My latifolia buds finally opened!

Ta-Da! They're pretty, but very similar to a lot of other Hoya blooms. Not that I'm complaining. I've waited a long, LONG time to get flowers on this one. And it's not a particularly great grower for me. Seems to put on a bit of new growth every year, but not enough to be impressed. Considering I've had it for 4 years, it's really not very large. I think I may do what I did with my nicholsoniae when it's finished blooming - move it to a lower shelf. The top shelf might just be too intense for it...

Also blooming is my big verticillata. And wow, is the fragrance powerful! Mark commented last night "Your damn plants are stinkin' up the whole house!" Well, it's NOT stinky, but quite perfumey. HE might think it's stinky in his little brain!

H. davidcummingii has two peduncles with buds ready to pop open, too. Also budding up is the variegated verticillata. And of course, nicholsonaie has those dozen or so buds, but they're developing more slowly. I looked at it from the outside of the GH a couple days ago when I was doing some work in my flower bed - it looks like one happy plant! Since we don't have a job this weekend, I think I'll spend a lot of time pulling plants down, taking them outside and looking them over good, cleaning them up, and figuring out where I might want them for the summer. I've already put all my Jades (and forms thereof) outside, but it's a little early for anything else. They're predicting upper 30's overnight Sat., and the Jades can take that, but I'll wait until the night temps are pretty consistently above 45 before I put anything else out.

And speaking of Jades, the two I had at work I seriously pruned. The biggest one I cut clear back to just trunk and branches - the cuttings filled one of those giant stainless bowls we have at work! I plan to put them out in pots at work in another week or so. Then I can give them away in the fall. The smaller one had been accidentally pruned last fall when it got knocked off the deck by a strong wind. It looked kinda crappy, so I shaped it back up, leaving mostly just new growth that had popped on the branches. Then I brought them both home and put them on the front porch. Yesterday, I root-pruned the biggest one - it was hell getting it out of the pot it was in, because it was the kind that was kind of urn-shaped, the upper part of the pot narrower than the biggest part. So I had to cut it out with a sharp knife. I WAS going to put it right back in that pot after a good root-pruning (as Norma always suggests), but I didn't want that struggle again in a few years, so I put it in a big pot that's more bowl-shaped. It also gives it a lot of new "leg" room. The trunk on that one is so impressive! Today, I hope to root prune the other one, and I think I'll put that one in the pot the other was in. That's the one with all the Haworthias growing under it. I love the way they look as a ground cover! I'll be sure to show photos of both later this summer - an after-pruning shot and another when they've put on some nice, new growth.

We had a little shower today - I always think rainwater is so much better for plants. It wasn't a significant rain, mind you, but I'm hoping the Jades all perk up a bit. They don't look bad, but I like it when the leaves fatten up and looks bright green and turgid once they go outside.

Well, I broke down and chopped up the rest of my macgillivrayii... =o( I was so hoping the some of it would be ok, but it seems it just continued to decline. So far, I've got two pots of the rooted cuttings, and with what I took today, I'll have one more big pot or two smaller pots of it when/if those develop roots.

I also moved my variegated macrophylla from the top shelf down one today. I don't know - for some reason, it's been not-too-happy this spring, and I'm wondering if the top shelf is just too much sun for it. With the exception of a few, I think maybe it's better to grow Hoyas in a bit of shade. Kerrii and australis ssp. australis both seem to be perfectly happy growing up there, but the rest seem to be happier in a shadier location...

Well, off to figure out supper!