Another great day in paradise! Things are growing like crazy... Flowers are opening and filling the air with an interesting aromatic mixture. Right now, nicholsonaie and fungii have open blooms, and the all-green shoots from 'KP' that I have in the GH has had an open bloom for several days.

H. pubicalyx 'Royal Hawaiin Purple' has had peduncles for awhile, and they're finally starting to bud up. And, oh, is it putting on some pretty new leaves! Take a look...

Beautiful! When they mature, they go back to plain green. I love that splotchy purple, even if it is just temporary... Some people have a clone of 'RHP' that gets the purple splotches that mature into silver - wish I could get my hands on on piece of it!

I took down H. pubicalyx 'Bright One' today to water and give it a bath with VH-11 and found that it has 5 new growth points and 2 peduncles forming. So that one should also bloom for me this summer. It has one vine that's about 6' long!! It's funny how 'RHP' and 'BO' aren't so much climbers like my 'Pink Silver.' You'd thing the pubicalyx genes would make them all grow about the same way... Both 'RHP' and 'BO' grow long vines that aren't interested in climbing at all, it would seem.
My 'Krimson Queen' seems to like it's "new" (since last fall) spot in a north window in the sunroom. It's putting on new growth in several places and looks fabulous. I've got it positioned under a trellis that I put in front of a window several years ago - at one time, had one of those monster split-leaf Philodendrons that grew on it. I think 'KQ' will do well there. I may never get flowers in a north window, but I don't really grow it for the flowers because they're just like all the other carnosa blooms, and I have plenty of them that bloom for me. This one I grow solely for the beautifully variegated foliage...

I split up my Oncidium today. I had no idea it had gotten so big - split it into 2 plants, and had a third small one. There's new growth on both. I'll give one back to Mom, who I originally got from her (offsets from hers, and she lost her original plant...) Maybe I can get it to bloom this year.

I also got three new Orchids at the Orchid show this last weekend. One is labeled Bulbophyllum mirum - it's mounted on a piece of wood. I added some
sphagnum moss to it because I read that it should be watered twice a day, and I'm hoping the sphagnum will help it retain water in case I don't think of it twice a day! It's a cute little thing. Another is labeled Tolumnia genting sunshine - it's a tiny little thing in a 1.5" pot with a flower spike (unopened flowers). It's another adorable one. The third is Maxillaria tenuifolia - it's such a cool plant! Perfectly round bulbs that are about the size of a puffed up quarter, with grassy leaves emerging out of the bulbs. The flowers come from down by the bulbs. I bought one that's not blooming, but the seller pointed out to me that it has buds. Can't wait! Will post pics as they bloom for me...

Well, off to start supper...

First, I have to say what an AMAZING day we had yesterday! I don't want to ever forget it, so I'm putting it down here for posterity! As I said in my last post, this Abraham philosophy WORKS like magic! So here's how our day went...

Mom and I have been working on this project all week to make a change behind the dance floor at work. I'd ordered these light balls to put over the dance floor and out on the patio, and when we got them up, the lighted wall behind the dance floor was just too much. Well, a few weeks ago, Mom had been at a restaurant in Griswold with her school buddies and see a long wall with mirrors (using mirror tiles) and candle sconces in between. When she described it to me, I thought it sounded like the perfect thing to do behind our dance floor. Now, the ones she'd seen were 24" x 24" frames with 4 of the mirror tiles in each, and ropes glued in a "t" shape to hide where the mirror edges came together. Well, I found the 24x24 frames are not standard, and we didn't want to spend the money for custom frames, so we waited for open-back frames to go on sale at Hobby Lobby and went and bought 5 24"x36" frames. The frames are black (Mom thinks they're dark, dark brown, but I think they're black...) I also bought some of that thick foam board onto which we glued 6 1'x1' mirror tiles. (We used that gorrilla glue...) We didn't want ot use rope to hide the edges, and our first attempt was to use little silver beads that come in strings. Didn't work - couldn't make them look straight enough. So we scrounged around and brain-stormed until we came across some wide black ribbon. We cut some lengths and looked at it and - WOW - it popped! So we glued the ribbon (using spray-on Elmer's glue) to the mirrors along the lines where the mirrors came together. Put the mirrors in the frames. Friday, we put up the first two mirrors (the other three were on back order to come in Friday, and we had our mirrors ready to pop into the frames as soon as we could get them...) We actually screwed the mirrors to the wall. So another challenge we ran into was how to hide the screws. I'd bought some wood plugs that I intended to paint black and use, but I found that if I counter-sunk the screws enough to use the plugs, there wasn't really enough wood left to safely hold the mirrors to the walls... So, some more brainstorming and we went to Michael's. We found these diamond-like jewels in the jewelry-making department that we glued over the screw holes. Pretty! And while we were at Michael's, we also found some really nice, wrought-iron wall pieces that hold candles. We got two different kinds, two round ones that hold 5 candles each, and two sets of scrolly ones that hold 3 candles each.

