ooooo can we get a picture of it?

Very exciting Kelly! Can't wait to see a picture. Congrats!

I don't grow this one either for the reasons you mentioned, it just doesn't move me. With space being an issue, there's no room left for hoyas that aren't my must haves. But, I will admit the blooms are quite attractive.

Yesterday, I saw an 8" pot of Rhipsalis at Lowe's and passed on it. I wouldn't have a place to put such a large hanging basket!

Kelly you must have the perfect conditions to grow and bloom these species that like it cool. Then again that can't explain for all those curtisii buds now can it? Still if I were you I would be hunting for all those cool growers that give the rest of us a hard time.

Congratulations!

Mike

Thanks Bannana, Pug and Mike.

Bannana and Pug: I will need you to come over and give me a tutorial on how to upload pictures. Wait! I'll email you the pictures and you can upload them for me? Nah, come on over, I'll bake and we'll have tea. You can show me how to upload. It will be a hoot.

Pug: if that was a rhipsalis pilocarpa, get in the car right now and go buy that plant. We don't have time for your questions, just go. Now. Go. Then when you get there, if the plant is too big, pick up that piece that is broken off and lying on the floor. Take your great Aunt Sophie or your Mom along for this part. They have that senior sense of entitlement going on. I don't condone this sort of behaviour normally, but this is an emergency.

Mike: you must be right my good man. Say, what are the other cool growers anyway? Might as well stick to the list. Good for hoya's is my wee abode, but mighty cool for us skinny lasses. Did they not have insulation in 1950?

Lol Kelly...You're too funny!! I think I gave you the wrong information about that Huge EA plant I saw at Home Depot. After I got home and did some research and saw some pictures of Rhipsalis NO way it was that. The plant was hanging up pretty high and I couldn't see the tag (apparently, I'm not very familiar with Retusa) because after seeing pictures on the internet I found out That EA plant was most likely a Hoya retusa? It was an 8" pot and looks identical to the pictures of retusa I saw on the net. If I go back to HD, I will try to take a picture of the plant and post it here for
the correct ID.

BTW, if you want to email your pictures to me...I will try and post them for you.

Pug, where do you live? I think you and I could get along like a house on fire. I'll bake and you'll upload. It will be a beautiful relationship. Then we could hit every Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes and Garden Centre within a 100 mile radius. We'll pick up bannanas and Mike along the way. It'll be great.

Kelly I usually don't do so good with the cool growers but I have a few that I would recommend. In your conditions they would probably bloom very well for you.

Hoya burmanica is an easy grower

Hoya polyneura would do well for you but I can't grow this one at all.

Hoya fusca if you can find it although it's a big plant.

Hoya grifithii would be worth a try and Aleya's Garden now carries it for a very reasonable price.

Hoya longifolia, Hoya stoneana, Hoya siamica would all do well in your conditions.

Those are the cool growers that come to mind. I have most of them so perhaps when they get a bit bigger I could spare a cutting or two.

Mike

Hi Kelly! You're On!! I'll take you up on your offer...I live in FL so we can stop at SRQ and Gardino's too :o)

Well it looks like I'm goin' on a roadtrip! Alas pug, I'm on Vancouver Island.

Florida you say? I'm going to have to do a search and see if you've posted some photos of your life at home with the plants. Right now I am freezing my keester off, as fall has hit with a bang. Damp and cold, highs of 12 today and it froze last night.

That would be my shopping trip of a life time, SRQ and Gardino's! Man oh man, if only. I'd stuff those bad boys in my bra to get them across the border. Was that my outside voice? 'Scuze

H. polyneura isn't a cool grower. It is a monsoon grower. Try forcing a dry period on it when it gets warm. I would say after a flush of growth, let it dry out a bit and you may end up with a bunch of buds forming in between the fishtailed leaves.
M

So I wonder if Hoya polyneura is from a single or double monsoon area of India? My plant always suffered in the heat of the summer but perhaps it was trying to tell me it wanted a hot dry spell followed by a period of heavy water? Either way it was stressful watching that Hoya drop leaves left and right so I may not give it a second chance.

