The days are actually starting to feel longer and sometimes, a little less wintery.  Not yesterday, mind you - the wind blew like a mother and event though it wasn't horribly cold, around freezing, it felt bitter.  But today, they're talking about record highs...close to 60!!  I need to clean out my car (we're taking Lucy to the vet tomorrow) for sure, but maybe I can get a start on that disgusting back deck.  It's a MESS!

Yesterday, I did some watering in the GH.  I'm seeing small signs of new growth.  Not on too many, mind you, but a few.  And in spite of several I let get pretty darn dry, they all look pretty good.  It's a tough call on how much to water in winter.  It's easier to OVER water in winter than UNDER water.  Too much water when they're coldish and dormant tends to send them into a decline very fast. But you have to be careful about too dry, too.  It can be quite a balancing act.  Especially as cold as this winter has been.  There have been times when it's taken THREE 1500 watt heaters to keep the GH above 50 or so.  Not exactly the ideal temp for Hoyas, but they do fine as long as they're not kept too damp...

Three that I saw with definite new growth were 'Iris Marie' & siariae (which I believe are very closely related) and siamica.  I chopped up and restarted my 'Iris Marie' last fall as it just looked leggy.  I'm going to try to keep this one more compact by keeping it pruned, especially when there are leafless areas on the stems.  I love the leaves on it, mind you - they remind me of Ficus benjamina, but for some reason, it will get areas on the stems 3 or 4 nodes long that either the leaves don't develop or they get damaged and drop.  So it starts to look a little straggly.  So I think a commitment to whack those when this happens will result in a gorgeous plant.  It would be nice, however, to get it to bloom someday!  It's one of the few mature Hoyas I've never gotten to bloom.  

I'm going to leave this blog up and do some watering and inspecting and report back here all day long to record what's going on with my Hoyas... 

In the sunroom...  Hoya fungii has a nice, new, long vine, some new leaves and leaf-nubbins.  I noticed this 2 or 3 weeks ago.  It's going to take off this year.  This is one of the cuttings I started off my mother plant when it was faltering.  The one in my bedroom isn't doing as good - it's in hydroton and I don't know if it's one that just doesn't like hydroton, or if I don't keep enough (too much?) water in it.  I think I'll take that one out of the hydroton and restart it in soil this spring...

I took verticillata vareigata out of the sunroom south window where it was getting sunburned and moved it into this (the spare) bedroom, moved the Echinopsis arboricola into the sunroom.  I'm hoping the additional sun might do that one some good, but I should probably watch it close for sunburn, too...  It's a jungle cactus, after all.

Hoya carnosa ssp. carnosa has new growth in several places.  I'm not sure if it likes the sunroom or not.  Today, I cut off a weird leaf, but the new leaves look good.  I'm hoping they'll be bigger like they were when I first got it.  They say lower light produces larger leaves, so I hope being in the sunroom will help towards that goal.  Also growing is Hoya platylaulis.  This is one I've apparently had for 10 years!!  All I can say is it must not be an easy one for me to grow, because it's still small.  But maybe this will be the year it takes off.  Got it from Ted Green as a cutting in 2004 according to my database.  Apparently, it's one of those that's had a lot of setbacks...

I was getting pics off my camera - I took a last week, Tuesday.  I was on my way home from work and had dropped Mom off.  I was waiting at the light to cross 42nd St. and the sunset was SO pretty.  It was about 5:00 and I snapped a photo through the windshield...

And in the other direction, the full moon was coming up.  It doesn't look as big in the photo as it did in life...

It was a pretty night.  I sure hope spring is coming early, and I hope we have a long spring this year.

And as I sit here at the computer, my kitties are sleeping away, two by two.  Bella and Spike are here on the bed behind me...

And Pearl and Cleo in the sunroom...

Everybody looks cozy and happy.  I think they've all adapted well!  Spike is growing so fast.  Cleo, not so fast, but she's an energetic little ball of fire.  She's a leaper - she'll be running through the house and LEAPS over something, like Lucy, and she'll be airborne for like 4 feet!  A few days ago, she came around the corner of my chair in the living room and leaped at the couch and slammed into the back of the couch!  It was hilarious!  She had a look on her face like, "THAT was FUN!!" and took off like a rocket.  She's fearless!