Day 155 – Hoya

(June 4, 2010) – The sky is grey and cloudy, the weather forecaster says sun, and the barometer indicates storm. Your guess is as good as mine.

I do know when my Hoya is crying out for water though, it flowers because it thinks it’s going to die from lack of moisture. Neat flowers, but that sticky sap is messy. That sap probably helps them with distribution. The flowers stay on when they dry, barely clinging to the plant until something brushes up against them. I imagine they would stick to thick animal hair and be carried away. For size, each flower is approximately 15mm across once in this fully opened stage. And the scent they give off in the evening…heady!

I ended up with this plant more or less by accident. I was after a rope hoya, same family, but strange curled leaves. When the plant store called me to let me know they had one in, this was what they had, wrong plant, but I bough tit anyway. I’ve had several rope hoyas since, killed every one, but this thing just keeps on surviving. It likes where it is and I for one wont’ move it or it will probably die too. It is still living in whatever soil was in the pot when I bought it some 15+ years ago, I wouldn’t even know how to repot it since it has wound itself so fully around the wall hanger. So, here it stays. I probably should see if I can get a little bit of dirt in there though.