Kelly the high here today was 6C (52F) and I did not dress for it. Tonight it will be one degree below freezing which means it's about time to bring the rest of African bulbs in as their leaves are starting to finally die back. I am having a similar response as I don't do so well in the cold.

Mike

Polyneura I have, and it does not seem to be happy. Some leaves are starting to yellow and fall off. It has dried a few times now that it has gotten cool, but perhaps that is not the order it would like those conditions?

I find it to be very beautiful, so I hope I don't lose it. Mike, don't you just love those leaves with the dark green veins? It was so happy this summer, but perhaps it not enjoying the coolness of my home...I'm heading to Mountain Equipment Co-op this weekend for some merino long johns. Might pick up a tiny pair :)

MIke, go get some long johns too!

I've had my Polyneura for appx. 3 1/2 years...its a pretty good size plant, but has never bloomed. I've waited what seems like forever but I finally have some buds on it for the very first time! Has not been a carefree hoya for me in the early years, but its much better now that its mature, although it still gets yellow leaves from time to time. I'm beginning to think its normal for this hoya( at least mine). I can't wait to finally see them open.

Will post pictures if and when they do...hopefully any day now.

RFG, I've also thought this was a cool grower. I have let mine dry out a bit more this summer so maybe that's what triggered it to bloom? Who knows...Thanks for the info!

Hey Kelly, Dee here in Florida as well. I think you might would like to give the lobbii's a try as I have to keep mine inside so they don't get hot, they don't like it out there, but they do like my bathroom window, I also grow serpens inside, bella as well as weebella. Can help you out in the spring if you like.

Dee

Hoya lobbii, a relative seems to bloom more at ease than polyneura. I am curious if anyone has difficulty flowering lobbii.
It grows luxuriantly in Hawaii with little effort, yet needs the dry period to initiate the budding sequence.
I have seen it flowered for me only after the water spiggot had fallen out of the basket where it grew. TG couldn't flower it and mines only flowered after it lost water and didn't realize this until the plant was turning yellow and leaves were dropping. Watering was reapplied and the plant was soaked well before being added to the assembly line of the auto-watering cycle.
It did flower from almost every node and looked pretty while it lasted. But never again until I discovered that it likes a dry spell followed by a wet spell.
A grower in India told me so.

Hey there geosdee! Got another person to visit on my road trip now :)

Lobbii you say? Will think about that come spring. You are dead right about me growing bella. Thank God I can grow one hoya really well. Will look at some of the others. Thanks for the tips!

Flowers pug? Nice.

RFG: you gotta slow down man, I can only write so fast!

ooo Vancouver Island. I have a friend that lives there as well! I am alas in San Diego. As much as I like baked goods... Once they develop teleporting though we all can meet up frequently! If you email it to me I can upload it for you as well.

I teach though so if you want to do a summer road trip drive down the coast, pick me up and then we can all convien in FL for a hoya fest, I see that as very doable!

Anne

I leave my polyneura outside year round, so it definitely doesn't die from the cold. I do bring it in overnight if we freeze. Average winter nights here run from the mid 30s to low 40s.

I did get penduncles forming on it, but they kind of just stopped, and never developed buds.

In the summer, I can always tell when it needs watered, cause the vines droop, I water, the stems and leaves perk up, and the cycle continues.

RFG - by leaving it outside, and giving it cool winter nights, would that inhibit the flowering? Or does it just not need cool nights to flower?

Also, about the lobbi, does it need to dry out inbetween waterings year round, or more so in the winter? I just got a cutting of this a little while ago.

Renee

ok, apparently I lied in the above post. After posting, I thought that I hadn't acutally checked under the polyneura leaves in a while.

This is what I found. Two penduncles budding up. But there are still about 20 penduncles just sitting there doing nothing at all.

Here is the buds, then the whole plant.

