Share the Love With an Adorable Heart Hoya Plant
Heart-shaped Hoya kerrii is easy to grow as a houseplant and makes a great gift for a friend, Mom or another loved one
Lauren Dunec Hoang
May 5, 2018
Houzz Editor; landscape designer and former garden editor for Sunset Magazine and in-house designer for Sunset's Editorial Test Garden. Her garden designs have been featured in the Sunset Western Garden Book of Landscaping, Sunset Western Garden Book of Easy-Care Plantings (cover), Inhabitat, and POPSUGAR.
Houzz Editor; landscape designer and former garden editor for Sunset Magazine and... More
With palm-size succulent leaves shaped like hearts, heart hoya (Hoya kerrii), also called sweetheart vine and sweetheart wax plant, has a fitting common name. A perfect gift for someone you love, heart hoya is often sold as a single, adorable heart-shaped leaf stuck into a small pot of soil. This cute little desk topper will stay small and appear to be unchanging for months or even years, but — if it’s happy — can eventually grow into a medium-size vine.
Native to the tropics of Southeast Asia, heart hoya thrives indoors, or it can be grown outside in warm, mild climates. If you can keep a succulent alive, you can grow a heart hoya. It’s generally care-free and needs water only about once every two weeks. It’ll let you know when it needs water by wrinkling its leaves.
Native to the tropics of Southeast Asia, heart hoya thrives indoors, or it can be grown outside in warm, mild climates. If you can keep a succulent alive, you can grow a heart hoya. It’s generally care-free and needs water only about once every two weeks. It’ll let you know when it needs water by wrinkling its leaves.
The Sill
Botanical name: Hoya kerrii (syn. Hoya obovata var. kerrii)
Common names: Heart hoya, sweetheart vine, sweetheart wax plant, lucky heart, Valentine hoya
Temperature requirement: Can be grown anywhere as a houseplant. Outside, grows best in regions with warm, mild climates with a minimum temperature of about 60 degrees Fahrenheit, or 15.6 degrees Celsius. Some sources say mature vines are hardy down to freezing temperatures.
Water requirement: Low to moderate (water only when dry); thrives in well-draining soil
Light requirement: Full sun to bright, indirect light; needs shelter from intense, baking sun
Mature size: Vines can grow to 12 feet tall or higher outdoors in tropical climates; they often stay much smaller when grown as potted houseplants.
Benefits and tolerances: Like other houseplants, heart hoya can improve air quality.
Seasonal interest: Evergreen; mature vines form clusters of small white flowers with maroon centers
Where to put it. Indoors, heart hoya plants thrive in full sun to bright, indirect light, such as in a spot by a sunny window with a gauzy curtain. They can tolerate lower indirect light, but small plants (the ones in their single-leaf-stuck-in-a-pot phase) will grow even more slowly.
Avoid setting small heart hoya plants or mature vines in intense, baking sunlight, such as at a south-facing window in a hot apartment, because it can cause the fleshy leaves to burn. In mild climates, you can also grow heart hoya outdoors in full to partially filtered sun.
Common names: Heart hoya, sweetheart vine, sweetheart wax plant, lucky heart, Valentine hoya
Temperature requirement: Can be grown anywhere as a houseplant. Outside, grows best in regions with warm, mild climates with a minimum temperature of about 60 degrees Fahrenheit, or 15.6 degrees Celsius. Some sources say mature vines are hardy down to freezing temperatures.
Water requirement: Low to moderate (water only when dry); thrives in well-draining soil
Light requirement: Full sun to bright, indirect light; needs shelter from intense, baking sun
Mature size: Vines can grow to 12 feet tall or higher outdoors in tropical climates; they often stay much smaller when grown as potted houseplants.
Benefits and tolerances: Like other houseplants, heart hoya can improve air quality.
Seasonal interest: Evergreen; mature vines form clusters of small white flowers with maroon centers
Where to put it. Indoors, heart hoya plants thrive in full sun to bright, indirect light, such as in a spot by a sunny window with a gauzy curtain. They can tolerate lower indirect light, but small plants (the ones in their single-leaf-stuck-in-a-pot phase) will grow even more slowly.
Avoid setting small heart hoya plants or mature vines in intense, baking sunlight, such as at a south-facing window in a hot apartment, because it can cause the fleshy leaves to burn. In mild climates, you can also grow heart hoya outdoors in full to partially filtered sun.
Photo by Julia Irinaga
How to use it. Small, single-leaf potted heart hoya plants look really cute as part of collections of low-water, bright-light-loving succulents. To really nail that plant “shelfie,” arrange a group of five or more small potted succulents — say, a few echeveria, a zebra plant, a trailing string of pearls succulent and a heart hoya or two — along a mantel or floating shelf.
Mature heart hoya plants grow into vines that retain the same heart-shaped leaves. Provide some trellising, like a trio of bamboo stakes sunk into the pot, to give the succulent vines something to twine around.
Outdoors in warm climates, heart hoya vines can reach over 12 feet tall and provide nice medium-green foliage over an arbor or up a wall trellis. In summer, mature vines form clusters of waxy white flowers with maroon centers.
How to use it. Small, single-leaf potted heart hoya plants look really cute as part of collections of low-water, bright-light-loving succulents. To really nail that plant “shelfie,” arrange a group of five or more small potted succulents — say, a few echeveria, a zebra plant, a trailing string of pearls succulent and a heart hoya or two — along a mantel or floating shelf.