So, back to yesterday... We came in with the intention of getting it finished up, and I knew that one mother was coming in to book May 1st (of this year!!! definietly an Abraham moment!) for her daughter's wedding. Well, within an hour or so, we must have gotten at least 7 or 8 calls, and ended up with 3 other couples coming in to look for various dates. So we were hustling around, working on our wall, talking to brides, showing the place (which was a mess because of our project...) And in the process of all this, we booked two other jobs - both "look and books", which are kind of unusual. Just another thing that made the day so unusual! We actually booked the May 1st this year, which I knew was coming, then we booked May 1st of next year (how weird is THAT?) AND May 8th of next year! Odd, odd, ODD! And we managed to get our wall all done. I didn't get a pic (we'd been there a lot longer than we planned because of all this fabulous activity) but I'll insert a photo here when I get a pic tomorrow after we get it all cleaned up. By the end of the day, we both felt like a million bucks! The wall turned out even more beautiful than I could have imagined, and we booked 3 jobs, which I think has only happened a couple times before...

So on to plant stuff... TODAY in the greenhouse...

OMG, I found that my Hoya merredithii x crassicaulis has a bud forming! Now, this peduncle was on the cutting when I got it, but it looked like a very old peduncle and even looked like it would soon shed the old peduncle, so I never dreamed I'd actually get a bloom out of it. And so SOON! I just got this as a cutting from Ted Green last May!! It rooted nicely and put on a new shoot of new growth that resulted in about 9 new leaves, then stopped growing. Well, probably sometime in late Jan., I cut it back, trying to root the last set of two leaves, but I lost the cutting (drat!) But I always seem to find that cutting a plant back forces new growth. Well, I haven't seen any new growth from it yet, so finding the old peduncle budding really surprised me! Here's the original leaf that's very succulent and veined...

And here's the bud forming...

Yee-haw!! I can hardly believe a less than year old cutting is going to bloom! It's happened before, but not very often! I'm really anxious to see what it will look like. I'm going to completely ignore the fact that sometimes they abort the first flower. This one really looks promising...

And nicholsoniae's bud is coming along nicely. Here's what it looks like today...

I probably mentioned before that it bloomed for me just a few months after I got it and hasn't bloomed since. It's put on a lot of new growth, but until now, no signs of blooming after that first one. I'm very excited and hoping this means it will give me more blooms now! I climbed up to the top shelf and inspected it carefully for more peduncles and found one more with tiny buds forming (yay!) and two more peduncles, one that **may** be ready to bud, the other looks like an old one and inactive (but who knows??)

Also blooming (I should say "continuing to bloom" because it's been doing so for about a month) is one of my Thai Crown of Thorns. It's a beauty! Check out these blooms...I probably posted a photo of it in one of my last blogs, but notice these little center points, that look kinda like buds forming on top of the flowers. If I knew more of the scientific elements of flowers, I'd probably understand this phenomenon. They're certainly pretty, at any rate! But it's covered with them. Interestingly, there's a sideshoot at the bottom of the plant, and it has a flower head, too, but the flowers are small and more red, like the most common C of T. My largest (and oldest) C of T that I got from Botanic Treasures way back when is actually (finally) starting to bloom, too. But for some reason, this monsterous plant never blooms very much for me. The other I got from Bob Smoley, 'Bloody Mary', got so beat up by that big storm we had last June that I had to whack it back. I don't think it will ever look quite the same :-( But it may make a comeback this summer if I put it out on the porch. Most hard-pruned plants look great after they have some time to fill back out. We'll see...

My Hoya arnotiana is showing signs of new growth in 5 different places now. I think I'd better pot it up into a bigger pot this year. It's a very heavy plant and probably needs more room. I wish it would show signs of blooming.

I think, maybe, the mount I made for the flat-leaved Dischidias might actually be working. It's hard to say for sure until I see new growth, but some of the leaves seems to be flattending out against the mount. Maybe it will actually work! Of course, the real challenge is going to be if I can keep it moist enough this summer when it gets hot. I may have to bring it in the house. Guess we'll see...

And that's about all I'm going to write about today! It's been a great weekend. It's nice today (60-something) and sunny and I should be getting lots done, but I'm being a slug. Now I'm going down to the basement to watch some TV with Mark - maybe nap a little on the couch! Kitties are in the GH laying in the sunshine and Lucy is following me back and forth from the GH to the computer. She'll go downstairs with me, I'm sure...

Life is so damn good, I can't wrap my head around it!!! This Abraham shit really works... I've always been a pretty positive person (for the most part) and can always find the silver lining in the most bleak of circumstances (an annoying trait to some, I'm sure...), so it's not difficult for me. But what set me free was the idea that it's OK to be constantly positive. I've always been more of a "optimistic pessimist" - hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst so that I'm never disappointed. I had it all wrong!!! Hope is good... but EXPECT the best, and never, EVER think that the worst could possibly occur. I'll explain more later!

