My Hoya plant is finally blooming. I’m pretty sure the exact plant I have is the Hoya carnosa latifolia.

The story of my plant starts in Kew Royal Botanical Gardens just outside of London many years ago. The grandfather of college roommate of mine, Nicholas de Monchaux, once clipped a cutting of this plant while visiting the gardens and snuck it out under his bowler hat. I’m not quite clear whether the plant followed Nick’s mother to Australia or not, but my understanding is that a contentious dispute over possession of the heirloom ensued after the grandfather’s passing. Regardless, after many years, the plant came to live at the de Monchaux house in Cambridge, MA. I never had the chance to visit the house, but I did see pictures, and the plant was an integral centerpiece of the soaring 20 ft ceiling. Well, with Nick and his twin, Thomas, safely in college the de Monchaux’s accepted a 2-year sabatical in Geneva, Switzerland and decided to sell the house in Cambridge. The Hoya stayed with the house, but Nick took a cutting as they moved out and brought it to our apartment in New Haven for me to root.

At graduation, I gave Nick the plant, but kept a cutting for myself. It never flourished and the single stalk spent many perilous years in the dark, harsh climate of Canal Street. After moving to our sun-drenched apartment last year, the Hoya has simply taken off and 11 years after starting with that first cutting, it’s now blooming constantly – for the last month it’s had at least one and as many as four open bloom pods at any given time.

The set of buds just before they open.

And the blooms opened. Here you can see the vine and foliage a little more clearly.