The point of this post is going to be to document the progress of the David Liddle cuttings I got back in June. First, the cuttings arrived on June 25th (I remember that because it was the day before I had to take all those plants out to Mulhall's for the show!) They were all somewhat dehydreated, and some were very, very dehydrated. I knew the moment I saw it that dennisii would not make it, but I soaked them all overnight in a big bowl of water with some SuperThrive in it. The next morning, I potted them up, with my regular mix, then I put a wad of wet sphagnam on top of the soil, to kind of help keep the soil from drying out too fast. I set most of them on the back porch, in the shade, and watered them whenever they showed even a little bit of dryness. Hellwigiana looked pretty rough, too, so I had my doubts it would make it. A couple others were very questionable, but I thought there was a chance they might make it and I wasn't going to give up until there was no doubt whatsoever that they were dead. (I've had some come back from looking nearly dead!) I have to admit that, at this point, I was thinking this would be the one and only time I would participate in the Liddle order, because having spent that much money on cuttings that arrived in such tough shape, I felt my money would be better spent collecting less hard to find, rooted plants.

So, here we are, right at 7 weeks later, and here's the skinny on the cuttings:

H. dennisii - as suspected, DEAD! Pffft! I'd say, in fact, it was D.O.A. It completely dried out into a crispy, papery cutting, as if it had been preserved in a book!

I'll say here that these photos aren't exactly great. I took them early this morning, when the sun was "dappling" through the GH, so that's why they're - well, "dapply" looking! ;-)

H. samoensis (left) rooted fairly quickly, but seems a little anemic. Once I'm sure it has a solid root system, I'll have to give it a boost of a high nitrogen fertilizer to see if I can't get it a little more green. Best part, though, is that it has a little sprout of new growth on it! YAY!

H. naumanii - I think this was the first one to root. Here it is (below right) - a nice-sized cutting. I seem to recall it was also the least dehydrated. I rooted the whole cutting, and figure perhaps next spring, when all those rooting and growth hormones are raging, I'll cut it and start a new one. But for now, I want to let it get settled in before winter gets here...No signs of new growth, but seems nice and firm and well rooted, so I think I'll probably see some new growth before it goes dormant or semi-dormant this fall.

I spent $16.50 only on two cuttings, and they both made it - whew! I was reluctant to buy any more of the "high-end" cuttings because I had no previous experience with getting them all the way from Australia.

H. megalaster (left) looked like it was a goner. In fact, you can still see the one leaf (and there's another out of the photo) that looks like it won't make it. This one was broken, so I made it into two pieces. The one piece with the one nice green leaf has definitely rooted. The other resistes when I tug, and the stem still feels ok, but the leaves are really crappy, so it's a "wait and see" thing with that second piece. I feel a little bad spending $16.50 for a one leaf cutting, but if it grows for me, I suppose it will have been worth it. And who knows - maybe that second one will be ok and produce new leaves. I've had it happen before, so I don't give up on a cutting until it's obviously crispy-dead!

H. vitellina was the other $16.50 cutting. This one came broken in 3 different places (at every space between leaves!), so I ended up piling all those short cuttings into this pot and weighting them down. Some of it rooted pretty quickly, and the last piece seems to be pretty firm when tugged now, too. This one looks like it will be a beauty, so I'm looking foward to it growing. No signs of new growth at this point, but it seems healthy and ready to go at any moment. I'm going to do some reasearch on it and find out if it's a good grower. I figure the most expensive cuttings are so high for one of two reasons - they're slow growers and therefore, he doesn't get as many cuttings to offer. Or they're not readily available and therefore the supply/demand dictates the price.

H. amoena - this one does feel rooted, but it's still pretty dehydrated. It's another one that broke into a couple of pieces intransit. I'm hoping it will make it because the leaves look like they could be pretty. I guess we'll see...

H. pusilla came with splotchy yellow leaves - it looked weird, but it wasn't as dehydrated as most of the others. I'm like, "Great, the one that's not dehydrated looks like it has another issue..." But it's rooted and the yellow splotches have faded considerably and the green seems to be more even. No signs of new growth yet, though. I'll probably give it a nitrogen boost, too...

And finally, H. magnifica (below right). This one was in pretty good shape and rooted pretty quick. But the best part is that it has two new growth points already! How exciting!! I love the big leeaves. Now it's time to get busy and learn about all these Hoyas so I know how to treat them - the best spot to grow them (in the house or in the GH), are they water guzzlers or like to be on the dry side...)

I won't make a decision about whether I'll participate next year until I see how these do. But at this point, I'm feeling pretty good about these cuttings. Where I originally thought I'd end up likely losing 1/3 to 1/2 of them, I only ended up losing 1 out of 8, which isn't bad. Of course, time will tell if they all DO survive... I'll be sure to post back regarding "progress" (or NOT!) so that I know which direction to go next year. One thing is for sure - I'll make sure that I order only thick-leaved species next year!