Are There Non-Flowering Hoya Varieties?

Light

• Hoyas need high light conditions. If you want your plant to flower regularly, provide it with bright, indirect light indoors or full sunlight outside. Wax plants (hoya carnosa), which are hardy in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 10b through 11, will grow in both full sun and partial shade, but probably won’t bloom well in shaded conditions.

Pot Size

• While there is no specified age at which hoyas begin blooming, only mature plants will produce flowers. However, this may not be so much about the actual age of the plant as it is about the pot in which it is grown: when plants are distressed, they form flowers to ensure a period of reproduction in case they die. Therefore, allowing your hoya to get somewhat root-bound may help it bloom. If the plant looks unhappy, however, repot it. You can do this any time of year, but the best time is right as it comes out of dormancy in late winter or early spring.

Water

• Hoyas need consistently moist soil to flower well, but don’t like to sit in water. Provide good drainage by using a porous potting soil if growing indoors and planting in a quickly draining location outside. Water the plant liberally during active growth. Outside, soak the soil thoroughly, and inside, wait until water runs out of the bottom of the pot before you stop. During the winter, when the plant is dormant, water sparingly, waiting until it dries out before giving it more moisture.

Pruning Flower Spurs

• Hoya blossoms form on old flower spurs. Pruning off the flowers after they are spent removes the spurs on which the blooms form year after year. If you want to be sure you leave old spurs in place, then let flowers fall off naturally when they are done blooming. However, removing old spurs isn’t necessarily disastrous: it encourages the plant to branch and grow new shoots, many of which will contain new spurs. You may just wait a little longer than normal for the plant to bloom again.