I thought it was a stupid name the first time I heard it, and with a ‘k’ no less, so I blithely ignored what has become a favorite hoya. Then I watched someone’s video about the plant; that it was sturdy and forgiving, grows readily, and blooms early for a carnosa. I now know all of that is true.
The crinkle in Hoya carnosa Krinkle-8 is about the indentations in the leaves, and each one is supposed to have eight of them; they more or less do. I counted a couple, they had eight; good enough for me. Once established, he was happy to grow. The first peduncle appeared in under a year, and he bloomed for the first time several weeks later. For a carnosa, that seems to me like record time. He’s tolerated getting dry several times and handily handled his transition to pon-ish.
Spring is finally arriving here in southern New England. The bigger hoyas are getting spring-cleaning showers, and I realized that we hadn’t checked in with this guy in a while. It’s funny to think that a plant I didn’t really want is now one of the bigger ones in my collection. There’s still that name.
Since he’s putting out another sturdy vine I’m thinking that a new trellis may be in order. That’s no small task nor a quick project, maybe some warm and sunny afternoon.
I’ll keep you posted.
