It wasn’t my first hoya, but it was the first hoya I really wanted. It was also the first hoya I killed.
The first time I saw a Hoya obovata I wanted one; those big, round leaves embodied all the weirdness of hoya for me. They were hard to find at a reasonable price, but I found a cutting as part of a “hoya starter pack”. I planted the cuttings in cactus soil, like everyone said to do. The obovata was a spindly thing, I didn’t plant it well, and one by one the leaves fell off.
About a year later I found another obovata; a small, healthy, more robust plant. No more cactus soil, it went into a bark/sphag mix and a net pot, and it didn’t die. Neither did it thrive. For almost a year he sat in his pot doing nothing. When I set-up some grow shelves I moved him there. He appreciated the increased light and in the past few months has pushed out a sturdy vine with six new leaves. Yay. Big yay.
Out of all of my hoyas, amongst the more rare and more fancy, Hoya obovata is still one of my favorites. All those qualities that caught my eye and stirred my interest in the first place, are still there for me. This was the one that started it all.
I’ll keep you posted.
