In order to explain how important my suffering plant is to me I need to tell a little story about it.

I am the youngest of five children. At a time when we were very poor my mother and sister were walking through a local Kroger in Ohio. My mother looked at a Hoya Pubicalyx, plant (which she called a wax plant) and commented on its beauty.The plant was not even in bloom but she found the plant itself beautiful.

My oldest sister, who is the most honest and sweetest woman that you would ever meet, pinched a piece off of the plant and put it in her pocket. I don't know if it was just a leaf or maybe several. She didn't tell my mother she did this, my mother would have stopped her. My sister told my mother about it when she got home. My mother, I am sure gave her a little resistance about it, but my sister is so loving that my mother loved the little plant.

She placed it in water and soon it took root. She eventually potted the plant and it was placed in a hanging pot in front of a east facing window where it got morning sun but not the heat of the day sun. Eventually, to their surprise, the plant bloomed. It was so beautiful and the fragrance was intoxicating. The smell of this plant takes me back to my childhood like the smell of honeysuckle. My mother prized this plant.

The fragrance is at its peak in the early evening. I remember coming in on several occasions and by the smell alone asked my mom when the plant bloomed. The first couple of times she doubted but we would go look and find the new blooms.

She gave starts of the plants to my sisters and when I returned from the army and got my own place she gave me a start. Mine was the first to bloom. It filled my house with its beautiful fragrance. I eventually moved from Ohio, where I grew up, to Alabama. I had the plant in a huge window facing east and it went crazy filling the window and attaching to the chandelier I had to trim it often, it was thriving so much. It would have dozens of blooms and it would bloom from February until December.

I eventually left that house it did not thrive so much. My mother passed about 10 years ago her name was Wilma and I call my plant the Wilma plant. I moved back to Ohio about a year and half ago.

I went through some personal problems which caused me to travel to California for months at a time as a travel nurse.

I eventually returned the last time and found my plant unattended and dead. I focused on trying to revive the plant itself to no avail. Last December as I was moving here to California I picked up three little leaves from the plant. I placed them in water and carried them here to California in my vehicle. I carried the leaves into the hotels I stayed at like prize possessions. When I got here to California I put the small cup in the window and low and behold they began to form roots. I was so happy!

Eventually they had what I believed to be a sustainable root base and I potted the plants. Remembering how they had thrived in the little cup, and wanting to save them so much, I overwatered them and lost one of my prized leaves. I read up on the care of my darling Hoya and learned my mistake.

I waited and waited the little leaves just remained little leaves. I repotted them they had adequate root bases but I added a little fertilizer spike to encourage them. One of my leaves turned yellow within about 24 hours. I feared the fertilizer was too much. So I pulled them from the pot and repotted them without fertilizer. The second of three of my darling leaved died.

Now I have one little leave. I believe it has a good root base. It has been about a month and nothing is happening. It is potted it in African violet soil. I water it once a week allowing the soil to become dry before I water. I am using bottled water for fear the chlorinated water might harm my little darling.

I know I can get starts from my sisters - they have only on rare occasion had blooms. I know I can order starts from places on line. But this darling little leaf means a whole lot to me. It is my last hope to revive the Wilma plant. It may be getting a little too much mid-day sun. I know my little leaf had a bad start. I know that ideally the start would have been larger. Please understand I can not do anything to harm this little leaf it is my last one.