I've been growing Hoya fungii for a few years - I got my plant from Shoal Creek Succulents in the fall of '05. It was a well-rooted cutting, more or less, and it has grown like a weed ever since. I like the weird way it grows - it will have vines like the carnosa and pubicalyx species, but then it will get one of these clusters of leaves like in the photo above. The leaves are large and the veins are distinct because of the texture. And it's an easy flowerer. The flower photo above was an especially impressive one, with over 75 individual flowers in the cluster! That's the most flowers I've ever seen in one cluster on a Hoya. The flowers are very much like carnosa, but a little more fragrant. I should probably move it up to a bigger pot this next spring, but that's going to be a real challenge! It's gotten so large!!

My Dischidia ovata is flowering again. It's such a quaint little flower. The clusters, like this one, open with more buds behind them. They hide in the foliage, so if you're not watching for them (or checking constantly), you might potentially miss the flowering phase completely!

D. ovata is probably my favorie Dischidia for it's stunning foliage. I have a couple different clones. My first I got from Yale, and it's leaves are smaller and more succulent. The other I got from CBFM and it was a good sized plant, it's leaves larger and less succuelent. The one that has flowered for me is the one from CBFM. Both have those beautiful "watermellon" markings and are irresistable!

Hoyas that are showing signs of growth (that don't always do so) include... latifolia; aldrichii (not so much "growth" as looking-good-older-foliage!); inconspicua and davidcummingii (both of which were cuttings last summer...); purpuero-fusca (which arrived a little "iffy" but has since put on a new leaf, with the old ones looking healthier...); vanuatuensis (growing in my bedroom, has put on lots of new growth, despite winter's grayness...); speckled lacunosa has grown a bit. There's plenty to enjoy even this time of year. As the days put on even just a few more minutes of daylight, I see new growth...

I got a new computer from Dell last week. It's been so stressful, trying to get all the stuff off the old computer onto the new, and figuring out the new "glitches" involved with new/updated programs. And it's doubley tough, because I took my old computer to work and am dealing with the same problems there as here. But once I've gotten past all the problems, I'm sure it will have been well worth it. Though I must say - it may be a bit like childbirth: if you could remember the horror of it all, you would never do it again!!

Off to bed!

2008 turned out to be a good year for my plants. Didn't lose too many, nearly all of them put on a LOT of new growth, and I got flowers where I hadn't before. I was reading through my Feb. post and wanted to make some notes about the plants mentioned...

I had two peduncles form and flower in the early spring on my Hoya australis ssp. tenuipes. The flowers were stunning! See for yourself in the photo below.

The flowers are pure white, the petals form a perfect star (most Hoya flowers are more rounded-edged stars...), and there is a splash of deep red behind the middle star, which is also perfectly white. It grew like gangbusters all summer long. I kept having to whack it at the top of the trellis. I've got two new potfulls started and ready to sell this next spring. By the time fall got here, it was covered with new peduncles. Interestingly enough, peduncles seem to form on older vines as well as newer ones. It seemed like they were never going to bud up, but then about the first of Oct., I started to see the characteristic "fuzzy" look that signals the budding process. By late Oct., I had flowers opening. They're so fragrant at night, I could smell them from the basement! And I think they initiated some allergies for me, because I spent most of the fall on benedryl trying to keep my sinuses in check. But the beautiful and fragrant display was well worth it! My last flowers dropped around the first of Dec. - I'm very impressed with the longevity of the flowers on this species....

But still no hint of flowers on the australis ssp. sana. It grows like a weed and is huge, so I have to believe it's just a matter of time...

I also mentioned my Dischidia ovata in the Feb. post. It's budding up again right now, and the flowers are really cute. It's continued to grow and looks fabulous. The big one is the one I got from Cowboyflowerman (who I refer to in shorthand as "CBFM"...) and was a nice-sized plant to start. My older one I got from Yale as a cutting and I was having trouble getting it going, which is why I bought the CBFM ovata. I almost completely lost the one from Yale, but this year it started to grow and has done well. But I notice that the leaves on the one from Yale are smaller and a little more succulent than the one from CBFM. I suppose they're simply two different clones. I started one in a little birdcage-style planter and look forward to it covering the bars with foliage this next year...

Dr. Livshultz, the lady at UNO who is an expert in Dischidias, decided to go back to the east coast. Tom (from my C&S club, who is the GH manager at UNO) called me to see if I wanted some cuttings from her collection, which she left behind! Dumb question! So BJ (also from my C&S club) and I went to the GH in mid or late Oct. and got bags full of cuttings. Unfortunately, fall is not the ideal time to start cuttings, but some took for me. I'm hoping I can get back over there sometime and get some more. BJ and I have told Tom we'd be happy to help him "clean up" the collection in exchange for some more cuttings. Hope he takes us up on that offer...

