MUSINGS OF A LOCAL by Iris Mead - A LONG LIFE of a Plant

Specially-built trellis for the Hoya

Bloom cluster of the Hoya 

Many plants have a life span longer than the average person’s, usually, trees are in this category, but there is one Hoya Carnosa plant living in Margaretville that rivals the age of some of the trees living near it.  The “caretakers” of this plant, Jane and Steve Miller, estimate that it has to be nearly 100 years old or more.  Hoyas are very slow growers so in the over 70 years that Steve has had it, it has not grown significantly bigger.

As a young child living in Union Grove, NY, one of the four small villages that were taken by eminent domain by the City of New York for their water supply, Steve Miller saw this plant on display in the general store window and thought it unusual and interesting.  When the time came for that store to be demolished and burned, he asked his mother to rescue it, which she did.  It was moved to the Union Grove post office, located in the Miller home, which was the last building to be taken down in Union Grove. Agnes Miller had been the postmistress of Union Grove for 15+ years prior to the demise of the village.  The plant then “moved” to Margaretville to a new house being built by Ivan and Agnes Miller where a specially built trellis was included in the building plans for the plant.  There it has sat and bloomed for the past 70+ years.  Afraid to change its location after 70 years, it has been re-potted a few times but not fertilized as it continues to blossom year after year.

Hoyas are native to Australia and Asian countries and of the dogbane family. They were discovered by a Scottish botanist, Robert Brown in Australia in the early 1800’s. There are at least 29 main types of Hoyas.  Because these are tropical plants they like filtered light, humidity and adequate water. They can take seven years to reach maturity and to bloom.  They bloom usually in the spring and grow in ball-shaped clusters that can contain up to 40 individual flowers.  Since Hoyas have shiny waxy leave with sprinkles of white freckles on them, the clusters look like they are molded from wax.  They have a colored eye in the center of each bloom.  When blooming they have a sweet scent, or as Steve calls it “a sickening sweet scent.”  Eventually, the blooms dry up and die after dropping a type of sticky sap from the flowers so clean-up around the plant is required.

To provide clean drinking water for its citizens,  New York City took four Delaware County villages through eminent domain.  They were Shavertown, Arena, Pepacton (which the reservoir was named after) and Union Grove.  They each had their own post office.  The owner of the general store where Steve saw the plant was Ed Van Keuren, who vowed that he would never leave Union Grove as he was born and raised there.  Unfortunately, this turned out to be true as he died of a heart attack while his general store was being cleaned out prior to demolition, so his vow became true.

This Hoya Carnosa will continue to slowly climb the trellis and bloom for many more years.  The Millers have not yet made plans for the continuation of its life.