Thursday, June 28, 2018

Hoyas

My hoya plant is currently flowering, and I thought I would share. This is one of the most rewarding house plants I've grown over the years. It has bloomed several times, and this is the first time where the three clusters have bloomed at the same time.

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These are really easy to care for. They have lovely glossy green leaves (some varieties have two-tone leaves or curly leaves), and they tend to like small pots. Once they flower from a special stem, they will flower again (later) from that same stem. The flowers vary in colour depending on the variety, but most have fuzzy petals with smooth centres. The flowers have a wonderful and strong scent, but only in the evenings. During the day they have no fragrance. The scent is strong enough to smell them from one or two rooms away.

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Once the flowers are spent, they dry out, brown, and just fall off the stem.

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They are easy to propagate from cuttings (they form roots on the stems) and they have a nice tendency to "fill out" bare spots when they grow. They can also be trained up a form (trellis) or left to hang down like a vine.