Plant care checked against published sources Plant profiles, care guides and free tools Pictures are AI illustrations
Weekly email
Home/Plants/Hoyas

Hoyas, species by species.

Hoyas are the collector's houseplant: pet-safe, decades-lived, and split into personalities - hearts, ropes, needles, coins, comets - that barely look related. Here are 14 species profiles with difficulty ratings. New to the genus? The wax plant primer covers the basics all of them share.

Hoyas

The collection 14

Hoya Kerrii (Sweetheart Hoya) Beginner

Kerrii (Sweetheart Hoya)

Hoya kerrii has thick, perfectly heart-shaped leaves, sold by the millions as single-leaf 'sweetheart' cuttings every February.
Hoya Compacta (Hindu Rope) Beginner

Compacta (Hindu Rope)

Hoya compacta is a carnosa mutation whose leaves twist and fold into dense cables that hang like green dreadlocks and bloom with the same pink porcelain stars.
Hoya Pubicalyx Beginner

Pubicalyx

Hoya pubicalyx is one of the faster-growing hoyas, flinging out silver-splashed leaves on questing vines and blooming in dark burgundy-to-black star clusters ('Royal Hawaiian Purple') that smell of cocoa at night.
Hoya Australis Beginner

Australis

Hoya australis is a glossy, round-leafed, sun-loving vine from Australia that grows with un-hoya-like enthusiasm and produces honey-scented white stars with red throats.
Hoya Bella Intermediate

Bella

Hoya bella is a dainty, arching miniature shrublet whose thin little leaves disappear each summer under dozens of jasmine-scented white-and-purple stars.
Hoya Linearis Advanced

Linearis

Hoya linearis looks like no other hoya - a waterfall of soft, needle-thin, fuzzy strands cascading a meter or more, closer to a green horsetail than a wax plant.
Hoya Obovata Beginner

Obovata

Hoya obovata is the coin-leaf hoya - big, round, thick pancakes of deep green freckled with silver, spaced sparsely on wiry vines like beads on a wire.
Hoya Curtisii Intermediate

Curtisii

Hoya curtisii has fingernail-sized leaves of grey-green mosaic on threadlike stems that creep over the pot rim and hang like a beaded veil.
Hoya Wayetii Beginner

Wayetii

Hoya wayetii is the pinstripe hoya - narrow keel-shaped leaves edged in dark maroon that intensifies to near-black in bright light, cascading in tidy ribbons and blooming with grape-scented magenta pom-poms.
Hoya Lacunosa Beginner

Lacunosa

Hoya lacunosa has modest dimpled little leaves and strongly scented flowers that smell of cinnamon and jasmine.
Hoya Macrophylla Intermediate

Macrophylla

Hoya macrophylla has huge, deeply veined, wax-stiff leaves like embossed leather, usually edged cream-pink in the popular variegated form.
Hoya Retusa Intermediate

Retusa

Hoya retusa is the grass hoya - flat, ribbon-thin leaves notched at the tip, tumbling from the pot like a head of green hair.
Hoya Serpens Advanced

Serpens

Hoya serpens has penny-round fuzzy leaves on creeping stems and, at maturity, oversized minty-green pom-poms with rose centers that look hand-felted.
Hoya Multiflora (Shooting Star) Intermediate

Multiflora (Shooting Star)

Hoya multiflora is an upright, shrubby hoya whose flowers don't form balls at all: they streak backward like tiny comets, in big sprays, nearly all year.

Hoya care in six rules

Bright light, always

Every hoya complaint - no growth, no flowers, pale leaves - starts with light. Bright indirect is the floor; most thick-leaved species enjoy gentle direct sun too.

Match water to leaf thickness

Thick coaster leaves (kerrii, obovata, compacta) = soak-and-dry every 2-3 weeks. Thin leaves (bella, linearis, multiflora) = steadier, lighter moisture. The leaf tells you its own schedule.

Airy, chunky roots or rot

Hoyas are epiphytes: bark + perlite + a little mix, snug pots, real drainage. Dense wet soil is the number-one hoya killer, ahead of everything else combined.

Know the Himalayan trio

Bella, linearis and serpens come from cool foothills - they want cooler nights, higher humidity and gentler light than the tropical succulents. Same genus, different contract.

Never cut the spurs

Hoyas rebloom from the same leafless flower spurs (peduncles) for years. Deadheading a hoya deletes next year's show - leave every spur alone.

Pet-safe genus

Hoyas are non-toxic to cats and dogs across the board - one of the safest flowering houseplant families. The milky sap can mildly irritate skin, so wash hands after pruning.

Like tough, sculptural plants?

Hoyas share a windowsill philosophy with the cacti & succulents collection - bright light, airy soil, restrained watering. And for trees in miniature, the bonsai catalog is the next rabbit hole.

Join and get our free plant toolkit.

Subscribe and put our printable watering calendar and care log to work today - then one plant or problem, explained in plain words, every week. Unsubscribe whenever; we won't chase you.



© 2026 Plantvale · Independent growing guides, written with AI and checked against published sources · How we use AI · Editorial policy · Affiliate disclosure · Privacy
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.