Hoya caudata Sumatra

 Hoya caudata Sumatra

Hoya Caudata Sumatra was one of the last species of Hoya to be discovered in 1883 by Thomas Hoya.

It is one of the most beautiful Hoya leaves for me.

The texture, silver splashes, and colors all together are amazing. 

On 10/11/2021, a few mice got into the greenhouse and nibbled on some of my plants.

One of the plants that got eaten was my little caudata! Half of the plant was gone and there was only one node left.

It did not take long though, before the plant started another growth point, actually three growth points!! 

That made me very happy and again patiently waited for the growths to get bigger.

Mine has not flowered yet at this time of writing, but I've seen flowers of this plant online, and made me love my Hoya caudata Sumatra even more. The flowers are one of the cutest Hoya flowers ever.

Also, the flowers are hairy and they look like little eyes with long white lashes to me!

Flowers last 4-5 days in a humid condition but, only 2 days in a living room environment. They don't last very long, but the beauty of the flowers made up for that.

This Hoya species is native to southern Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Sumatra, and Borneo, where it usually grows on rocks and streams beds.

The word Caudata in the plant name refers to ‘having a tail or caudate’; it also describes the long pointed foliage and the anther appendage.

I care for this species the way I do Hoya imbricata.

Lots of humidity and long indirect bright light in the greenhouse.

These two (Hoya imbricata and Hoya caudata Sumatra) have stayed alive but, done nothing for the longest time after I first got them. They were not even dying! Just sitting there and if they had eyes, they probably did not even blink for the four months they were in my care. I knew I was doing something wrong, so one day, I decided to give it a bit  of a change. What's there to loose? A plant that is not doing anything is just the same as a dead plant for me.

I gave the plant a lot of humidity by closing the greenhouse doors and windows at all times and changed the growing medium from just potting soil to a chunky coco coir-based + perlite medium. My very own simple chunky growing mix.

And like magic! They started taking off.  

These two (Hoya imbricata and Hoya caudata sumatra) are actually fast growers if you know what they want. With the amount of watering and misting that I gave them, other plants would have had root rot, but these guys just loooved it. 

I really recomend a terarrium or a growth tent with good lighting if you do not have a greenhouse.

Hoya caudata Sumatra prefers temperature ranges between 60 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit (15 to 35 degrees Celsius) loves well-draining soil and high humidity (more than 60%), but it can also withstand low moisture for a limited time.

In a living room condition, constant misting and semi-hydro growing is recommended. Even better if you can provide it a terrarium environment and make sure there is a lot of air movement when growing in a grow tent.