It's a busy, busy week! Three weddings this coming weekend. We said a long time ago that we would turn away a third job any given weekend - this after a 3-job weekend when I ended up in the emergency room thinking I was having a heart attack. Of course, it turned out to be nothing, but I figured working 35+ hours in 3 days was just too much for this fat ol' body. But when this 3rd job came up after kind of a bad end to last year, we reluctantly booked it. Well, I've been preparing for this, both mentally and physically, and I think it will go smoothly. I'll try to just let myself veg-out the day after it's all over.

Ok, so new stuff about my plants... H. davidcummingii is budding up. It's one of my favorites for blooms. The sunroom smells like a French whorehouse, with lacunosa bloomin' its head off! In the greenhouse, verticillata continues to bloom, as well as vanuetuensis. Macgillivrayii cuttings that have rooted are GROWING!!!!!! Yay!!!! Others in the cutting stage are still rooting, but seem nice a pert. I'll probably sell one or two at the show/sale. The old stump shows no signs of growth, so I'm glad I took cuttings! But, who knows? Maybe the stump will still make a comeback. Ya never know until the fat lady sings!

I got 5 cuttings from the Thai vendor, Plumerindr. One seems to have already bit the dust (there may be a snowball's chance in hell it will recover, but I'm always hopefull hell will cool down!) The others all seem very healthy, and I think they'll all make it. They're all pretty rare ones, so I think they were well worth the $$. They were nice, big cuttings, wrapped with orchid bark, with some roots, and the bark/roots wrapped in orchid moss. They were in the mail about 8 days, and the moss was pretty dry, but the roots still felt quite healthy and the bark wasn't terribly dry. Now we've come into a period of warm (hot) days, so I think they'll probably be ok if I', careful not to overwater... I'll post photos in a week or so..

I planted cucumbers in a pot by the garage and several have come up. I'm SO hoping to have cucumbers this summer. I love baby cucumbers!! I planted a cold hardy Passion Flower on the west side of the house and put a small trellis by it. It's already climbed halfway up the trellis, so I'm hoping I didn't "think small."

So I'm trying to figure out what plants to show this year. I really, REALLY want to show Aloe plicatilis. It's a beautiful plant! If I can keep it pristine this year, I WILL show it! I've never seen one in the show, so I'd be so proud to show it! I intend to show my Crassula ovata 'Skinny Fingers' as long as it still looks good. (Remember? 2 years ago, we had that big storm that basically pruned the crap out of it!!!) It looks fabulous right now!!

Some maybes... a Monedenium? I have a few, and I say let's see how they look in a month. I have a few other small Aloes that may show well. I will, of course, pick out a few Hoyas and Dischidias to show. I'm hoping I'll have blooms to show off by then! And I have at least a couple of Haworthias, Gasterias. I hope to show at least one Crown of Thorns.

Oh, and just an observation before I close today's post... OMG, my Opuntias out front have - well - probably at least 250 buds on them!! I started to count, bot to about 4 pads and was up to over 30. So I figure it's going to be massively beautiful out there in a few weeks! Go figure - thought after this kind of winter, they'd be not-so-bloomy!

Later...