reasons for this.

Everyone please feel free to share some of your favorites as well and don't forget to post pics!!!

Comments (16)

  • wrynsmom
    13 years ago

    That is BEYOND beautiful! Thank you for sharing. :) Makes me proud to have a cutting.

    Carolyn

  • grubworm
    13 years ago

    Wow, it's a smashing beauty! Are the leaves as large as they appear to be in the photographs? Shirley

  • greedygh0st
    13 years ago

    Oh dear. That is an excellent choice. I could go on and on about the details I am loving. Your pictures were so thrilling. I hope everyone provides as much backstory with their selections.

    My favorite hoya is in Minneapolis still, but I'll post a picture this weekend! I felt tempted to start a thread entitled: Most unfavorite hoya!!!! but I'm afraid they'd hear us talking about them and infect our favorites with mealybugs. B/c that's how the problem hoyas roll.

  • moonwolf_gw
    13 years ago

    David, that's a beautiful hoya! Congrats! The scent sounds appealing to the nose! Why is it that some of the most remarkable flowers (moonflowers, Epi. oxypetalum, passifloras, etc.) only last a short while?
    BTW, the mindorensis you sent me is blooming :) .

    Brad AKA Moonwolf

  • dmichael619
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Grubworm,

    the leaves on this hoya are all sizes!!!! I measured a small one at 3 1/2" wide X 5" long and a larger one at 5 1/2" wide X 7" long and they are everywhere in between!!!! I love the veining on the leaves and they are slightly fuzzy on the reverse side.

    This is typically how they grow,in a funnel shape but usually only in pairs of two. This one made a trio of leaves which happens on this plant more often than you would think.

  • theplanthoarder
    13 years ago

    Beautiful Lambii. I was lucky enough to get one from Joni before the wishlist on her site went away. Mine is already putting out a vine and some leaves. I can't wait for it to bloom.

  • Denise
    13 years ago

    David,

    Those flowers are beautiful, though I still think the leaves outshine the flowers. I've been lusting after this one for many, many years and finally got a cutting from Iris Marie Liddle this year. It's rooted and I think I see a teeny-tiny new leaf emerging. I'm very excited to see it grow. And I'm so happy to hear the leaves are variable. Those are the ones that pique my interest the most... I guess I was unaware that the leaves tend to form a funnel - that's very interesting! I'll really enjoy watching this one grow!

    Denise in Omaha

  • gennykins
    13 years ago

    I read somwhere that ants are attracted lambii. Has this been an issue for you?

    lisa

  • mdahms1979
    13 years ago

    I think that everyone who has a chance to get this species should, there is little doubt that it will be a favorite of all that grow it. My plant has only been flowering for a couple of years at most but it flowers often, check out how long the peduncle is where the old blooms have been shed.

    Lisa ants are known to build nests in the debris that collects in the leaf funnels in nature but they are not a problem in cultivation. Just like some epiphytic ferns and orchids that leaves appear to be engineered to collect spent blooms, falling leaves and other organic debris so that the plant can put aerial roots into the moist nutrient rich environment the decaying debris creates. Hoya imbricata also houses ants under it's leaves as do some Dischidia species which have specially developed hollow leaves complete with small entrance holes for the ants.

    Mike

  • quinnfyre
    13 years ago

    I have a cutting of lambii now! I'm very excited! It is gorgeous. It's currently in my terrarium, for the extra humidity, and I hit the leaves with water daily. Do you find this slow to root, or fast? I have a spot picked out for it already, but it won't be leaving the terrarium until it seems solidly established, with good new growth.

    I also got paulshirleyi recently. It has beautiful leaves, but it arrived a bit dehydrated. Anyone else growing this? Are the leaves on the thinner side, or more substantial? Right now it feels a bit papery. They're not dried out, just thin.

  • PRO
    Jan Sword-Rossman Realty 239-470-6061
    13 years ago

    That's one gorgeous hoya!!

  • Denise
    13 years ago

    Quinn,

    I put my lambii in my rooting aquarium and it just sat there for two weeks - no roots. I had it with a bag of sphagnum moss on the end of it, my favorite way to root most Hoyas. Well, when most of the others had rooted and lambii was still rootless, I took it out of the aquarium, put it in a pot of soil and set it on my back deck in the shade, to soak up the heat and humidity, and within a week it felt firmly rooted and had fattened back up. I found this interesting because it's usually my aquarium that helps them fatten back up from a bit (or more!) of dehydration.

    Denise in Omaha

  • dmichael619
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Lisa even growing my hoyas in a gh which is open at least 7 1/2 months out of the year I don't have a problem with ants getting into my hoyas,or haven't thus far anyway.

    I do however have an issue with those little tiny black sugar ants getting on the hoya flowers when they open to sip the nectar but they don't set up camp in any of the pots or baskets!!!

    Quinn lambii seems to take a little longer to root than most other hoyas and I root it like I do all my other hoyas in potting mix. The leaves will tend to go flat like all the air has been sucked out of them for a while. You'll know when it has rooted because the leaves will inflate again!!!

    By having my lambii outside most of the year it does get some leaf debris from the wild persimmons caught in the funnels and the plant does send out roots into that debris but i've never noticed ants in it.

    david

  • quinnfyre
    13 years ago

    So far, it looks good. It seems to be starting to send out aerial roots, and the leaves are still in good shape. I have been cheating a little bit, and put rooting gel on it before potting it. It does seem to speed things along, in my opinion. I've been potting exclusively in coco husk chips lately.

    I just love how its leaves have this big round shape, and then that sharp point at the tip. And I never knew it was fuzzy on the back until I got it. I think it's been a week, so I'm encouraged by the fact that it hasn't dehydrated in that time. It was a really fresh cutting, it almost looked like it just happened and never went through the mail.

    Your pics and Mike's pics are what finally convinced me I needed this one!

  • mitzicos
    13 years ago

    Does anyone could give the link for the site of Iris Liddle, I've trying to search at google but did not find it.

    Thank you

  • marleneann
    13 years ago

    Stunning!

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