Hoya carnosa 'Rubra'

This hoya has almost burgundy vines and the leaves are darker green, often with white and some pink in them. The leaves on this hoya are also a bit smaller than on the carnosa. It has a twining growth and it's a rather fast growing plant. When 'Rubra' grows all green vines, those vines are a new cultivar (according to what I have read) and the hoya was named Hoya 'Green Exotica'.

The flowers are flat, about 1.5 cm and you'll find 20-40 flowers in each konvex umbel. The corolla is pink to dark pink and the corona is white with a red ring in the middle. These flowers don't produce very much nectar and have a nice not too strong fragrance that closest can be described as chocolate and they last about one week.

I bought this one as a really big and loooong (almost 2 meters) hanging plant in July 1999. It was then called Hoya 'Tricolor'. When I was walking there in the nursery holding it high up, people started asking me questions as if I was working there! Well, the plant made it home and soon after it flowered with different colour umbels. It was a beautiful sight (opens in new window), but it was too bad I didn't have a digital camera back then. I had this plant hanging right next to my balcony door in my apartment and this door was almost always open during the summer. Even on a day when it was really windy outside and I heard a crash... It was the 'Rubra' and I found it in pieces on the floor. I managed to save most of it so that it had about 1 meter long vines. It still looked good, but it had lost several peduncles...

I moved to a house in August 2002 and the 'Rubra' survived the move without any problem. It was then placed on a piedestal instead of hanging. Well, dogs and cats fight sometimes and so did mine... They crashed into the piedestal and again the 'Rubra' was in pieces on the floor... By now, the vines didn't look too good since my dog must have thought it tasted good. She didn't get sick or anything, but the 'Rubra' looked awful. I managed to save some cuttings and this time I planted them to climb on a support. It grew into a nice looking plant again, but this time it was all green. It flowered again in July 2004 and the flowers this time were darker pink and really beautiful. They smelled just like chocolate when you stuck your nose into them. Once in a while after that the flowers were paler, but they still have the chocolate fragrance... My hoya collection grew and in the end I decided to sell my 'Rubra', but during the summer of 2010 I bought a new little plant. I think the one called '020' seems a lot like my in the end totally green 'Rubra' so we'll see what becomes of '020'...
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