PlantFiles: Hoya, Wax Plant, Porcelain Flower
Hoya pubicalyx 'Pink Silver'

All of my Hoyas are in shade outdoors, and this is the one that does best for me. It is the greenest, bushiest, and by far the fastest growing. Its new leaves are a dark maroon color, with the variegation showing up later. The beautiful pink-purple flowers are wonderfully fragrant. It has become a clear favorite, with only one problem--its the only one of my Hoyas that has stuck onto and grown up my wall.

Inherited one of these plants about twenty years ago. Does not require much of anything except a little water once a week. My main plant blooms, but my cuttings have never bloomed. My Grandmother gave it to me. It never bloomed for her but she had the opposite problem - all the cuttings she gave away bloomed! Be patient and enjoy the exotic vines and ease of care.

I have enjoyed 2 well-established wax plants for 25 years. In northern NJ Zone 6, they are obviously houseplants.
Both hang in east-facing windows, at opposite ends of the house. Yet their bloom seasons are not always the same. Both tend to bloom sometime between early July & mid-August, but they are rarely "in step". Occasionally, one will also bloom in late February or early March.
Wax plants become agressively "up-your-nose" odiferous, at night, when blooming. Their overpowering scent can knock you over like a brick upside the head! Thus, never, ever place them in a bedroom, or a primary room such as a living room. They are best located in den's, bathrooms, & kitchens, where their scent can waft, somewhat diluted, into the rest of the house. Though closely related to milkweed (which have little scent, except to butterflies), the odor of wax plants is most like that of hyacinths² - or maybe cubed. Apparently, these 2 widely divergent species of plants have "selected" the same biochemical pheromones for their human-detectable scent.
Having taken many cuttings from my wax plants to give to friends, I can say that they root well, but that it will take 2 years before they produce their first blooms, & another year before they begin to stink up the joint.
Cutting back a wax plant will also usually return it to the status of a cutting. This is because the new blooms tend to come from the extending, vine-like stems. One of my plants became severely overgrown & unproductive a couple of years ago. So I bit the bullet, cut it back, & repotted it. It's been recovering ever since, & it looks like it may bloom again in a few weeks, though my other plant is now in full bloom.
As a hanging houseplant, the best strategy I've found for long-term cultivation of wax plants is to grow them in a pot at leat 12" in diameter, suspended from chords at leat 18" long. As new, long tendrils grow, let them drop at least 6" below the pot base, & then weave the extra growth in & around other fully-leafed stems, both below & above the pot. This probably needs to be done once a month during the "growing season". After 4-5 years (oh, get OVER your need for immediate gratification!), you will have a green globe of foliage about 2½' in diameter, which produces 30 or more umbrelles of waxy florets all over the plant.
My wax plants' umbrelles begin as dark pink. But by the time they reach full flower, the calices have lost almost all their pink color, & are cream-colored. The actual center flowers are much smaller than those pictured in this article.
As the umbrelles age, a drop of sticky, sweet sap is produced in the center of each floret. [It tastes like honeysuckle sap.] Don't worry about this unless your umbrelles hang so low as to endanger furniture. Either cut off such umbrelles, or place a piece of paper or cloth under them.
As the blooms fade after a couple of weeks, the individual florets will dry up & drop off, requiring some attention from your vacuum cleaner.
About a month after all blooming has ceased, it's time to make your reproductive cuttings. Cut these from stems above a pair of leaves, with about 2" of stem below the next leaf pair. You can place these in water to root, or directly into a peat pot of rooting soil mix. Once new growth has begun, transplant them into a large pot (2 to a 12" pot, 4" apart), & hang them in the window. Sit back & wait 2 years. :-)

b>H. pubicalyx cv. Pink Silver, created by Mr. Hummel, a hybridizer from California.
One of the more cold tolerant Hoyas (>4°C[39°F]) but will not tolerate frost.
Exudes translucent sap when cut or broken.
Can be grown in hanging baskets or trained to trellis.
Easy and fast growing plant which, once established, flowers profusely.
Plant will send out long, bare twining shoots that will grow leaves later on and may bear flowers.
Flowers are very fragrant especially during evening hours. Smell of flowers can become overpowering indoors.
I recommend use of a well draining soil, water well and do not let the soil dry out completely inbetween watering.
This commonly available cultivar is sold under many other names. This is most likely due to the great variability of leaf flecking and sizes which can often be seen on the same plant making some believe that they got a new cultivar and sell it as such.
Below find some of the names this Hoya has/is been sold under.
cv. Appaloosa
cv. Gray Lady
cv. Silver Knight
cv. Silver Pink (word games:)
cv. Silver Prince
cv. Splash
Hoya darwinii variegata
Hoya diversifolia
Hoya formosa
Hoya purpureo-fusca (true purpureo-fusca has foliage which is identical to the one of H. cinnamomifolia)