Kia ora Hoya lovers

Congratulations! You’ve made it through winter (perhaps even your first as a hoya collector). Hopefully there haven’t been too many HDITF (hoya deaths in the family) and if there have, take heart. Hoya collectors aren’t born with green thumbs, we develop them over time, learning from our mistakes and listening better to what our hoya tell us.

In this month’s blog, we’re going to cover off:

• What we learned from our hoya collection & nursery over winter

• Seminars

• Our top tips for spring

• The hoya that should be in every hoya lover’s collection

• A very special deal for collectors…

What we learned from our hoya collection & nursery over Winter

“A gardener’s best tool is the knowledge of previous seasons. And it can be recorded in a $2 notebook”  – Andy Tomolonis

• You need to watch out for a La Niña Winter – this winter was warm and weird! Our plants barely slowed down which meant neither did we. We didn’t react fast enough when the warmer temperatures continued and lost 2 specimens to dry root rot.

• Take a closer look when you have a Hoya bloom out of season – it can be its last ditch attempt to reproduce before it dies. Yep, I’m looking at you, Hoya bilobata…

• The value of continuing fertiliser use and supplement use. Our hoya are very healthy & lush. If funds are tight, buy one less hoya so that you can invest in good quality fertilisers like Dyna-Gro and pro-biotics like EM-1. The results speak for themselves in lush plants that are disease resistant. Our plants have never looked so good since we added Dyna-Gro Pro-TeKt & EM-1 to our fertiliser watering regime.

• We entered our very first Flower Show! It was the first time in decades that hoya had been on display at the Horticultural Society show and we received lovely feedback from the judges that will help inform our future propagation plans. We also learnt that some exhibitors take their shows extremely seriously & tried not to chuckle when one exhibitor got a bee in their bonnet when our hoya’s trailing vine meant it needed to be displayed at a height that was higher than all of the other exhibits on show.

Last month we ran our first online seminar on what our Hoya are telling us. We shared our tips for giving your hoya a health check (click here for the summary).   We pushed through our “I think I’m about to barf” nerves and really enjoyed chatting to collectors and nutting out some of the issues you’ve had with your collections lately. Thanks to all the collectors that shared their Sunday with us, it was a lot of fun.

We recently announced that our next seminar would be on hoya propagation (scheduled for 18 September) and were asked, why we would share our hoya nursery methods & give away our hoya propagation knowledge for free? Good question. We’re running HoyaHoya our way and in our heart, we don’t believe that the ‘secrets’ of successful hoya collecting need to be kept ‘secret’. It’s important to us that hoya collecting is accessible and affordable to everyone. Heck, this isn’t the hoya growing Olympics!!  

So on that note…

Our top tips for spring

• Listen to what your hoya are telling you – as the weather continues to warm, they will be thirstier (check watering needs more), hungrier (continue your fertiliser regime or kick it into action now if you’ve been a bit slack), and pumping out new leaves (support them well with growth supports like trellis – we have some great new designs in the HoyaHoya web store)

• Be on guard for the nasties. The breeding cycles for all the bugs we love to hate speed up – aphids, mites, mealybug.

• If you bring new additions into your collection – isolate them for a minimum of a month. This is your best defence against unwanted pests, fungal or viral issues in your collection.

• It’s a good time to start propagating. Propagation is a great way of raising funds to expand your collection but is an even more important skill to have so that you can save a hoya when it’s distressed (collectors often refer to this as ‘restarting’ a hoya). Our free online seminar (Sept 18th 4pm) will give you all the knowledge to be confident propagating with perlite, fern fibre, and leca/hydroton. We particularly love fern fibre for thin stemmed hoya & leca for thick stem hoya. We have the sharpest price around for both of these materials so please keep us in mind if you need to stock up & would like some savings)

• Enjoy the season. New leaves are exciting, peduncles starting to form are exciting. Take photos and record the growth and development of your collection. Don’t dwell on the lessons learned, just love how quickly everything is growing and the happiness that that brings.

And now that we’ve got you in the growing mood and excited for spring, can we just have a chat about the hoya that we think should be in every hoya lover’s collection?

Who am I?

I am a hoya that was first published in the Philippine Journal of Science in 1906 and am native to the Philippines.

This hoya is one for collectors who love their hoya on the petite side. She has a cute leaf that’s around 3cm x 2cm that is a nice mid green colour with a slightly darker edge and light green mid-rib. When grown in brighter light or under artificial lighting, her leaves have a beautiful pink blush.  It grows in a way that is pretty compact – she won’t get too rangy or attempt to take over your lounge.  She makes perfect gift because she grows & flowers quickly and easily.

Her flower is one of the Revolute types of hoya flower. In simpler terms, this means it has a button like flower that droops down in a suspended fashion.  They are a cute raspberry pink button with a yellow centre.

Who am I?

I am hoya bilobata!

If you don’t have one in your collection yet, there are some beautiful specimens in the HoyaHoya webstore just waiting for their new home.

Our spring reward

Our special deal for all collectors: for every order over $50 (excluding shipping) until 15 September (or until stocks last).

Links that you might find helpful

🍃 Click here for the summary of last month’s hoya health check seminar

🍃 Click here to sign up for our next free online seminar “Propagation” Sunday 18th September at 4pm

🍃 Click to top up your hoya fertiliser and boosters

🍃 Click here for all your trellising needs – trellising will help your hoya put out leaves faster

🍃 Stock up here for NZ’s cheapest source of fern fibre

🍃 Hoya bilobata - you really should have one ;)

We hope you’ve enjoyed this month’s edition of Hoya Holler.

Happy Hoyas!
Matt and K-J