Snow Ball
A historical selection remembered for large leaves and large, nearly spherical flower clusters.
The historical Arndt selection is distinguished from later plants and other published uses of the Snowball name.
Overview
Snow Ball has an uncertain naming history. In a letter dated 2012 and published in 2014, David O. Gray recalled seeing Grace Arndt’s mature, already named plants in 1974. He remembered Snowball for its large leaves and unusually large, nearly spherical flower clusters. This is a retrospective origin account, not a verified first naming publication. The exact naming date remains unresolved, and not every later plant labelled Snowball has been connected to Arndt’s material.
Related profiles: Wilbur Graves · Freckles
Photo Gallery
No identity-, rights-, and profile-reviewed photographs are available yet.
Evidence-Based Growing Insights
No form-specific care conclusion has passed review. The parent Hoya page remains the source for shared information; generic advice is not repeated here.
What We Know
- Gray’s account credits Grace Arndt with raising three named seedlings from a seedpod on a carnosa plant. He recalls a suspected different pollen parent but cannot identify it. The account does not establish a verified cross or complete parentage.
- He remembers Snowball as the largest of those seedlings, with large leaves and large, almost spherical flower clusters that seemed whiter than the others. The grapefruit comparison in the letter is a recollection, rather than a measured cluster diameter.
- Gray believed the seeds had received radiation treatment, but was unsure whether cobalt or cesium was involved. Without the original treatment records, the method and its role in producing the selection remain unverified.
- In the 2006 cultivar list, Christine M. Burton described Snow Ball as having large pink flowers and proposed links with Snow Fire and Superba. In the later correspondence, she acknowledged that she doubted she had ever seen the true Snowball. Her earlier description and proposed equivalences therefore cannot authenticate all plants carrying those labels.
- The 1992 Hoya Handbook also uses Snowball for material labelled H. motoskei in its Picture 82 caption, referring to white, ball-shaped flower clusters. It provides no propagation link to Arndt’s selection. That name occurrence is kept separate from a verified identification of the historical plant.
- Gray reported losing his own plant. That is not evidence that every line was lost. Confirming survival requires a documented living plant and its propagation history.
- A received label, dated records and photographs of the same plant’s leaves and flowers can help clarify which material is being discussed. Similar flower colour or a rounded flower cluster alone cannot establish a connection to the historical selection.
What We Are Still Learning
When and where was Snow Ball first named as a cultivar?
What would help: An original dated naming publication, nursery catalog or contemporary correspondence, including its imprint and complete relevant passage. Keep the recollected 1974 observation separate from the 2012 letter and 2014 publication.
Does a living line have a documented connection to Grace Arndt’s selection?
What would help: Original labels and dated acquisition and propagation records, together with leaf and flower photographs. Preserve missing links and exact received names.
Can the original seed and treatment records be found?
What would help: Arndt’s records identifying the seedpod, any known pollen parent and any radiation treatment. Recollections of possible methods do not establish a documented cross or treatment.
Can you provide documented photographs the Library may display?
What would help: Original leaf and flower photographs of the same plant, its exact label and known history, creator credit and explicit display permission or a verifiable reuse license.
Common Misconceptions
- The recollected 1974 observation, the 2012 letter and its 2014 publication are different events; none alone establishes the first naming date.
- Disagreement about flower colour may concern different labelled plants; it does not establish a colour change in one authenticated clone.
- Snow Fire, Superba and every plant labelled Snowball are not established as interchangeable by these records.
- A recollection of possible irradiation is not a verified breeding method or parentage record.
- One grower losing a plant does not establish that the original selection is extinct.