He started with the desire to have plants with variegated, splash and silver characters. The idea was simple, but the journey turned out to be quite the rollercoaster.
Kicking Things Off in 2022
Back in 2022, he dove into the project by planting thousands of lacunosa silver variants, hoping that nature would throw in some exciting mutations. Sure enough, we saw a few silver variegata mutations pop up. However, not every lacunosa silver produced the desired change, and many of the ones that did were a bit unstable.
A Fresh Start in 2023
Not ready to give up, he rebooted the project in 2023 with the same overall approach—but this time, he used a newly discovered lacunosa silver. This variant was special: it could grow more than four points from a single node, which really boosted its mutation potential. After a year of experiments, he finally saw a promising variegated lacunosa silver by the end of 2023.
Stabilizing the New Variety
Learning from earlier efforts, he knew that making sure the mutation was stable was key. Since this hoya shows both silver and variegated leaves, its growth tends to be slow. He spent a full year propagating and nurturing the plant until he were confident in its stability.
The Final Result
After three long years patience paid off. He now have a stable variety where the silver marble variegation can sometimes be bold and other times more subtle—but it always graces every leaf, and occasionally even the stems. “Winter Pandora” isn’t just a plant; it’s the result of passion, persistence, and a little bit of botanical magic.