Renee

bannanas you are brilliant. Hoya fest/hoya ruckus 2012. We are going to need a keynote speaker. Mike, RFG, Denise, anyone?
Good to know about the upload offer THANK YOU. I will certainly take you all up on that. I'm so challenged with these computers beyond typing, googling and of course Youtubing! Paypaling was a major learning curve for me. How sad it that? I think I'll take a course.

rennfl: oooohhh look at that beauty! It really is a funky plant. Congrats on the umbels BTW. Those look like a sure thing to me...

Renne, My buds sound and looks very similar to yours. I have one that seems close to opening and a few that are a little behind and many that are SO small/tiny they look like "pinheads",lol...Beautiful Polyneura!!

Thanks for telling us this hoya can handle mid 30's on occasion! That's amazing...good info!

Yes, I leave that one out with the carnosas & it does fine in low 40s or even a few high 30s for night temps. Just be sure to bring it in or cover it up if it is to get to freezing temps.

Renee that is a very nice Hoya polyneura. Even though the flowers are pretty inconspicuous up under the leaves the plant is quite attractive itself. There is also a very nice form that has silver streaked leaves.

Mike

Hey everyone... what a great thread here!... I've had trouble keeping up...LOL... wanted to jump in here and say that just today in Walmart, checking out the plants as usual, there was a small plant with tag (EA of course)that said "Rhipsalis"... had no idea what it was, and the "leaves/foliage" were very different than anything I've seen or am familiar with, so didn't buy it. Can anyone tell me what that is? And Mike, the list of plants you gave above ...can I assume those would be some I could consider here in Vermont... temps in the apt during the day are usually 66/67 right now... a bit lower at night. I have a humidifier going in each of the 2 rooms were my plants are..and humidity is usually between 55-60%.. I do have forced hot air heating so keep it lower to keep from shriveling up!.. and I love the run of posts regarding your field trip... girls... I wish I could go along!... sounds like it'd be incredibly fun... but... I'm way up north... on a good day, with clear roads, about 2 or so hours from Montreal!... though, I've never been!... sounds colder already in Vancouver... brrrrr! Eileen in Vermont

Eileen Rhipsalis has a huge range of growth habits, although you don't often see many available except from speciality nurseries. I have a huge Rhipsalis elliptica that I got at Walmart so sometimes there are more unusual species seen. I would check out the species i mentioned by using the link below, maybe it's what you saw.

Mike

Here is a link that might be useful: Rhipsalis.com

Mike... thanks for that link... well there certainly is a lot there to look at... but not realizing at first that all of those were rhipsalis... I went immediately to the "r" section... opened up the R. pilocarpa and love took over... the blooms are so beautiful... and from what I could see of the picture, the stems look very much like the ones I saw today... I thought it might have been some kind of succulent... but w/o leaves I had no idea.. there were several there and they were in small pots $2.75!... the only thing the tag said was the rhipsalis and that it was from Brazil!... I will head back to that store first thing tomorrow morning... on my way to work!... can you tell me if it will need a lot of sunlight or warmth... the stems were "pencil like" as described in the site, and had some kind of tiny prickly looking little growths.. hairs kind of... so... thank you for sending me there!... a small treasure.. I think! Eileen

Okay, I went back and took a picture of that unknown plant that I thought was Rhipsalis or Retusa? I guess I had NO idea how many different Rhipsalis there were! I took a picture a couple of days ago when I went back to the store and Mike, I'm hoping you can ID it for me?

Eileen is this the same plant you saw at Walmart?

I didn't buy it because it was a very large plant and I don't know a thing about this plant.

Here's the picture and the tag did say "Rhipsalis". Mike can you tell which one it might be? Thanks!

EA Rhipsalis from the Big Box store...

Took it with my Cell phone camera.

I'm not too sure if it is a Rhipsalis, but I can tell you it is (sadly) not pilocarpa. I have pilocarpa and am familiar with it :). Rhipsalis has small white hairs on it's 'leaves'. That is a pretty cool plant however. Did you pick that piece up that fell on the floor (after it was accidentally dropped?) :) (that is my cheeky grin).

OK... Kelly... with the cheeky grin... my lovely nummeraloides (sp)cutting came from a really legitimate piece on the floor of HD while looking or rather comparing the plant with the brevialta that I ended up with... no tricks... but since it was on the floor... why not adopt it!... and no that isn't the way old ladies do it!... who said that yesterday??? LOL....

