# hoya



## Guest (Feb 15, 2006)

I was wondering if anyone has had experience with hoya "rubra." 
Can I put in with my frogs and will it climb up the background. I also heard it has flowers.

I would like to know about this plant any info will help!!

Thanks


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## Guest (Feb 15, 2006)

Heres a link to google.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=& ... tnG=Search
This is one of the results.
http://www.plantoftheweek.org/week029.shtml

Isnt it amazing what a web search will do.

Matt


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## Grassypeak (Jun 14, 2005)

Come on Matt, You just got through calling Dr Braem abrasive, and now you play the “do your own search” card. Doing a google search does not necessarily give one good info about growing this plant in a viv. There is some info on this site though. The following link discusses some good viv hoyas.

http://www.dendroboard.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=9093&highlight=hoya


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## Guest (Feb 15, 2006)

Im not pulling any cards. I honestly dont have any experience with that particular cultivar so I thought Id find what I could for him.
I didnt realize that performing a search on behalf of someone else constituted abbrasiveness, thanx for clearing that up though.:wink: 
As youll notice, I performed the search. And I even posted one of the more relevent links.
So much for him doing it himself.

Matt


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## slaytonp (Nov 14, 2004)

Hoyas are great house plants, and do well in low humdity and somewhat dry conditions. Most of them grow quite large eventually, tend to be succulents, rather than tropical rain forest plants. While they may do well in a vivarium for awhile in an elevated position, I don't think they are appropriate in the long run for a humid dart tank. I believe that "Rubra" is one of the Hoya carnosa hybrids, which eventually get quite large. I've tried many of the smaller relatives of this same family: Asclepiadacea, such as the smaller Ceropegia in my dart tanks, but they just don't prosper for long. They do very well on the window sill, under dry conditions, however, as do my Hoyas. I just don't think the conditions are right for Hoyas in a humid vivarium. They may last for awhile, but will eventually die off. If they do somehow survive and prosper, they will become too large for the small environment. For planting a vivarium, I would stick to the smallest bromeliads, tropical vines and ferns, etc. you can find, at least at first. Experimenting is fine, however. If something dies, you can always remove it or let it recyle into the soil. If it grows too large, you can always cut it back to the roots and remove it that way. I've tried to grow a lot of plants in vivariums that haven't worked out in the long run, but sometimes stuck around enough to be interesting for a year or so. That's the way you get personal experience and maybe get to know what you are doing, eventually. 

In the meantime, I personally wouldn't put a Hoya in a dart tank. :?


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## Guest (Feb 16, 2006)

Just remembered that I do have a Hoya lacunosa in my 46 bowfront.
Its currently thriving but i think that is mainly due to how ive got it planted.
If you notice in the photo the center peice of cork is a half round, I only filled it partialy with foam so that I could use it as a little planter. Being elevated and seperated from the rest of the media it probably does stay a little more dry.










Matt


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## slaytonp (Nov 14, 2004)

Why didn't I think of that? I have two full cork rounds in a couple of my tanks. I really like one of the Hoya's close relatives, Ceropegia woodii, and it has always died off in the wet areas. I'm going to try it in one of the cork rounds. They are closer to the light, and of course remain much drier. Here, I've been wasting them on stuff that does well anywhere else in the tank.


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## Guest (Feb 17, 2006)

Patty, my H. lacunosa is just coming into bloom Ill see i cant get some pictures up.
Its nice though, when I go to feed and I open the top Im bathed in the smell of cinnamon.
It is kind of messy though. :? 

Ceropegia is great! Do you grow many of them? Ive always wanted to try sandersonii, beautiful flowers.

Matt


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## slaytonp (Nov 14, 2004)

Matt: In my cacti and succulent phase, between (probably before 1948 and about 1978, I really got into some of the Asclepiadaceae, such as the Caralluma, Huernia, Hoodia, Fockea, Stapelia, Lithocaulon, as well as Ceropegias. I had no Hoyas. I grew over 2000 species of cacti and other succulents, some from seed from the 1950's Ritter expedition to South America. That was many years ago, but I just looked up my notes that I kept on index cards, because I recall having a lot of Ceropegias hanging all over every window in the house in Nevada from layered glass shelves, as well as in a couple of Park's grow frames in a hall with skylights, and some window greenhouses, with the hardy Colorado and other Western cacti outdoors. My list of Ceropegias does include sandersonii, which from my notes, I can recall being nearly leafless, with stems that twined around each other in a rope-like fashion, and nice, open blooms. Others were C. radicans, sandersonii, barkleyi, stapeliaeformis, haygarthii, elegans (a real beauty in bloom) and of course the memorable woodii, because I remembered liking it above the others, and it is still more available on the popular market. 

