Plants We Love: Wax Plant
This nearly indestructible houseplant has attractive leaves and lovely fragrant flowers.
Plant name: Wax Plant
Botanical name: Hoya carnosa
Virtues: Nearly indestructible houseplant with attractive leaves and lovely fragrant flowers.
Flower: Rounded clusters of 15 to 30 small white star-shaped blooms with pink centers and a sweet scent. Flowers look like they’re made of wax and last a long time.
Foliage: Waxy pale green oval leaves on thick twining stems. Leaves are somewhat thick and rigid, with the ability to store water. Variegated varieties exist.
Habit: Vining stems to 15 feet. Can be trained over a support or left to dangle in a tall pot or hanging basket.
Season: Generally blooms in summer.
Origin: India, Southeast Asia
Cultivation: Give bright light with some direct sun. Normal room temperature is fine. Water moderately in summer and sparingly in winter. Hoya can withstand drought easily. Do not move plant once flower buds have formed, and do not remove spent flowerheads, because next year’s flowers will be produced from the same spur (stem). Repot every other year. Hoya prefers to be rootbound.
Image credit: Al-Ansari
