I'm trying an experiment, inspired by our last C&S club meeting.  The speaker, the son of one of our members, talked about composting.  He works for one of the waste removal companies in the recycling division, and he is involved with a massive composting operation they've implemented a few years ago.  He talked about what a spectacular job composting had done for his lawn, for one thing.  But he also talked about buying 4 or 5 trees at the end of the season from one of the big box stores.  He said they were all kind of shabby - probably got them cheap.  He planted them all in a row, and one he topped with a 2" layer of compost.  He said by spring, that was the one that had perked up and looked best.  He went off in another direction after that, so I think this may be the first season for those trees, but at the end, he gave us all a 2 liter soda bottle full of compost to take home.

So, a few days ago, I had a couple Hoyas in a community pot that the kitties had managed to topple over, and they were both well rooted, so I decided to pot them up separately.  Well, I threw a few teaspoons of compost into each pot, and I marked them so I could watch how they do.  One is a macgillivrayii, the other is diversifolia.  Of course, I had no idea how much to add to the pots - I didn't want to add too much as I know it can burn the roots.  But I will be anxious to watch these two in comparison to others of the same species in other pots.  It would probably we wise to put them next to the pots they will be compared to so all other factors, such as light, are the same...

I got an order of plants from Kartuz Greenhouses yesterday.  I'm going to try Dischidia vidalii again:

 I've tried growing this a few times and it always turns to mush on me.  I'm determined to get it right one of these days, and maybe this will be the day!

I also got subquintuplinervis.  This is one I got from Ted Green a few years ago as a cutting.  However, it's always had some weird issue - the leaves get an odd flaky brown something or other that comes off if I scrub it off, but before long, it's back again.  It's never spread to anything else, but I've never been able to get rid of it on this plant.  Well, it's never grown particularly well for me either.  But you know, IMO, it looks nothing like the one I got from Kartuz - here's a comparison, with the Kartuz plant first:

The one I got from Ted looks a lot more like pottsii, but I do trust Ted for the most part.  Probably more than I trust Kartuz.  I guess we'll see once it blooms what it might actually be...

I also got another lamingtoniae - I've gotten two from Joni and lost both.  Unfortunately, this one is not very well rooted, but it does have some tiny new roots started, so maybe it'll make it.  It does seem otherwise healthy, though small!

And last but not least, I got one touted to be lacunosa x obscura, but I have my doubts.  Just looks like another clone of obscura to me.  I don't see any hint of lacunosa...

'Nuff for today!

I just "published" that last post today, though it sat there as a draft for over a week.  Oops!  Not sure why I didn't publish it when I finished it...

Oh well, this one will take me a couple days to finish too, I'm sure.  Just wanted to make a few observations, etc...

Sunday, we had our cactus club meeting at our place (the Fireside) and we had a big raffle.  I got two boxes of small pots, which worked out well since I was gearing up to go somewhere and buy a bunch.  I got such a nice variety of pots, sizes, and they're all nice and clean.  Now I'm set up for at least a couple years of propagating.  I also won a Cissus tuberosa, I bought a nice grafted Euphorbia, I got a small Adenium obesum, and a tiny Agave plug (angustifolia, if I remember correctly...)  So now that I have all these pots, as I water plants and find a piece that would be nice for propagation, I'm going to throw it in one of these little pots.  Now, if I could just find all the labels I bought last year!  Where the heck did I put them?  

So I just took a cutting of mindorensis.  It was a couple sets of leaves that were less than perfect.  I have some of those from back when the kitties still had their front claws and would swat at hanging plants, causing damage to the leaves.  

Caudata continues to bud.  And I see now that it has a second peduncle.  I'm very excited!  It's taking its sweet time, that's for sure!  Lacunosa is blooming right now, and fungii in the GH has open flowers that are getting ready to drop, and more peduncles developing.  Also, the fungii in my sunroom is also budding up with two brand new peduncles.  It'll be it's first time - yay!