The scents of members of this family, certainly vary a lot. I recall the succulent Stapelias in particular smelling like carrion. (They are pollinated by carrion flies. as are some of the others of the other cactus-like desert group.) Others smelled like jasmine, or as you pointed out with the Hoya-- cinnamon or nutmeg. I have a note that the Ceropegia woodii smells like eggnog. When my first Stapelia bloomed, my long suffering husband, God rest his soul, came home from work and said, "I hope you aren't cooking road kill for dinner." I was very proud that the thing had bloomed, but really had to take it outdoors to stink up the entire neighborhood instead of the house, or puke. It was truly overwhelming. It's hard to believe that one plant with a single bloom can smell like you have been keeping your dead grandmother under the couch in the living room for a month.


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## Guest (Feb 20, 2006)

Patty, its wonderful to hear from another Asclepiadophile! :wink: 
My wife calls my Stapelia collection (and my aroid collection for that matter)
my "puke" plants. And as such they all reside outside during the summer and fall, so thier flowers can be appreciated by the insects that love them.
I have a thing for stinky flowers. :shock: 

I have to admit though my first love was orchids and so I dont have nearly the experience with the Asclepiadaceae as you, although my collection continues to grow.
My favorite genera is Bulbophyllum and Ive done a little work breeding them.
Which I find very rewarding with such a neglected genus.

I must say though I feel privelged to be able to share with a Pantheon such as yourself.

Matt


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## Ryan (Feb 18, 2004)

By breeding you mean youve grown some by seed?


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## slaytonp (Nov 14, 2004)

Matt:

I've always wanted to grow orchids, but other than some Phaleonopsis, which did fairly well in grow frames in Reno, Nevada, my conditions in both Idaho and Nevada have been much too arid for them, and none of my frog vivariums get enough light, and aren't really large enough for most of them. I go through phases of interests. I have hardly any cacti or succulents now, where once I had over 2,000, many of which I grew from seed from the late 1950's Ritter expedition to South America, including all of the Frailias collected from the dry Peruvian and Chilean coastal foot hills--about 6 or 7 species, as I recall. I've never seen a Frailia offered on the market, so am sorry I didn't keep up with them, but gave them away to a local nursery when I moved from Nevada. They are totally fascinating, since they get absolutely no rainfall, only fog on the barren hills. None are over an inch in diameter, many smaller, and grow mostly submerged under the soil. somewhat like Lithopsis--the unrelated succulent "window" plants from the eastern hemisphere. I grew some of them in thimbles, and just misted them. The blooms are as big as the body of the cactus, so they can be pretty startling. 

In any event, I always thought it would be fascinating to do the agar cultures of orchid seed, or tissue cultures. Are you into this?


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## Guest (Feb 21, 2006)

Ryan said:


> By breeding you mean youve grown some by seed?


I did not sow much seed myself, they have a full time lab tech so i didnt really do much sowing or replating just every now and again when i had time.
Most of the " breeding i did was restricted to pollenation. I honestly dont know how many brand new Bulbophyllum hybrids I made not to mention the occansional Cattleya or Phaleanopsis.



> Frailias collected from the dry Peruvian and Chilean coastal foot hills--about 6 or 7 species, as I recall. I've never seen a Frailia offered on the market, so am sorry I didn't keep up with them, but gave them away to a local nursery when I moved from Nevada. They are totally fascinating, since they get absolutely no rainfall, only fog on the barren hills. None are over an inch in diameter, many smaller, and grow mostly submerged under the soil.


That really does sound fascinating!




> In any event, I always thought it would be fascinating to do the agar cultures of orchid seed, or tissue cultures. Are you into this?


I think I answered this above but on a side note there is a great little company that puts kitchen culture kits together for resale.

http://www.kitchenculturekit.com/index.htm

I have not tried them but I know many that have and love em.

Matt


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