Hoyas!

Back in the Winter of 2017, I made the decision to start collecting succulents. I always thought they were cool little plants, and I wanted to try my hand at caring for them. Little did I know the flood gates I had opened with that very first trip to Molbak's In Woodinville (RIP). I picked up 4 plants, and the collection had been started.

Over the following few years, I amassed a collection of around 75 individual succulent plants of different varieties. There were many learning pains along the way, including how to correctly say "etiolation" - the bane of a succulent owner's existence. I bought plants; I killed plants; I learned a lot along the way.

Eventually, my wife decided to join the plant hobby by branching out - HA! Get it? - into tropical plants, starting with a Philodendron Dark Lord, aptly named Sauron. This started phase 2 of my plant journey - Tropicals.

Initially, I was fond of Philodendrons and Alocasias, but I never really felt that they were "my" type of plants. Having come from years of collecting succulents, I was used to desert plants that thrive in neglect as opposed to something I needed to tend to on an almost daily basis. 

One type of plant that I seemed to always overlook was the Hoya. I knew there were hundreds of varieties of them with varying colors, shapes, and flowers, but I didn't really pay them much attention. I think it was probably hearing how some people were spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on a 2 leaf cutting of a "rare" plant. 

Well, I'm not sure what happened, but one day I finally saw a Hoya that caught my eye - a Hoya Australis 'Lisa.' It was multicolored and had thick, fleshy leaves....like a succulent! My eyes had been opened! Are HOYAS now my favorite plant? It took a couple months and many more plants purchased, but the answer? Yes. Hoyas are now my favorite plant. So much so that I have a collection now that is over 70 individual mother plants and 50 or so propagations at the time of writing this.

I love my Hoyas, and I hope you will too!