Wax plant
Hoya carnosa
- Wants
- Bright indirect
- Tolerates
- Bright direct down to medium
- Difficulty
- 2/5
- Pets
- Safe
Why it wants that
An epiphyte that climbs into the brighter part of a tree but stays under the leaf canopy, so it is adapted to strong diffuse light rather than to the unfiltered sun a canopy-top plant gets.
Too little light
Stops setting flower spurs and the internodes lengthen into bare, long-jointed runners with widely spaced leaves; NC State notes 'Most plants will not produce flowers until they are 2 or 3 years old', so absence of bloom in a dim spot shows up as a plant that...
Too much
Leaves bleach and thicken; the leaf drop NC State describes - 'Too wet or too dry soil can cause the leaves to drop' - arrives faster in a hot, bright window because the pot dries through before the next watering.