A little more on the state of my plants... H. cv. 'Jennifer' is putting on some new growth. This is one that doesn't really do much for me. I may trade it this year for something else. Maybe some more cuttings of retusa, a little weird un-Hoya-like Hoya. Another I plan to trade off is guppyii. It's starting to grow, but I found out it's a eriostemma, which I can't really grow well here. I got it from Ted, and I specifically told him that if any of my choices were eriostemmas to let me know so I could change it to something else. Thanks, Ted!


H. 'Iris Marie' has at least 13 new growth points! That's the most of any of the younger Hoyas I have. I wasn't really sure if I liked this Hoya, but it seems to be growing on me. It looks more like a fig tree gone weird than a Hoya. I've got it in the west window in the spare bedroom and it seems to like it there. Seems like it was getting some sunburning in the GH. In the west window, it's getting bright reflected light in the a.m. (off a close neighbor's house), then a couple hours of mid-day sun, but the burgandy blinds probably absorb a lot of the harsh rays.

H. compacta, which I've been growing in the bathroom, is finally putting on new growth all over the place. I grow it in the bathroom so that it won't be around any other plants. In the past when I grew it, it got mealies and it was utterly impossible to get rid of them in all those nooks and crannies. Well, I figure if I keep it away from ALL other plants, it has a better chance of never getting even one... So far so good!


"Moonstones" (Pachyphytum oviferum) is looking fabulous, and I even got some blooms from them this year. I just brought a potfull home from work and "beefed" it up with some from here, a few little Haworthias and a few stands of that rather annoying Plectranthus prostatus I grow. I think I'll take it back today and drop it off on my way to my C&S club meeting. I'll be doing that with all the pots in the next few weeks until they're all ready to go outside as soon as it warms up.


Adenium boehmianum is showing signs of leafing out. I'm hopeful that it will bloom this year. As it and obesum start to show signs of growing, I'm going to start watering the crap out of them. I almost got my obesum to flower last year. It set buds as it was getting rained on every couple of days. Then it dried out too much and dropped the buds. So I think that taught me that they need to be treated like a tropical when they're in growth mode.


Dischidiopsis parasitica - thought I might lose it a few months ago. I lost one of the plants in the pot - it just started rotting off. The other plant held on and now it has 6 new growth points! Yay! If it grows enough for me this year, I'll have to give some to BJ as she was really admiring it...

H. carnosa cv. 'Minibelle' is both growing and budding up. It's bloomed for me before and they're pretty much carnosa-type flowers. Quite pretty, a little darker pink, but a bit smaller. Last year, I think it was just one peduncle that bloomed a couple times. Looks like there are new ones this year, so I may get more than one bloom at a time.


H. subquintuplinervis (a mouthfull, to be sure!) looks like it has a growth bud. It's another Ted Green cuttings, one that I guessed at which way to root. It rooted right away, so I guessed right that time! A big-leaved one, so I'm anxious to have it grow...


H. finlaysonii, which I got as a cutting from Yale in the summer of '07, has been a VERY slow starter. It rooted for me that summer, but not even an iota of new growth. Last summer, I think it put on two new leaves. Then recently, I noticed it started to put out a little more growth. I sure with I knew the secret of success with this one! Maybe it'll show me what it wants this year!


H. inconspicua is another I got as a cutting from Ted Green last late spring. It's done great since it rooted, and now it's putting on more growth and (yippiee!) it's got a peduncle. I love this one - it looks very elegant. Here's a photo I took awhile back...



It's a beauty! I can't wait for it to be a big, sprawling plant! I think it definitely needs to be in a hanging pot at some point, but for right now, it looks great in one of BJ's funky pots. I also have davidcummingii in one of her pots. It's very similar to inconspicua, only a bit more delicate. Here's a photo...






Both are pretty plants, and I'm very happy I added them to my collection. Can't wait to get flowers on them!

'Krinkle 8' has new growth on the smaller plants I added to the pot last year. I think I may move it up to a bigger pot this year (maybe). I marked the end of the oldest growth, which is about 3' long, so I know when it starts growing again. I moved it from the top shelf to a second shelf where I let the 3' hang down along the shelf leg, and I clipped it to the leg. This way, I can see it all the time instead of having to climb on my ladder to look at it. It's a very pretty plant!

I have two Sanseverias that have flower spikes. S. 'J2922' is one, and I have a bloom photo on PT, so I know it's bloomed before. I've got it in the south window in the sunroom. Seems to like it, I guess!! The other is parva and it's in the GH on a bottom shelf. I repotted it last fall, so it must be happy in it's new pot. That big cylindrica I found at HD got a new leaf that must be nearly a yard long! I expect it will bloom soon.


Off to get ready for my club meeting!