Mellow Yellow

The Horticulture Show early this year captivated my enthusiasm about Hoya, a wax plant, many species of which are endemic in this country. A friend delivered a lecture on hoyas, and he invited me to attend. That was the start of my fascinating affair with the plant. Before that, I am not interested with it, devoted my time in other more common plants, only to find that this is our very own. Out of about more than 200 species now in cultivation around the world, most of them originated from this country with 61 species already named, and still increasing. We need more enthusiasts, hobbyists, conservationists to make our countrymen more aware of our natural resource and protecting it. The lecture stressed on the dwindling presence of hoya in the wild, and many species are not anymore found here but in some expensive collections of foreign nurseries. Hobbyists in the country cannot anymore get expensive plants from these collectors! Can you imagine a plant worth $100 excluding shipping? This is already above our standard capacity to pay for a plant.

After the lecture, cuttings are distributed to participants and some are raffled. I am more privileged or lucky because one of the  Horticulture Society officials gave me 2 already growing plants. She told me this species hooked her to hoya collecting. After a few months, I told her that I replicated her experience. I already have five species growing nicely at home, and I still have a few species already ordered from friend collectors.

 Hoya buotii is named after a professor in the University of the Philippines Los Baños. It is one of the most floriferous hoya species, that hooked me to collect more species.

very small ants love the nectar oozing from the flower

 The hairy parts are called corolla, and the shiny parts on top are called corona. Reproductive parts of the flower are embedded inside the corona.

Unopened blooms within an umbel.

My rooting plants are in recycled soft drink bottles, hanging under the canopy of fruit trees giving them the filtered sunlight. You can see the already 1 meter branch of the Hoya buotii, carrying the blooming umbel. Some spurs where the umbels arise are also present in the newly growing branches. This is about to be replanted in bigger traditional pots.

Mellow Yellow 

Our World Tuesday

NF Blo-Ma