And...pug... the plant looks similar... I did go back to Walmart this afternoon.....rushed over at lunch time!... bought 2! total cost: $5.83... small, 4" pots.... they are sooooo cute... the stems have very fine white hairs on them and the tag, (again EA)... says Rhipsalis sp.... I'm excited!... though I guess I might be in the old age home by the time they are old enough to have any blooms!... the tag says they like low light!.... so... is it ok to be excited about these youngsters!/????? Eileen :)

Hey Eileen,

Glad your so excited, but I just wanted to stop you for a moment before you buy more Rhipsalis. They are tropical cacti from the jungle forests of Brazil, where it gets not only hot, but very humid (I grew up in Brazil, so I confirm this is true).

Sorry, I re-read your post where it says they like low light, I'll take exception to that, they like dappled light, like Hoyas & like through the canopy.

Mike, could you pls. speak to their heat/light requirements. I currently only grow 1 so my experience w/ these is quite limited.

I have one (courtesy of Denise) who I believe has a bunch more & tho' she's in Omaha, she has a greenhouse. Am wondering if it may be too cold in Vermont for these plants.

Denise, care to comment on care requirements for these pls?

Thanks for your input... I really appreciate it... I think once I get my light set up, which I purchased before I moved into my apt in Sept... all my plants will be happier. I could always put the little buggers in the enclosed shelving unit I have to still get set up...with the light!... and maybe someday... the blooms... I do however love the look of the plant... the stems... and can always hope!...LOL... it was after having a hoya for over 20 years and a happily rooted cutting bloomed that I even knew what I had there!... I am willing to try... and if they survive..yippee... if not.. $6 down the drain... I would love to know more about them... from someone with experience! They are both currently getting some sunlight... since at this point in the year... not as much as Brazil!.... thanks for your help.. much appreciated!

I grow a lot of rhipsalis. I give them the same basic care as my hoyas (most of them) and they do fine. They like to dry out before you water again, and Pirate Girl is right about the light. Most of them like quite a bit of light just like hoyas. Not midday, direct sun but dappled or morning/late afternoon type. Through a window in winter should be just fine though. If the ol Vermont sun isn't shinning enough, you may want to hook a light over them this winter, then put them out on the porch for the summer. Treat like hoyas. You'll be fine.

Pug that's a Rhipsalis but I have no idea what species, telling them apart is not something I have learned to do yet.

I grow around six or seven Rhipsalis species and most are easy. Bright diffused light is best but I have some that I grow pretty shady and they do well. Some flower on and off through the year while others like a cool period before they will bloom. I even grow one essentially mounted in a little 4" wooden orchid basket with sphagnum moss and it grows very well. these are great plants to grow along with Hoyas because they do enjoy similar conditions.

Mike

Thanks Mike! They look similar to Retusa to me, so I wasn't quite sure what it was. Either way I passed on it...

Eileen good luck with yours! I'm sure it will do fine for you.

Marcy, Mike & Pug.... Thanks so much for your great advice!... we had another lovely sunny day today (soon to get stormy)... so they did sit in the late afternoon sun kind of sheltered by the large h. carnosa sitting above them... I enjoy growing most any houseplant (and while owning my home, if it grew and flowered outdoors... and made it through our winters... they got stuck in the ground!...Now the new owner of that property has a lot of work to do next spring!)... I've always had healthy plants, except in those times of life when they were not priorities... we all face that... so I'm willing to try most anything... find that for some reason last few years I lean towards succulents, cactus, my orchids... only 4 now... a beautiful peperomia and a small slew of other types!... If I could tweak the bldg that my apt is in, I could get more direct east and west light... it comes in the window at an angle, some southern light toward the end of the day... but I also use cfl's in the areas where they are all "parked"... I will certainly let you all know if something very special happens!... but I waited 20 years for the first bloom... (unknowingly)so what's another year or so..? I'll just keep reading here and doing what I can... I just love them all! Thanks for your ongoing help!... Eileen