Wax Hoya
kathiemt on May 6th 2007
I have a Wax Hoya named Magnifica and bought it at the garden show some weeks ago. It’s been put in a pot by the front door so is under shelter but open to light and fresh air. However, the big green leaf has turned yellow and dropped off and one of the other smaller green leaves has dropped too so I had to start looking up about the care of Wax Hoyas. Seems because it’s not flowering I should not be watering it much at all so will stop doing that for a few weeks and see what happens.
In the meantime, I came across some interesting sites regarding Hoyas and a blog named Hoya Garden dedicated to them by a man in Brisbane, Australia. I’m listing the other sites I found below for your interest. These are lovely plants with flowers which are are deeply fragrant and I remember the pale pink one I had at my parents’ home when in my teens.
I wonder if I’ve returned to gardening now my kids are grown and I no longer have to spend time doing things for them anymore? I remember mum and dad really getting back into gardening around the time I left home - prior to that I used to love digging and planting in the backyard in my teens and had many plants, flowers, strawberries, potatoes and other things growing. Mum and dad would have been a bit younger than I am now but similar scenario - kids off their hands.
Collectors Corner (where I got mine from)
Gardening Australia (ABC Australia)
Your hoya photo and story brought back memories to me of my grandmother’s plant. You’re certainly right about the frangrance. It’s delicious! I hope you can stop the leaf-dropping soon. Good luck!
Regards,
Dawn in Austin
I have had a wax hoya for about thirty years and it has given my family tremendous pleasure. Hoyas can go months in the winter time with little more than a few drops of water. The moisture in the air is enough.
They don’t like to be repotted. I repotted once in all that time, and the plant nearly died. Later I read that you should only fill a little topsoil in now and then and never repot.
The woman who gave me the start said hers did not bloom for nine years, and I should expect the same, but it bloomed the first year. It has continued to bloom every year, usually in May, and in the last five years, it has bloomed almost continuously, year round. The leaves will turn yellow if you overwater or underwater.
This is an amazing plant that gives back much in glossy, beautiful foliage, amazing blooms, and a delicious, spicy scent. Best of all, it loves neglect.
Enjoy!
I also love hoyas. I remember ‘though, Kathie, that it loved having full sun to really grow well, even though it is a slow-grower, and to get the flowers to come on. Otherwise, it seemed a very hardy plant, almost unkillable! Like your blog and its style. Cheers!
Thanks all of you for your suggestions. It looks like it’s dying however there is still a green stem and one green leaf - perhaps I’ll put it out in the garden for awhile so it gets some direct sunlight - with winter coming on it doesn’t get a lot on the verandah. I do so hope it survives otherwise I’ll have to go out and get another one. I’ve stopped watering it