Hoyas have been at the top of my list of favorite plants since 1977. Back then, I was in high school and dating a guy whose mother had a collection of really weird plants, which I later learned were succulents. One was Aloe vera (which I eventually learned was really Aloe vera chinensis..,) and I was fascinated at how it made baby plants all around the base. She collected another she called "Monkey Pod Plant," which turned out to be the common Mother of Thousands Kalanchoe. She also had a "Snake Plant," which is, of course, one of the tall varieties of Sanseveria. She gave me some of her offsets, which I grew on the windowsill in my bedroom. And then, on Valentine's Day that year, my boyfriend gave me a Hoya - the tag just said "Hoya", but I later learned it was a Hoya carnosa 'Krimson Queen', which is an old trade name for a variegated Hoya carnosa. Back then, the one with cream edges and green center was called 'Krimson Queen', and the one with the cream in the center was called 'Krimson Princess'. A lot of us old-timers, who've been collecting a long time, still use the old trade names. The name being used now for one is carnosa rubra variegata, and the other is carnosa tricolor.
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