Succulent Ramblings

I like to ramble on about my plants... and other things! My hope is to log the progress of plants and talk about my frustrations with others. So, tune in, turn on, or drop out (if you find it boring!)

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

More plant notes...The days are getting noticably longer and the plants, apparently, are also noticing it!  I'm seeing new growth on certain ones, especially newer species that have grown little or not at all for me.  And when I say new, not necessarily last year new, like you'd expect.  For example...

H. subglabra, a species I got in a Liddle order in 2010, making this coming into its 3rd season.  It has never done a lot for me, and last year, I moved it from the GH to my bedroom.  (This I did when I moved crassicaulis to the aquarium to try to save it...more on that later!)  Well, subglabra has been a ho-hum species IMO, not only because it hasn't done much more than root for me, but because it's a thinner-leaved species and the leaves are (to be honest) rather insignificant.  However, I noticed a week or two ago some teeny new leaves starting to form.  There's enough there now that I took a photo...
...Upon closer inspection, this is actually three new growth points shooting from just above the second to the last leaf node.  One has one new leaf, the other two have a pair of new leaves.  If all of these make it, this will be a super-full looking spot on the plant.  The new growth seems to be bronze, which is nice.  I've been watching it closely to see it's progression, but this early growth is SLOW.  Now, if I can just keep kitty-cats from bumping the new growth while it's tender and young!  As I completed these comments about this Hoya, I went back to my photos and found an old photo from 2011, when it was just a year old, and it jogged my memory about the first year with this plant.  It did grow nicely for that first summer, but then lost a lot of leaves that winter, which leads me to conclude that it probably likes more warmth than it was getting in the GH.  Here's the photo from 2011, albeit "sideways" because this forum will not leave it turned...

Now I'm feeling even a little more excited about seeing the new growth!

I spent the last few days checking my Hoya list and identifying what has been lost, what wasn't on the list, and in a few cases, stuff that I may still have but I'm not sure.  So for sure, I have 144 species, possibly 6 more.  So many species look so similar, I'll have to wait for some to bloom to know exactly what I have.  But I feel confident my list is relatively accurate now.  And off of my database, I created a form to keep track of when each species starts to grow, when it flowers and when I take cuttings.  I'm hoping to do some trading this spring.

I ended up losing all but 4 of the species I got from Joni.  Several of them held on quite awhile, but I have a feeling that the extended cold put them past the tipping point of being able to recover.  This time of year, it's tough enough to root perfectly healthy plants.  A couple days in the mail doesn't really affect it that much, but 10 days is just TOO much in addition to the time of year.  (Freakin' P.O.!!)  Anyway, what did make it was H. panchoi, H. siamica, H. flavida, and H. pallilimba.  I'm grateful some did make it.  I think I'm down to one or two of the ones I got from Epiphytica, which makes them very, VERY expensive!!

Well, we apparently have a big snow storm headed this way, so I'll have some time to add more to my blog on Thursday 'cuz I'm not plannin' on goin' ANYwhere!  We had a Lion's Club job schedule for Thursday night and they actually cancelled.  They told me they had never cancelled a meeting before, so apparently this storm has everyone spooked.  I mean, I think in most cases, they would have waited until the snow got here to cancel.  Even the schools are holding off on calling off classes as yet, even thought they're talking about a foot of snow!

So... more to come.  I will spend the next couple days hunting for new growth and taking some photos!






1 Comments:

At 7:30 AM, Blogger Tigerdawn said...

I might have some things to trade this summer. I don't know if you already have them or not. I need to update my list. The one I posted on GW recently is not as accurate as I initally thought. And of course, I might lose some more plants before they all get to go outside in the spring.

We're getting snow today. Plenty has been falling but the temps are right above freezing so not much accumulation. Still pretty though.

 

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