I see at least FOUR new growth points on my H. rubra in the sunroom, AND it’s got a peduncle budding up! It sits in the east window. My other “offspring” from my mother plant is in the spare bedroom – it’s looking happy, but still no new growth. Others in the spare bedroom include Dischidiopsis parasitica – it has some new growth. It’s one I just love but if I fret over it even a little, it gets yellow leaves that drop. Dischidias in general are touchy when it comes to being a fuss-bucket. They want to be left alone and given just a bit of benign neglect. Macgillivrayii has some new and very slow new growth coming at the end of one vine. I wish I knew what it would take to kick this one into high gear. All my other macGs grow well – well, let me rephrase that. They grow well during the growth season, which admittedly is short for me. Usually late June to maybe the end of August. But this one has been in the spare bedroom for 2 years now with no signs of growth. It looks happy and healthy, it just doesn’t grow. Then I have my minibelle in this bedroom, too, and I see it’s got a few new growth points. I recently moved my ‘Square Leaf’ into the bedroom window and it seems to be doing fine there – in fact, one of the 5 plants in the pot has a new vine growing. Multiflora (or javanica) grows semi-hydro and never looks quite as wonderful as I’d like, yet it blooms regularly. It dries out SO fast, even in the leca stones! And I have a small start off of my variegated verticillata that is doing fine but not yet growing.



H. dasayantha, which I got from Kelly in 2010, is looking fine! I put it in the sunroom last summer, thinking it looks like a nice climber. It seemed happy there all winter, getting south sun, and now it’s got at least two new growth points. I need to pull it out and have a really good look and give it a good bath. Lambii is growing close by, and I’m using the word “growing” loosely. As much as I lusted for that plant, it sure hasn’t done diddley for me! What little new growth it’s put on since I rooted it hasn’t been particularly pretty. I want to see those big perfect leaves, please! That’s why I moved it to the sunroom last summer, too. I figured maybe if it’s not disturbed too much, it won’t get ugly marks on the leaves.


Macrophylla – the large one in the sunroom is showing signs of new growth, but the smaller one in my bedroom so far is still dormant.


H. blashernaezii is one I got from Regina (Cubits.org) last summer and it’s doing great!! I moved it from a small clay pot to a slightly larger glazed pot – one of those little gnarly looking pots that BJ made. Love those little things! They’re so heavy and completely unique! Anyway, blashernaezii has some nice new growth on it and looks like it could easily turn into one of my favorites.


I’m trying to decide if I need to cut back my Pelergonium or let it ramble. I’m thinking I might put it out in one of the community pots this summer and whack it back a bit, then let it get all shrubby over the summer. I think I’ll talk to Chris Steele about it – he seems to be well versed in growing Pelergoniums.


As for the plants in my bedroom, I’m amazed at how well they’re doing despite the fact that they get no sun whatsoever throughout the winter, and mostly just bright indirect light in the summer – maybe just an hour or two of west sun in the months when the sun is most north. So what I’ve been growing in there for the last couple of years are H. pubicalyx ‘Bright One’ – it has new growth coming on. H. rigida is just sprouting a new vine. H. fisheriana has new growth and I’m watching the peduncles closely – it has lots of peduncles that haven’t yet bloomed. H. micrantha, as I mentioned before, is putting on new growth AND has a peduncle budding up, albeit slowly. H. polyneura has been putting on some new growth for a couple of months now. My old green carnosa and a semi-hydro fungii grow in the north window – absolutely NO sun, just what little north light comes in the window and the west sun reflecting in the room. The carnosa continues its slow rate of growth as it always does. The fungii is the one that surprises me – it didn’t do much of anything the first year I had it growing in semi-hydro, but now it’s putting on all kinds of new growth.

Pulled down pupureo-fusca today to water and it has THREE new growth points!  Yay!  One of the vines was kind of dehydrated and showed no signs of growth, so I cut it off and put it in a rooting bubble in hopes of rehydrating and starting a new plant.  Also took down mitrata - although it looks fabulously happy, it's not growing yet.  That's ok - at least it's not unhappy!  I see a new growth point on 'Jennifer', too - only one, though, which is surprising because it's such a big plant.

'Dee's Big One' has 4 new growth points that I can see - I let it get a little dehydrated this winter, so I was a little worried about it, but it's popped back nicely.  As has 'Mathilde' - it looked a little peeked for awhile, but the leaves are now fat and shiny and healthy looking, though it hasn't started growing yet. 

I see a growth nubbin' on my variegated kerrii!!  I've had this little plant since 2008 and it has done very little.  In fact, at one point, I thought I might lose it and split it into two pots - one in hydroton and one in a soup cup that I've drilled a hole in.  Both have growth nubbin's - goody!  Callistrophylla has new growth, too.  Last fall, I set it on the dresser in the sunroom hoping it would be a good spot for it to grow where I could admire its beautiful leaves every day.  Well, an ornery kitty-cat apparently decided THAT'S where she wanted to lay and knocked it off, causing leaf damage.  ARGH!!  I was so pissed!!  So a lot of the leaves have ugly damage, so I'm anxious for it to grow so I can cut off some of the ugly ones...



Sellable plants:


H. brevialata – a nice sized plant, I’d say around $9


H. shepherdell – I thought these were minibelle, and I’m still not 100% sure which they are. I’ll have to see if I can find someone who can tell me the difference w/o flowers.


H. macgillivrayii – I have two good sized ones I’d sell for $20/each. I also have one small one that I’d sell for $7.00. I’m starting a few more this spring.


H. diversifolia – I have two of them. I’ll sell at least one, maybe both – it’s not one of my favorite Hoyas, though I’ve seen photos of the flowers and they’re beautiful! That alone will probably have me keeping one at least until it blooms.


H. kerrii – I have one rooted cutting, and actually, it’s now 2 seasons old, so it should be called an established plant at this point. But because it hasn’t grown much until this year, it’s still fairly small. It would be a good starter plant because it doesn’t have any of the stiff stems yet and a new grower could perhaps try to train it. That’s the only down side to kerrii – those long, super-stiff stems turns them into real space guzzlers!


H. macrophylla – I’ve got a cutting I started last fall that rooted fast and is ready to take off. I’ll probably sell it for $10 now or more later after it’s grown a bit. I remember back when I bought mine, at least a dozen years ago. It was a single rooted cutting and I paid $17 for it, more than I’d ever paid for a plant up to that point. But I’m sure glad I did, because I don’t see this wide-leaved one very often.

Well, I have to post this and come back another day for more notations.  I have housework that needs to be done and more plants that need to be watered...