Is it just me or has EA stopped selling as many Hoyas in the big box stores? I'm wondering if this is just a local occurrence? I was just viewing the frequency of posts here, which is not a lot, and also about the fact that I haven't been seeing as many Hoyas in the stores now and it makes me wonder if this could be contributing to the Hoya "craze" being over?

My obsession began when I pulled a three inch stem from a lacunosa at the Home Depot, back in 2001, to try to ID it. (Please understand I was young and didn't have the money to buy "test" plants back then. I would never do that now.) The shiny leaves were so pretty. I thought it might be a peperomia or a succulent of some kind.

Never figured it out (the internet was not as helpful back then) but decided to root it in water, then kept cutting and rooting stems until I had a full little pot of shiny green leaves. Brought it to work with me and continued growing it under fluorescent lights at work. A year later, as I was working I smelled something pretty and my nose lead me to the little pot and some dainty, fuzzy little flowers and it was love! I never expected it to bloom or I would have kept it at home, under the full spectrum of the sun but, if I had done that, I probably would have missed it blooming for a while longer.
So what does everyone think? Has EA stopped selling as many Hoyas? We used to see new hoya fans every day and now it doesn't seem that way. And how did your hoya hobby begin?

Edited to fix a mispelling.

No it isn't your imagination. Mine here used to sell all sorts of EA stuff. Now they seem to have eliminated some things and started producing others. And things seem cyclical. Early early this spring, they had little starts of every commonly grown calathea available (Dottie, roseopicta, orbifolia, rattlesnake, just a bunch) then those disappeared and they started with the Epipremnums (Jade, Marble Queen, Neon, Jade and Pearls) then these were gone and the started with other stuff. But I think I have only seen maybe 5 hoyas, all of course common types, this entire season

The Exotic Angel (EA) brand of plants used to come from Hermann Englemann Greenhouses in Apopka, Florida but the owner passed away in 2013 and the the EA line of plants was sold to Costa Farms (Miami) in 2014. I've noticed a huge difference in EA plant selections since Costa took over and very few Hoyas but I don't know why they would stop growing Hoyas.

Honestly, I was hoping it was just near me and that I was wrong.

For the past few years, I almost only ever find H. carnosa sold by them and nothing else and it's rare even to find the carnosas these days. In the old days you would find H. lacunosa and it's variants (snow caps, ruby sue) in almost every store you entered.

Today I did find two baskets of H. wayettii at Lowes. I was shocked. I feel like the gilded age of Hoyas is waning. Sort of makes me sad. And I agree, I can't understand why they would stop.

I don't either. We have one very good local independent nursery here who used to have a ton of unusual hoya. They bought them from a home hobbyist who raised them. I was also a home gardner who raised gingers and ornamental bananas for them. They always had named plumeria cuttings, and often more unusual anthuria and philodendron. They had several 'specialty' people like us who were propagating plants for them, selling them to them at a wholesale price, then they would sell them retail. We were all licensed inspected growers.
I stopped years ago, and now they have no Hoya person, lost their orchid guy, lost their tacca lady, they still have a ginger person but its mainly just the same old butterfly gingers nothing unusual. They do have someone who is propagating different colocasias, sometimes you can find something neat but not all the time. And they still have an aquatic person who does tropical water lilies. Otherwise everything is from a national distributor.
The best hoyas I ever got were from way back in the payback on the old GardenWeb trading forums. At one time I had Archboldiana, a couple different Imperialis, darwinii, several unusual ones. The USF Botanical Garden sales down in Tampa were also a huge source of unusual hoya. But I have not been down there is years. May try to go next time.

I sometimes wonder if the wholesale nurseries think that interest in particular types of plants goes in cycles ... Hoyas being popular for awhile, Begonias for a time, Ficus Philodendron, Ferns, etc.

Who knows ... maybe in another year or two Hoyas will be in abundance once again.

Well, we were having a similar discussion on a ginger forum I am a member of. Do you happen to remember 10 or a few more years ago when Zinger malaysianum "Midnight' (the so-called Black Ginger) and its cousin ZIngiber nivieum 'Milky Way' were popular? Then 'poof'! both pretty much disappeared from the market? You can still find Midnight sometimes but Milky Way is certifiably rare. Its because they stopped tissue culturing them both. They are 'no longer in production' and may not ever be again. I had both, lost both. Will probably never have either ever again. Maybe the same for hoyas

Then maybe our "job" is to keep up the enthusiasm for hoyas. To that end I'm posting some more new babies. 😉

H
Incrassata





H. Pazaei





And since I'm editing...
H. Rotundiflora

I know its my job to post on the Philodendron forum as the ONLY poster.
I have been trying to wait until I have some Hoya blooms to show off but so far none of mine are cooperating

My Lacunosa is a trooper. It's been blooming off and on all summer. 99% of the my others are barely rooted cuttings so I won't have any other blooms untilnext year.

