Hoya have certainly crept up to a high-ranking favorite in the houseplant popularity contest. There are many varieties of Hoya that you can choose from to fill your space with. They are a vining plant native to many Asian countries. On a day hike in Thailand you could spot them hanging from the trees as you see in the photo below. If you are lucky enough to catch them when they are blooming you are in for quite a botanical show. The blooms are a delicate cluster of flowers that actually remind me of the blooms on an Edgeworthia, or more commonly known as Chinese paper bush. Make sure to look for these beautiful deciduous shrubs in the botanical gardens the next time you make a trip to Portland.
Hoya do prefer to dry out a bit between waterings. You definitely want to make sure you plant these vines in a pot with a good drainage hole. They do not appreciate sitting in soil that remains wet and stagnant. You can provide a moss pole or trellis for them to climb up or simply allow the Hoya to elegantly trail down from the pot. Adding a liquid plant food to their water about once a month is recommended to keep them thriving. Hoya can take a while to bloom but once they do you can pretty much count on them blooming again each year. Sometimes even twice a year!
You can certainly propagate Hoya with a little patience since they are somewhat slow growing. You can try by taking a cutting with a clean pair of trimming scissors and placing it in a mixture of sand and peat moss. Another method is draping a selected limb across a bit of damp peat and sphagnum moss and waiting for roots to appear. You’ll want to pin the section of the vine down and make sure a node is directly on top of the damp portion of moss. The node is where the roots will begin to grow from. Once a good amount of roots do appear you can cut the stem from the main plant. Then place the newly rooted cutting in a small pot with well-draining soil. Just like that, you have added another plant to your growing collection!