But here are the ones that I got... This is one that is actually a full plant, not just a cutting. I got hold of Tanya's new e-mail and she confirmed the IDs, so this one is D. acuminata, the fasciated form... The leaves seems almost fuzzy. Tom seemed positive it was a Hoya, and from looking at it, I would have thought so too, but Tanya says it's a Dischidia. I'm anxious to get flowers on it... I also ended up with some more cuttings of acutifolia, which is a cutting I got from Yale that has done very well for me. D. griffithii is an interesting one that I hope will do well for me. The leaves are kind of heart shaped... I'll have to post photos of all the new ones later on when I sort through and get good photos.

I got a pretty little flower on what I thought was D. geri, but someone said geri flowers were all white...

It could be the one I got from the lady in Florida that Tanya says is oiantha Schltr. - it looks a LOT like geri, but maybe it's those flowers that make it a different clone or from a different region...

And I want to post one last Dischidia photo in this "session" - I'd love to post more, but when I put a photo in, it puts it at the top and I have to move it down, which then screws up the blog and I have to go back and fix it. It's a real pain in the butt!! I should try to figure out why it does that... But anyway, this last photo is of my D. oiantha variegata that I got as a cutting from Yale in the spring of '05. It rooted and did ok in '06, but then was a little lethargic in '07. This last year, it took off and looks fantastic. I'm starting to think it might be almost as good a grower as the plain form of oiantha. But what is fascinating is I got a couple shoots of almost pure white growth. Take a look...

So that's about it for now. In my next post, I'll detail all the new Hoyas I acquired this year. I got a little carried away, but I managed to add a lot of really neat new ones to my collection.

Later!

I know...it's been quite some time since my last post. Life - it DOES tend to get busy-busy. But I just had to post today.




It's been such a bitterly cold December. I mean - WOW! - today, the high was predicted to be zero, wind chills in the -20 to -30 degree range. Horrible... When I let Lucy out, within a few moments, she's acting like her feet are almost completely numb, and I have to encourage her, enthusiastically, to come up the deck stairs to come in. Scares me a bit... I haven't even been out of the house (except to scoop snow...) for 3-1/2 days.




Today (it's a Sunday), Mark decided it's time to start Xmas shopping, so he went out a couple times (crazy c---sucker!) One of those times, I was down in my walk-in closet, finding a couple presents I need to wrap for him, and decided to bring up the little jewelry tree that his Mom, Thelma, gave us several years back. I love this little tree... It's constructed on one of those stryofoam bases (tree shaped) you can get at a hobby store, with old jewelry glued to it. When I first saw it, I thought "This is a little gawdy..." But as I looked at it, I really quite came to adore it. I thought, "These are pieces of jewelry that a woman - whose son I've fallen completely in love with - collected over many, many years..." And as I got it out each year at Christmastime, I would look at it closely and find new beloved pieces. Just look at some of the beauty of this little tree... Here is the whole tree, a foot or so tall...






There are so many interesting pieces on this little tree. I swear, every time I look at it, I see something new. On one side is a photo of my husband as a pre-teen in a teeny-tiny photo frame...

Mark is the one in the more upper-left of the photo. Thelma, his Mom, and a brother (who died) they adopted before Mark is in the double frame... Look at all the very pretty stuff that makes this tree so very opulent... and personal...

Anyway, so today I was in my walk-in closet and found the little tree I usually get out at Chritmastime, and thought, "Oh, it's time to get this out!" Brought it up and put it on the dining room table. As Mark and I were having dinner, I realized (both vocally and mentally at the same time...) that it was exactly 10 years ago today that his mom passed... It absolutely caught me off-guard. 10 years!!! I can not hardly believe it's been that long. Yet, at the same time, it seems like a lifetime sine I sat with my mom-in-law...Time is such a wierd thing...

So I guess I just wanted to post a blog on this date, the ten-year-anniversary of Thelma's crossing into the loving arms of Jesus, into the afterlife which has surely invigorated her into health again, into the knowledge of "source." I look forward to our seeing each other again, and thanking her for her son who I adore. I know Mark feels the same way, though he's guardedly cautious in showing his emotions... Say "hello" to his dad, if you will. So, Thelma, we love you, miss you, and hope you are watching over us. On this 10th anniversary, Thelma, would you mind sending me some more wheat pennies? I SO very appreciated them and would LOVE to see some more - a sign I recognize of your presence...

With love and appreciation... your adoring DIL... Denise