Hi from another Hoya fan,

I just acquired five new (to me) Hoyas. They are:

Hoya carnosa 'Krimson Princess'
Hoya paziae
Hoya AUSTRALIS Subsp. TENUIPES
Hoya curtisii
Hoya tsangii

Plants are small and when they get some size to them, I'll try to post some pictures.

Sounds like you are becoming a Hoya lover for sure! Here are our database entries for your new babies, you should add some photos!

Krimson Princess Hoya (Hoya carnosa 'Rubra')
Wax Plant (Hoya paziae)
Wax Plant (Hoya australis subsp. tenuipes)
Wax Plant (Hoya curtisii)
Wax Plant (Hoya tsangii)

I'm a new Hoya fan! EA definitely kickstarted my obsession about 9 months ago, but I've since had to branch out because I'm seeing the same hoyas at Lowe's, Meijer, and Walmart here in Ohio. My sister is also a huge Hoya lover and I was shocked after a recent visit with her in Indiana to find not a single Hoya in three Lowe's. Luckily, the reliable local greenhouses had us covered, but the plants are much smaller and not as established

Eight or ten years ago the Walmart Garden Centers, Home Depot and Lowes all carried lots of EA Hoyas like varieties of H. carnosa, H. lacunosa, H. DS70, H. linearis, H. curtisii but nowadays I might every once in a great while see a Hoya carnosa for sale but no others. I noticed that after Hermann Englemann Greenhouses sold the Exotic Angel brand to Costa Farms, there suddenly weren't many Hoyas on the market anymore. I'm not sure why they decided to stop growing them.

Hoya linearis has seemingly become so rare I have not seen any for sale anywhere in a long time.

Gina1960 said:Hoya linearis has seemingly become so rare I have not seen any for sale anywhere in a long time.

I asked the owner of a small greenhouse down the street and she told me she just took some linearis cuttings and in 3-4 months she expects to sell 4 inch pots, but due to the scarcity she said she'll be selling for $28! I'll still probably buy one as it's on my wishlist.

plantladylin said:Eight or ten years ago the Walmart Garden Centers, Home Depot and Lowes all carried lots of EA Hoyas like varieties of H. carnosa, H. lacunosa, H. DS70, H. linearis, H. curtisii but nowadays I might every once in a great while see a Hoya carnosa for sale but no others. I noticed that after Hermann Englemann Greenhouses sold the Exotic Angel brand to Costa Farms, there suddenly weren't many Hoyas on the market anymore. I'm not sure why they decided to stop growing them.

I got H. Carnosa at Lowe's




H. Lacunosa "snow caps" at meijer (I don't think I have a photo of that one)
DS 70 at meijer (in window behind the philodendron)



H. Curtisii at Lowe's (this is actually a second one I bought for my sister, both will be projects...yellowing leaves, appear to have been drenched...ANY advice on curtisii appreciated!!)



And finally, this one labeled "Chelsea" at Lowe's last week. Any help with further ID/name would be so great because I just don't know where to put it.





I hope I loaded those pictures in correctly, I'm totally clueless on how to do it!

I was really hoping to find an EA "rope" and linearis, but no luck so far.

Hi Adrienne,

You have some beautiful, healthy looking Hoyas! Your carnosa, with the creamy white center and green margins looks to be Krimson Princess Hoya (Hoya carnosa 'Rubra')

You will love the fragrance of the blooms of Wax Plant (Hoya lacunosa 'Sno Caps') Hoya lacunosa's all have a very pleasant, sweet fragrance!

I had Wax Plant (Hoya 'DS-70') years ago but haven't seen it for sale around here in awhile.

I couldn't keep Wax Plant (Hoya curtisii) alive for very long. My plant stayed outside and if I'm remembering correctly, someone told me that it preferred cooler conditions than what I was giving it.

I had a couple of Wax Plant (Hoya carnosa 'Chelsea') plants years ago too; never got them to bloom and gave them away when I downsized before we moved.

I have a small linnearis only through the generosity of a fellow forum member who sent it to me. @plantladylin, I am surprised you cannot grow curtisii! Its like a wild weed in my greenhouse. I put some in Houseplant Habitat 75gal and its growing well in there too. I just stuffed the cuttings down into the orchid bark. I have seen curtisii growing mounted before.
There are some hoyas I would love to collect that I have seen online but they are extravagantly expensive. I think they are new, many have splashed and variegated leaves. I am going to take a new photo of my Hoya kanyakumeriana. It has made such huge strides this summer, it is actually growing now before it was just kinda sitting there.

I have seen no hoyas in any Lowe's, Home Depot, or anywhere else in a couple of months. I've been satisfying my obsession online. Even got brave enough to order from Thailand again only I used express mail this time. Regular international mail is too stressful.