Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Hoya erythrina Nara, Hoya erythrina Bajo

Hoya erythrina Nara ( December 2014 )



Narathiwat is one of the southern provinces of Thailand. Neighboring provinces are Yala and Pattani. To the south it borders the Malaysian state of Kelantan.

The Hoya below is called Hoya erythrina Bajo or Hoya sp. Aff. erythrina ( December 2014 )


 

Labuan Bajo is a fishing town located at the western end of Flores in the Nusa Tenggara region of east Indonesia. However Bajo can stand for the name of a location in Narathiwat.

In the picture below : the one on the left is Nara, Bajo is on the right.


 
Herbs and Spices, Hoya, Hoya seeds, Orchid seeds, Ferns, Fern spores are for sale on aleyagarden.com Plant care is available in various posts of this blog. Contact : aleyagarden@hotmail.com

Friday, October 3, 2014

True to type Hoya seeds, pure breeds and hybrids

I was given a Hoya cut from the wild and I have propagated it, always by cuttings. If I get seeds from the plants propagagated this way, will they be true to type ?

 
If this first Hoya from the wild was initially a seed resulting from self pollination and was of a pure line ( many Hoya with the same traits growing in the area ) your propagation gave you a breed with an homozygous genotype and the seeds from your cuttings will be true to type.
If the initial seed was produced by self pollination but the population of Hoya was genetically diverse then the seed could have been produced by a natural hybrid.
As long as a Hoya plant has not produced true to type seeds we can't say for sure if it is a species or an hybrid.
Fortunately Hoya in the trade are propagated by cuttings, not by sexual reproduction so preserving the integrity of a Hoya breed ( species or hybrid ) is not an issue : there is no reason why a grower would mix true to type seeds with hybrids as they don't use seeds for the propagation of a breed.
However seeds are very useful : whether they result from cross pollination or from self pollinated hybrids, originally all breeds are hybrids.

Herbs and Spices, Hoya, Hoya seeds, Orchid seeds, Ferns, Fern spores are for sale on aleyagarden.com Plant care is available in various posts of this blog. Contact : aleyagarden@hotmail.com

Thursday, October 2, 2014

A greenhouse for the Hoya after travel

 After only 14 days in transit to Alberta Canada, .. [ end of September ] .. my Hoyas arrived in almost perfect condition. A few lost leaves but that was to be expected. I am so happy, the newspaper looked like it helped a lot. Thank you for the care in packing them as well.

 
.I soaked them in warm rain water, I boiled in the kettle to get it just right, honey and sugar; before I put them in I dipped the  hoyas and cut a little bit off. I soaked them for about 30 minutes they are now in a mini green house. I also dipped them in root gel before I placed them in the dirt I made special myself for them .

Herbs and Spices, Hoya, Hoya seeds, Orchid seeds, Ferns, Fern spores are for sale on aleyagarden.com Plant care is available in various posts of this blog. Contact : aleyagarden@hotmail.com

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Hoya memoria from a seed : it is more beautiful, with larger, longer and brighter leaves along curves





Hoya memoria : a cutting on the left; the plant on the right is from a seed, It looks more beautiful, with larger, longer and brighter leaves along curves. Aleyagarden is propagating it to maintain these traits. 


 
 

Hoya meredithii, Hoya AL6 ( has embossed venation ) and unnamed Hoya

Hoya meredithii, Hoya AL6 ( has embossed venation ) and Hoya without a name :

Hoya meredithii
 
Left meredithii, older than on previous pic,   right unknown seedling


Below AL6 ( has embossed venation ),   top the unknown seedling


Herbs and Spices, Hoya, Hoya seeds, Orchid seeds, Ferns, Fern spores are for sale on aleyagarden.com Plant care is available in various posts of this blog. Contact : aleyagarden@hotmail.com



Monday, September 22, 2014

Hoya identity and seed distribution

variegation obtained by planting a Hoya seed
The picture shows a contrasted variegation from a seed in a pod that was taken on a plant like the green one on the right ( named so far and as far as we know : Hoya biakensis ) Aleyagarden will propagate many cuts before selling the variegated sort, in order to ascertain that the variegation is constant in the cuts. They won't patent the plant.

Some people would say " you have irresponsibly damaged the identity of this species : it is not what it used to be now that you have planted a seed and will distribute the resulting plants and seeds. We have lost the integer, pure, real biakensis. "

So we would expect that giving a new commercial name  ( any name remembering that the original seed pod was on a baikensis, so for instance a silly commercial name like Hoya biakensis Joli Spots, or Hoya Qwert affinis biakensis etc  ) would cancel the accusation.
Not that simple : other critics ( or perhaps the same people ) would say that any choice of a new name could not be accurate as  " you don't know the father with certainty ( the origin of the pollen ) " http://www.linh.se/hoya-seeds/growing-hoyas-from-seed-by-carol-noel/.

Indeed the pollen could have originated in 3 ways : from the individual biakensis that produced the pod ( this is the most probable situation, named self pollination ), or from an other Hoya biakensis probably located nearby, or from a plant at some distance of a non biakensis species that has a compatible pollen ( cross pollination ). Although some people report cross pollination by hand, at Aleyagarden they have never succeeded so far.
 They grow the Hoya in a natural environment ( open pollination ) that promotes either self or cross pollination, without being able to determine which process has acted.
Aleyagarden's setting and methods of cultivation are more or less replicating the non conservative open pollination in nature whereby Hoya species evolution points that " identity ", " integrity ", " correct names " are somehow in these accusations hollow concepts, or at least ideas that are limited by plant science : plants evolve in their environments and they do it not for the sake of matching with names or knowing the fathers. Even less for the sake of protecting patents and businesses.

If one passes off as Labrador a dog from an unknown father then yes the integrity of the breed is a concern. But since the propagation of Hoya, by cuts or by seeds is done like in nature without knowing for sure the father ( the pollen ) then there is no sense to lump together dog breeds and Hoya breeds for the sake of condemning the distribution of Hoya seeds. If a Hoya found in nature or a seedling in a greenhouse appear different from the known breed then a new name has to be found, and regarding the seedling this name should refer to the plant that produced the pod.

Peddlers of pseudo-scientific claptrap are everywhere.


 
Now if we consider not just names, but more broadly representations, then why not considering other identity problems raised by observing nature, they are even much more embarrassing ( but more interesting ) : at the microscopic scale should we condemn photons because in the double slit experiment they have a double appearance instead of an identity as we like it to be ? is it silly for a particle to refuse to take a slit path when something is observing ? irresponsible to escape a determined location or change retroactively ?

Herbs and Spices, Hoya, Hoya seeds, Orchid seeds, Ferns, Fern spores are for sale on aleyagarden.com Plant care is available in various posts of this blog. Contact : aleyagarden@hotmail.com

Friday, September 5, 2014

I am looking to buy the most fragrant hoya there is, can you make a recommendation ?


We have listed some Hoya that are often praised for their scent. We would also recommend these  Hoya for their strong fragrance : Hoya Estrella Waterfall, Hoya finlaysonii V and finlaysonii, Hoya incrassata margin variegata and incrassata variegata, Hoya lacunosa Heart Shaped, Hoya viola :

Hoya Estrella Waterfall above

Hoya finlaysonii 5 above

Hoya finlaysonii above

Hoya incrassata margin variegata above


Hoya incrassata variegata above

Hoya lacunosa Heart Shaped

Hoya viola above
 
Herbs and Spices, Hoya, Hoya seeds, Orchid seeds, Ferns, Fern spores are for sale on aleyagarden.com Plant care is available in various posts of this blog. Contact : aleyagarden@hotmail.com