Mature heart hoya plants grow into vines that retain the same heart-shaped leaves. Provide some trellising, like a trio of bamboo stakes sunk into the pot, to give the succulent vines something to twine around.
Outdoors in warm climates, heart hoya vines can reach over 12 feet tall and provide nice medium-green foliage over an arbor or up a wall trellis. In summer, mature vines form clusters of waxy white flowers with maroon centers.
Photo by Mokkie
Why we love it. Heart hoya is such a fun, quirky gift plant — perfect for a plant lover who would appreciate something other than a bouquet of flowers. If you or your gift recipient is already a heart hoya fan and collector, try the variegated form Hoya kerrii ‘Variegata’. It has the same heart-shaped leaves but is streaked or bordered in creamy white.
Why we love it. Heart hoya is such a fun, quirky gift plant — perfect for a plant lover who would appreciate something other than a bouquet of flowers. If you or your gift recipient is already a heart hoya fan and collector, try the variegated form Hoya kerrii ‘Variegata’. It has the same heart-shaped leaves but is streaked or bordered in creamy white.
Photo by Mokkie
The Sill
Care tips. Heart hoya thrives in quick-draining soil and with relatively little care. Plan to water your plants about once every two weeks, allowing the soil to completely dry between watering. In winter, the plants may be able to go even longer stretches without water. Similar to succulents, heart hoya has fleshy leaves that store water — an adaptation that allows it to handle periods of drought (or neglectful watering).
Small plants (heart-shaped leaves stuck into pots), as mentioned, grow very slowly. You can speed this process up a bit by mixing in a little water-soluble fertilizer each time you water in spring and summer. Mature hoya vines will also grow more quickly and produce more leaves if fertilized during the growing period. Plan to dust off the fleshy leaves of any heart hoyas grown indoors when you water.
Small plants (heart-shaped leaves stuck into pots), as mentioned, grow very slowly. You can speed this process up a bit by mixing in a little water-soluble fertilizer each time you water in spring and summer. Mature hoya vines will also grow more quickly and produce more leaves if fertilized during the growing period. Plan to dust off the fleshy leaves of any heart hoyas grown indoors when you water.
Photo by Tangopaso
How to propagate. A heart hoya as a cut leaf stuck in soil is, in fact, a newly propagated baby plant. While you can’t propagate more heart hoyas from a single leaf, you can easily make more plants from cuttings if you have a mature heart hoya vine with plenty of leaves to spare.
How to propagate. A heart hoya as a cut leaf stuck in soil is, in fact, a newly propagated baby plant. While you can’t propagate more heart hoyas from a single leaf, you can easily make more plants from cuttings if you have a mature heart hoya vine with plenty of leaves to spare.
- Using a sharp, clean knife, cut off a single leaf with a little bit of stem attached.
- Place the cut leaf in an area out of direct sunlight, and allow the raw edge to harden and form a callus — usually in a few days.
- Pot up the leaf cutting in a small container with a potting mix for fresh cactuses and succulents. Place the heart-shaped leaf vertically, stem side down, to avoid allowing water to sit on the surface of a leaf, which can cause rot.
- Water lightly about every week or two.
Photo by Julia Irinaga
Keep in mind that heart hoya cuttings take ages to show any changes. If a cut leaf turns yellow or shrivels after potting, the cutting has most likely failed to root. If the little heart-shaped leaf stays green and basically appears unchanging, it has rooted. After a year or more, it may start sending out new shoots and leaves and begin growing into a vine.
If you’re looking to grow a lush heart hoya vine, rather than a heart-shaped leaf in a pot, it’s best to start by buying a semimature plant that is already beginning to behave as a vine. As noted, you can wait around a long time for the little heart-shaped single-leaf cuties to do so.
Learn more about propagating succulents
Houzz readers: Tell us, have you grown heart hoya? Share your stories in the Comments below.
More
5 Tips to Keep Your Indoor Succulents Thriving
See indoor pots and planters
Keep in mind that heart hoya cuttings take ages to show any changes. If a cut leaf turns yellow or shrivels after potting, the cutting has most likely failed to root. If the little heart-shaped leaf stays green and basically appears unchanging, it has rooted. After a year or more, it may start sending out new shoots and leaves and begin growing into a vine.
If you’re looking to grow a lush heart hoya vine, rather than a heart-shaped leaf in a pot, it’s best to start by buying a semimature plant that is already beginning to behave as a vine. As noted, you can wait around a long time for the little heart-shaped single-leaf cuties to do so.
Learn more about propagating succulents
Houzz readers: Tell us, have you grown heart hoya? Share your stories in the Comments below.
More
5 Tips to Keep Your Indoor Succulents Thriving
See indoor pots and planters
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I got mine here because the pots are bigger and they have variegated as well as plain: https://9greenbox.com/search?type=product&q=hoya. Again, shipping is a bit expensive but they are shipping live plants so...
check your local greenhouse too, Hoya Kerri is one of the 4 most easily found alongside Carnosa, Compacta and tricolour Carnosa. there are over 300 variety of Hoya and each flower smells different.
Does anyone know the answer to this question?
I've heard and read that if you get just a single leaf Hoya plant, it doesn't produce anything other than roots, unless a piece of the Hoya vine is attached?
I'm curious because I have the si gle leaf heart plant and I'd love for it to eventually grow vines, but wondering if mine will eventually since it's only a leaf?