Question
I have a Hoya plant that is just a few years old and is doing great. It has at least 35 blooms on it right now. I read that the blooms are sweet smelling. My give off an unpleasant odor, I have it in a large family room in the basement, and the smell is very noticeable all over the room. Is this normal?  Thanks.

Answer
Dear June,

What a shame that the fragrance emanting from your plant is unpleasant - there are other people who have found the same but who have friends who smell the same plant and say the fragrance is beautiful, almost chocolatey.  The blooms should smell fragrant and sweet as you say. Do the members of your family also find the smell unpleasant?  Since YOU find it unpleasant,I would suggest you put it outside where there is bright light and a little sunshine but not midday summer sunshine.  Water liberally during the growing season and mist regularly but not when it is in bloom.  

Only repot when the plant is really pot bound before new buds appear in the spring and do not remove dead flowers.  Let them drop off naturally as new flowers will grow from the same stem i.e. do not cut off the bare stems where flowers have been.

The plant exudes a lot of nectar and so you might find birds, bees and butterflies are attracted to it when it is outdoors.

As an experiment why not go to your local plant store to see if they have other varieties of hoya so you could find out if they smell good or not.  There is a miniature - Hoya bella - which looks great in hanging baskets and there are others in the Carnosa family which have variegated leaves.

Funnily enough only yesterday I saw some really big hoya plants in my supermarket and they smelt delicious - I really wanted to buy one but they were too big for my apartment.  I should have accidentally-on- purpose knocked off a leaf as they can be propagated very easily!!

Perhaps - and I am only guessing - when your plant is outdoors it might smell sweeter - I hope so.

Good Luck

Diana