Hoya
Wants a spot right beside a bright window, out of the sun’s actual path. Water every two weeks. Leave it in the pot it came in — it likes to be crowded.
The most common way people kill this one
Repotting it. It wants to be rootbound, and a bigger pot sets it back a year and often rots it. Leave it in the pot it came in until roots are coming out of the bottom, and even then, think about it.
How big it gets
Vines several feet. Flowers — clusters of small waxy stars that smell like honey at night — once it’s crowded and content, which can take a couple of years. Don’t cut the stubs the flowers grew from; it flowers from the same spot again.
What it doesn’t get along with
Cats and dogs: fine. Safe for cats and dogs.
Deep shade. It’ll live, but it won’t do anything. Radiators and heating vents dry the air and the soil faster than you’d think — a foot or two away is enough.
A pot with no drainage hole, and anyone who waters on a schedule. Both drown it.
What it’s trying to tell you
Where it came from
From a Chicago grower, then two weeks in quarantine in Wicker Park before it goes anywhere. Hoyas root slowly, so cuttings come later.
Grown in Wicker Park, Chicago. Most shelves are a few blocks from where it was potted.
If you’ve killed a C, start here
A C wants a rhythm — a fern, a calathea, a fiddle leaf fig. Losing one says nothing about you. This one is a Grade B: it forgives two weeks away, or one persistent bad habit — not both.
The list for people who’ve killed a C. · How the grades work.
Something else? hello@pilf.me. Replies come from a person, usually the same day.