Seven years have passed and my hoya plant is finally blooming again. It’s only one cluster of fragrant waxy pink flowers but I’m always thrilled with any bloom that develops on this unique plant.
The hoya is a popular houseplant of Asian origin. My grandmother brought the ancestor of this one from the old country. The family called it “The Star of Bethlehem” (I believe its correct name is “Hoya”) and its pinkish blooms graced the parlor of her South Dakota farmhouse for many years. When she was widowed and moved to a house in town, the plant went with her.
It sat in her dining room where it fascinated my sister and me. The wonderful meals – heaping platters of hams and roasts, masses of apple and cherry pies – might have been the big allure of my grandmother’s house for my many aunts and uncles, but my sister and I were more interested in seeing if the plant was blooming. We weren’t disappointed. It often was.
When Granny passed, my two aunts took care of the house and the plant. Sometime in the late 1970s they granted my request for a cutting. By now, I had my own house and family and was happy to carry on this plant tradition. I hung my own “Star of Bethlehem” in a yellow macramé pot holder in a southern window where it thrived. In the summer, I moved it in the glassed-in porch. When my sister-in-law visited, she was interested and took a slip.
Unfortunately, between taking care of two little children, a large dog and one feisty cat, my “Star of Bethlehem” died. I might not have been as good a caretaker as Granny and my aunts, but I had a resource – my sister-in-law. “How’s your Star of Bethlehem doing?” I asked during a family get-together. Hers was thriving, and when she found out mine had perished, she was only too happy to give me a cutting.
This began an era of playing “back and forth” with the plant. The cutting she gave to me thrived but hers died. Fortunately, I was able to provide her with another cutting. Mine kicked the bucket, and she did the same for me. We traded plant cuttings as necessary for a number of years until currently, we now seem to be at a stage where each of our plants is established and happy.
It always pleases me to know that we are keeping alive the descendants of the plant my grandmother brought to this country over a hundred years ago.
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