I ordered this plant because it was recommended, not to me personally, but on Doug Chamberlin’s website, Vermont Hoyas. He said it was a good grower and flowers early and often, but doesn’t necessarily love the typical winter household conditions of New England.
I only paid attention to the first part about the growing and flowering, and I ordered Hoya hellwigiana anyway. (FYI, it has been recently reclassified as Hoya nicholsoniae.) Handsome green leaves with subtle white veins, he seemed to settle right in. I was still doing the sulfur thing, so I got him in the program.
Then he started putting out a new leaf, and I was happy. But as the leaf started opening and hardening off, the veins were staggering. They remind me of a Tiffany stained glass window or a Mucha illustration, and I can’t stop staring. I know that as the leaf matures it’ll probably fade to more like the other leaves and more like a nicholsoniae, but for right now it’s a stunner.
This reclassification thing gets a bit annoying sometimes, what was a that is now a this, but I prefer knowing what they are. I’ve got plenty of label stakes and markers and I can be adaptable.
I’ll keep you posted.
