Hoya macgillivrayii 'Perfecta'

[Leo Schordje]

This is Hoya macgillivrayii 'Perfecta' - a species of Hoya fom Queensland, Australia. I got this as a cutting 2 years ago, I believe from Ted Green. I did not expect flowers on a vine with only 6 leaves. Usually it takes 3 or 4 years to bloom a cutting the first time, but after that they are supposed to be free blooming. The flowers are huge for a Hoya, about 2 inches across (6 cm). They can have 4 to 6 or more 2 to 3 inch flowers in an umbel, but because this cutting is so young the other flowers dropped off and only one bud matured to opening. The night fragrance is HEAVENLY, like a fine Channel perfume with an extra does of cloves and gardenia. Every bit as good as Angraecum magdalena, maybe even better. Truly a wonderful houseplant.

with a Paph bellatulum for comparison.

 

[rdlsreno]

That flower is huge!!!!!


Ramon

 

[MoreWater]

Whoa! Amazing that it bloomed as such a young cutting. I am certainly not having that kind of luck.

 

[NYEric]

Very interesting photo composition! oke: "You got some paph in my Hoya!"

 

[Leo Schordje]

Whoa! Amazing that it bloomed as such a young cutting. I am certainly not having that kind of luck.

I certainly did not expect it to bloom this quickly. And the flower peduncle formed on a new part of the cutting. I did keep this quite a bit brighter than most of the hoya - I gave it Cattleya bright light, in the light garden, and I summered it outdoors. I have cuttings of 4 other clones of H. macgillivrayii, this is the only one that jumped ahead. The others are coming along. - Leo

 

[Corbin]

Nice. :drool: One of these days I am going to get a fragrant orchid.

 

[Leo Schordje]

I got some additional information from Torill Nyhuus (from Sweden) and Christine Burton (from near Atlanta, Georgia) this clone is one of three seedlings selected and released by Michael Miyashiro of Hawaii. He had made a seedling cross of two jungle collected clones and selected the 3 best of many dozens to be released. That explains the ease of culture and wonderful deep color. By the way, Hoya personalities are every bit as colorful as orchid people, a smaller but equally wacky group.

 

[SlipperFan]

Oh dear, and I was just about to say that I love Hoyas, and if I didn't have a house full of orchids, it would be full of Hoyas!

 

[Yoyo_Jo]

:clap: That is one huge flower! Holy cow. And to bloom on so little growth too; that's just amazing.

 

[Greenpaph]

Just superb!

Thanks for sharing, Leo!

:clap::clap:

 

[Eric Muehlbauer]

Wow! Its great! It almost looks like a burgundy stapeliad, only waxy instead of hairy....aren't Hoya's related to stapelia's? Does it smell like a Stapelia? Take care, Eric

 

[Leo Schordje]

Wow! Its great! It almost looks like a burgundy stapeliad, only waxy instead of hairy....aren't Hoya's related to stapelia's? Does it smell like a Stapelia? Take care, Eric

Eric, the Hoya are Aesclepiads - the Milkweed Family. I think the Stapelia are distant cousins to the Milkweeds, like Asparagus is to orchids. BUT I could be wrong, they might be Aesclepiads.

But Eric, you would not believe the fragrance. It is as powerful and as pleasant as any Angraecum I have put my nose in. The fragrance is strong late afternoon into the evening. It is very much like Angraecum magdalena, very much like gardenia, only sweeter, with a stronger note of cloves that any Angraecum I have ever smelled. Truely a divine fragrance, worth growing the plant for that alone - regardless of the flowers. According to Torill, they can have up to 14 flowers in an umble when mature, so this is a 'minor' blooming on a young plant.

Word of warning, these will mature out to be a large vine with big 4 x 6 inch leaves. So this is not a good one for the light garden, though that is exactly where I am growing it. It was to the side under a 400 Watt HPS lamp.

 

[PaphMadMan]

Eric, the Hoya are Aesclepiads - the Milkweed Family. I think the Stapelia are distant cousins to the Milkweeds, like Asparagus is to orchids. BUT I could be wrong, they might be Aesclepiads.

Hoya and Stapelia are in the same subfamily, Asclepiadoideae, much closer than Asparagus and orchids.

 

[Corbin]

Nice. :drool: One of these days I am going to get a fragrant orchid.

I can't get my foot out of my mouth.

 

[Bolero]

I really love the colouring.

 

[Leo Schordje]

Wow! Its great! It almost looks like a burgundy stapeliad, only waxy instead of hairy....aren't Hoya's related to stapelia's? Does it smell like a Stapelia? Take care, Eric

I have been testing the more uncommon Hoya species to see if they could become the next new 'IN' houseplant. Mixed results so far. Biggest draw back is relative slow growth on a home windowsill. Some really need humidity higher than is practical in a home. Many have absolutely gorgeous leaves, sadly these seldom have showy long lasting flowers. I'll let the forum know if I find a real winner. H. magillivrayii is a robust growing vine with plain green leaves, so it fails the prefect windowsill plant test, though it is certainly worth making space for in a mixed collection.

As PaphMadMan reminded us, both Hoya and Stapelia are Aesclepiads. So the expectation of foul odors is not unreasonable. Hoya breaks into several groups, the Euhoya and a few other groups are mostly pleasantly fragrant or have no odor. Some like H. macgillivrayii and closely related species have very sophisticated odors, some like H. carnosa fairly simple odors (the name carnosa is a referance to smelling like a carnation), H. subclava has a strong Concord Grape fragrance, H. davidcummingii has a buttered popcorn fragrance. Hoya lacunosa has a simple but pleasant Paperwhite Narcissus odor.

The Hoya subgenus Eriostemma (some elevate this to genus) all favor the Stapeliad cousins in that the often very large flowers tend to smell like vomit, or some very industrial ketone or ether like odor. They usually don't have a putrid odor, but they certainly are unpleasant. Bad smells, robust rangy growth habit, and the fact that many Eriostemma come from low elevation humid, wet rainforests means the whole group is pretty much a failure for the 'perfect windowsill houseplant' test. They are a collectable curiousity, for example Hoya (Eriostemma) lauterbachii will have umbels of colorful, but foul smellling, 4 inch flowers, on a 12 foot vine that needs sun, heat and humidity to get the blossoms.