We received several questions concerning the scents or fragrance of hoya plant flowers. Hoya plants produce a very wide variety of fragrances. The hoya plants flower scent strength varies depending upon your growing environment and other factors.
Collectors use terms such as chocolate, citrus, vanilla, orange, lemon and other terms to describe the scents of the wax plants. Hoya Publicayx red button has been described with a strong lemony citrus with a hint of vanilla fragrance. However, smell is a personal thing and your growing environment is a factor.
Growing Environment
The scene of the hoyas varies depending upon your growing area. Epic Grower LLC, located in NE Georgia has hot humid summers and cool/cold winters so the fragrance is never strong due to too much moisture in the air. Its like a fir Christmas tree: when its cold and dry you smell it more than when its warm and humid.
Our publicalyx parent plants (the ones we use to propagate new plants) had tons of flower clusters earlier this year. However, due to our very humid warm to hot climate we do not notice the hoya plants fragrance as much as somebody would in the northern areas that are either cooler or less humid. Yes, if we put our nose close to the flower we do smell a fragrance.
Nutrients Fragrance Factor
The other factor in the scent of a hoya plant beyond the growing environment is the nutrients in your soil. What nutrients are in the soil can cause some changes in the scent produced. If you have too much phosphate, iron, nitrogen and other nutrients the plant needs to grow then the scent may get strong or lighter. I’m not an expert on nutrients and smell of plants but there are many articles on how a sent of a flower or plant changes depending what nutrients you feed it.
Do you grow wax plants – hoyas? Do you notice any scent whether strong or slight? What is your growing environment for the hoya plant? What variety of wax plants are you growing? Please post a comment about hoya plant scent here. It simple to write a comment and it will help others.
Hi
I have hoya carnosa
Now it’s midnight here and my bedroom is full of fragrence!
It looks like it starting to spray perfume after midnight till sunrise!
And i love the smell
Here is warm but not humid.
I have Hoya Carnosa too and notice that the scent is stronger in the evening! It’s a beautiful scent!
Don’t know the variety but we had a hoya growing indoors in Hobart Tasmania, it had a beautiful almost too powerful scent. The same plant (we’ll a cutting off it) is now growing outdoors in full sunlight at Port Macquarie New South Wales (sub tropical). It is flowering prolifically, the foliage looks lush and healthy, but absolutely no scent.
I have three hoyas. I don’t know the varieties. One is 44 years old. The others are 37 and 28–propagated from the first. The scents have always been very sweet. Almost overpowering. This year there is very little smell. I have not changed anything in their day-to-day care so the lack of aroma is a bit perplexing.
Hoyas do not have strong aromas. If your weather is warmer than usual then the smell will not travel well. They seem to have better aromas in cooler weather. Also, nutrients (lack of) in the soil can cause aroma changes.
As far as loving the smell of the hosta. I found it smelled like strong puppy pee and incact looked over the whole house last night to see if our little toy daschunds hadn’t used a mat but low and behold the hosta is in bloom. I cut off 20 of them today and tonight I will sleep again
I wrote hosta but meant HOYA Sorry
We thought we smelled cat pee!!! It took a week until we figured out it is our hoya plant! Lol! It’s blooming… and the scent is only noticeable after dark… it’s strong and is definitely not “flowery”!!
Likewise! I have two hoya carnosa and they both smell pretty funky (like a stinky pet bum!), and always at night. I would love to figure out how to change the scent because I LOVE the look of the flowers. It’s a complicated relationship 😉
Well I live in Scotland – East Coast and this year we have had very hot dry weather, followed by haar (sea mists) cool and wet. My hoya is flowering profusely…but no scent! So it must also be something to do with ambient temperature. Lots of little droplets of nectar on the “flowers” but no scent/smell! Last year it had a lovely perfume. How wonderful plants are!! Trying cuttings this year as it is now getting a bit ‘too big for its boots’! Needs disciplining.
I live in Uk and my hoya carnosa has been in the conservatory where very warm
Had it for 3 years – grew it since a baby
Flowers this year, but no scent at all
I changed the soil about a year ago and is exactly how it should be… don’t remember exactly… part orchid soil, part cactus soil…
Anyway… I wish I could know what to change/improve in order to have a scented hoya…
Nutrients in the soil play a big part in hoya scent. Also, if its too warm/humid it could inhibit the scent.
I don’t know what my hoya plant is but it has a very pungent skunk-like odor. It’s 20+ years old and blossoms twice between May and Aug. I live in northern NY. The smell is so pungent that I can notice it when I come into the house after being away all day. The plant is doing well unfortunately in my bedroom window. When it blossoms, I usually need to sleep in another bedroom. There is no other window large enough in the house where I can move the plant. Beautiful blossoms, but a very rancid smell. I will check into the soil.
In Hawaii our Hoya is very fragrant at night….is there a reason for the stronger aroma at night?
The plant is huge and gorgeous…started with a cutting from my grandmother’s plant…now 100 years old!
The plant also thrives in our bedroom…we carefully move it to another location when the fragrance is overwhelming.
Amazing!
My Hoya isn’t blooming, yet I believe I’m smelling a very subtle, sweet fragrance off of the plant. Does anybody else experience this?
Hoya fragrance is from the blooms so I’m not sure what you are experiencing.
My Hoya carnosa cutting is4 years old, its parent was over 40 when we took the cutting. It smells of caramel/chocolate Yummy!
I have a hoya carnosa. I live in Eastern Canada, zone 5. My plant is in bloom right now, but has no scent whatsoever. It belonged to my mother, so not sure how old it is, but I brought it back from near death after it had spent 5 months of the winter with no water. Just wondering what I should feed it, as all I have ever done is water it.
Hi: We move the hoyas sales and support to Georgia Epic Grower LLC. Their blog is http://www.epicgrower.com/blog. Epic Grower LLC grows the hoyas and has the hoya experts. Please go to their blog for questions/answer on hoyas. Thank you
My mother game me a Hoya (don’t know the variety) over 30 years ago. We live in Ontario Canada. It has bloomed off and on over the years but a couple of years ago, I moved it to a northwest facing window. Last year it started blooming profusely and the odour (only smell it at night) is fantastic. I love it. I kid that my mother who has passed was trying to cheer me during Covid. I love the smell. I wish they made a perfume like it.
Hoya are great plants with many different fragrances. Late afternoon filter sun works great with hoya plants.