Good Old Reliable Carnosa

Day 316: Hoyas are rewarding houseplants, if (and note this well) you happen to be one of the many people who can grow them successfully. I'd have thought it was impossible to do otherwise, but I have a few friends (you know who you are) who say they can kill them without half trying. Admittedly, I have a few of the more obscure members of the genus which I have not been able to bring into flower, but for the most part, they grow well for me. Hoya carnosa (above) is the type most commonly found in plant stores, sometimes alongside its variant H. carnosa compacta, aka Hindu Rope Plant. For the record, I do not own a compacta, an oversight I may need to remedy. My most prolific bloomer is of course H. bella, the "miniature" Hoya. Following shortly on its heels is bronze petalled H. fitchii, and further down the line by the red-flowered H. ilagiorum. Oddly, good old reliable everybody-owns-one H. carnosa falls in fourth place. Still, there's nearly always a Hoya in bloom among my collection.

Leaf Diversity

Day 42: Besides being green, these leaves have something in common which might come as a surprise: they are all Hoyas. Hoya carnosa (the one with the white edge on the right) is most recognizable to the average houseplant enthusiast. It blooms in the spring, flowering at the tips of woody spurs which should never be pruned out. Above it, is Hoya fitchii which has a thinner leaf and sports light coppery-yellow flowers with pale pink centers during the summer. The large leaf in the upper left belongs to Hoya affinis, an "intermittent" bloomer. It comes into flower when it feels like it, although the vine must be at least four feet long before the brilliant red umbels appear. The smaller leaves are (left): Hoya bella, another "intermittent" which bears white flowers with maroon red centers. Bella is one of the most rewarding houseplants I've ever raised; H. cumingiana (center of the three small leaves) is a summer bloomer having pale yellow flowers with maroon centers and H. curtisii whose tiny but wondrously abundant leaves form a dense mat. Its intermittently-occuring flower umbels are pale yellow with just a touch of rose-pink at their centers. I'm always looking to add new Hoyas to my collection!

Velvet Star Cluster

Day 198: When Hoya carnosa bursts forth, it does so in an explosion of little succulent stars which, when observed closely, appear to be made of white velvet blushed with pink. They feel waxy due to their thickness(hence the name), but in fact they are as fuzzy-wuzzy as a teddy bear. Each star bears another smaller one in its center, and each pendent umbel hosts a dozen or more blossoms, a veritable galaxy of double-star systems, each one with a dark nova at its core.

Carnosa is but one variety of Hoya, and a common one at that. There are dozens of other varieties, each with flowers unique to the type. Some grow as vines, others as a mat. Some climb, some trail. Some bloom in only one season and others bloom almost continuously. Many are easily grown as houseplants, at least for foliage. Bringing them into blossom may prove trickier, though. I've been tending a H. lauterbachii for about ten years now with no sign of a flower, but my H. bella more than makes up for it with a shower of stars every six weeks or so. Carnosa comes but once a year, like the Perseid meteors, and it makes it worth the wait.

Hoya Orb

Day 228: It's been a while since I made an Orb. This is a fun bit of post-processing which is easy to effect with almost any halfway decent graphics software. A certain degree of artistry is involved, but not enough to be intimidating, even for folks who have just graduated from Windows Paint. You'll want to have an assortment of images to play with, if only to learn how to position your subject to get the best results. Flower photos are a great place to begin.

The first action you will take is to "promote the background layer" (Layers menu). Once this is done, crop the image into a square. Do this by changing the settings for "canvas size" (not "image size"). Let's say we're working with a 4320 x 3240 pixel image. Set the canvas size to 3000 x 3000 to give yourself a little "wiggle room." Now because you've promoted the background layer, you'll be able to slide your image around until you have your flower fairly well centered (centering is not a requirement, but until you get used to making Orbs, you'll get a higher percentage of attractive results). Once you have your flower in a good position, "merge" the layers (Layers menu). If you look at the image information at this point, it will tell you that you have an image measuring 3000 x 3000. Save the file.

Here comes the tricky part! Follow the directions exactly, because if you mix up Step 1 and Step 3, the results won't be an Orb. In the Effects menu of your photo processing software, select "Polar Coordinates." It may be a sub-menu under "Distortion" or something with a similar name. I use PaintShopPro, but other software should use similar terms.

READ THE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY!

1) Convert POLAR to rectangle.
2) Flip the image top to bottom.
3) Convert RECTANGLE to polar.

The most common error in creating an Orb is to start with Rectangle to POLAR because most photo processing software lists it first. You must convert POLAR to rectangle in Step 1, or the Orb will not work out right.

Orbs remind me of those wonderful glass paperweights. Make yourself a whole collection, because this version won't ever need to be dusted!

Wax Velvet

Day 271: My "standard" Hoya (Hoya carnosa) has come into bloom again, bearing a single but very lush cluster of waxy pink blossoms. Waitaminit...did I say "waxy?" Hoya's common name is "Wax Plant," and indeed the flowers do look and feel as if they were carved from wax, but upon closer investigation, you will see that they are velvety, almost like little kitty tongues. I hadn't really noticed until I brought this image up on the computer screen.

Hoyas are among the most rewarding houseplants you can hope to find. I currently own three varieties: Hoya carnosa (the one everyone knows), Hoya bella (the "miniature" Wax Plant) and Hoya lauterbachii, an exotic variety with "furry" leaves which is very difficult to bring into flower. I have yet to succeed. When it does bloom, the individual flowers are reported to be two to three inches across, borne in an enormous cluster.

Hoya Carnosa, Textural

Day 194: In addition to my Hoya bella ("miniature Hoya"), I have two other varieties of "Wax Plant." One is a rare type (H. lauterbachii), a very fussy bloomer which I have not yet brought successfully into flower. The other is the houseplant with which most people are familiar, Hoya carnosa.

Mine spent the first year of its residency in the south-facing kitchen window, pulled back a bit from the hot afternoon sun. When it failed to flower, I moved it to the east living room window to hang next to Hoya bella. As you can see, it is much happier in its new environment. The pale pink, star-shaped blossoms are quite fragrant when fully open.