Day Ten - Hoya

One of my all time favorite flower is this baby, Hoya Carnosa.

When I was a little girl growing up in the Philippines, my sisters and I will get all excited when these bloom because we picked the flowers and wear them as earrings!  Each flower has a long thin stem that's perfect as an earring post.  We used to call them 'forget me not' because that's what the adults called them.

A few years ago, I was describing them to a co-worker and she wanted to see pictures.  That's when I did my research and found that they're actually called hoya.  They are also known as waxplant, waxflower or waxvine.

In the late eighties, my sister Ida and I shared an apartment in Alameda.  We were on our regular trip to the San Francisco Flower Market when we stumbled upon this plant.  You can imagine our delight as we reminisced about how we love to wear the flowers as earrings.  We quickly bought the plant and put it in our patio.  Every year, towards the end of December when the the nights get really cold, we bring it indoors and hang it in the living room.  By the end of January, it will be blooming.

Now that we live in Berkeley, they stay outdoor year round except when there's a frost warning.  We now have three plants and they continue to bloom every year.

I recently read that a study showed that Hoyas are excellent remover of indoor pollutants, so maybe it's time to re-acclimate them to indoor environment.

These are images of other varieties of Hoyas that I found in public domain sites.  I would not mind having these, they're gorgeous!!