Golden Acre Home & Garden Centre's Plant Library

Other Names:  Valentine Hoya, Porcelain Flower, Wax Plant

Description:

A beautiful succulent vine that is primarily grown as a houseplant; perfectly formed heart shaped green leaves cascade from hanging baskets and containers; commonly available as a single leaf in a pot, best to have a rooted stem with two or more leaves

Features & Attributes

Sweetheart Plant features showy corymbs of lightly-scented shell pink star-shaped flowers with red eyes dangling from the stems in mid summer. Its attractive succulent heart-shaped leaves remain green in colour throughout the year.

This is an herbaceous houseplant with a spreading, ground-hugging habit of growth. This plant may benefit from an occasional pruning to look its best.

Planting & Growing

When grown indoors, Sweetheart Plant can be expected to grow to be about 10 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 24 inches. It grows at a medium rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for approximately 10 years. This houseplant will do well in a location that gets either direct or indirect sunlight, although it will usually require a more brightly-lit environment than what artificial indoor lighting alone can provide. It is very adaptable to both dry and moist soil, but will not tolerate any standing water. The surface of the soil shouldn't be allowed to dry out completely, and so you should expect to water this plant once and possibly even twice each week. Be aware that your particular watering schedule may vary depending on its location in the room, the pot size, plant size and other conditions; if in doubt, ask one of our experts in the store for advice. It will benefit from a regular feeding with a general-purpose fertilizer with every second or third watering. It is not particular as to soil pH, but grows best in rich soil. Contact the store for specific recommendations on pre-mixed potting soil for this plant.

There are many factors that will affect the ultimate height, spread and overall performance of a plant when grown indoors; among them, the size of the pot it's growing in, the amount of light it receives, watering frequency, the pruning regimen and repotting schedule. Use the information described here as a guideline only; individual performance can and will vary. Please contact the store to speak with one of our experts if you are interested in further details concerning recommendations on pot size, watering, pruning, repotting, etc.

-- THIS IS A HOUSEPLANT AND IS NOT MEANT TO SURVIVE THE WINTER OUTDOORS IN OUR CLIMATE --