I whacked back the fungii that was in my bedroom - it seems hydroton doesn't work that well with the species.  I left just a small piece in the hydroton, figuring I'd see how it does on the porch this summer.  The rest, I put in rooting pots.  Then, today, I just took down the carnosa that was also in the north window in my bedroom.  I neglected it and it's not doing well, so I'm going to start a new one from Mom's plant.  In the place of those two plants, I put my 'Krimson Princess' and that cool, rabbit's foot like fern.  I have to look it up to see what it is...

So today, as I was sitting in the GH preparing a plant to repot, I gazed upon a cactus in bloom!! It's Gymnocalycium bruchii, one of the winter hardy cacti I hope to put out this spring...

 

It almost looks white in the photo (probably because of the flash) but it's more of a very pale pink.  Cute little thing!

I also started two cuttings of sp. Nong Nooch in two separate pots. I meant to only do one, with a funky leaf, but I cut it in the wrong place and ended up with a node with the funky leaf, and a node with a nice leaf.  That's ok - it should be an easy species to sell, and taking the cuttings will promote new growth on the old plant...

I'm watching deykeae like a hawk.  It seems everything else in the sunroom is showing signs of growth - well, almost everything.  Deykeae is always the last to start growing, grows slowly.  I feel lucky if I get two or three new leaves a year!  This month starts my 5th year with it.  It has always been in the same spot.  I've always been leary of experimenting with it because I've read some people have trouble growing it and that it can be temperamental.  It has never given me any trouble, but there is so little information out there about it that I don't know if growing slow is typical.  Does it need more water than I give it?  I water when it's dry.  Does it need more sun?  The markings are gorgeous where it sits, and I'm thrilled with every new leaf.  Is it hard to bloom?  I wish I could find someone who could give me more information about it...

I got a box of plants (Thurs. the 10th) from Carol.  Well, cuttings, that is.  They are absolutely STUNNING!  Big, beautiful, most have peduncles, a few were budding up.  Of course, I removed the buds & pedicils (**oh the humanity!**) so they would save their energy for rooting.  But here are those I got good photos of...

H. clemensiorum - the biggest by far and SO impressive...

H. patella - gorgeous leaves and it had two flowers, one mostly open the other about to open...

H. sp. UT039 -the leaves are kind of thin, fairly large, very shiny and I'm betting it's a viner...

H. pubicalyx 'Black Dragon' - lime green leaves, very smooth, very different from other pubicalyx cultivars...

H. sp. Poring Hot Springs - reminds me of those in the finlaysonii group...

 And H. sp. Ko Chung Island - this one was a bonus.  What a beauty!!

There are a few more - cominsii and dennisii and calycina.  I'll get photos of them another time.  For now, I'm  done today!

Here we are, heading into April - a "down" month at work.  April is always slow, but wow, our only job cancelled and all we have (at this point) is the Lion's club.  I did have a guy at a function last night ask me about doing a birthday part for his wife in April - I hope that pans out...

But either way, we'll get by.  And it will give me a chance to do some serious cleaning around my house (boy, does it need it!) and get my plants in order and ready to go outside.  Since we've had such an awful, cold, long winter, I think I'll "order" an early warmup!  LOL!  If only it worked that way, huh?

With spring comes a lot to report about the plants.  This morning, I took H. globulosa off the shelf and whacked it back.  It lost a lot of leaves in the last year.  When all was said and done, I have one long stem left that has some new growth on it and (what looks like) a peduncle forming at the end.  I got it allcleaned up, some cuttings planted in with my rooted fuscomarginata, and put it back on the shelf.  I'm hoping this will be a good year for it and it will sprout new growth near the base.  It's a Hoya whose form I truly appreciate, but it can be temperamental!!  Here's how it looked at its best:

The leaves are just gorgeous!  But even prettier is a very close species - villosa. I got a nice one from Dee a few years ago and it was every bit as temperamental as globulosa and I eventually lost it.  However, I got a cutting from Joni last year and it seems to be doing well so far (knock on wood!)  In fact, this nicely rooted cutting actually has FIVE peduncles - it looks like it might typically have double peduncles at the stem joints!  WOW.

To describe the difference between globulosa and villosa, I would say that globulosa's leaves have the distinctly dark vein "ribs", but villosa's leaves additionally have some depth, which makes the veining look even more distinct.  In other words, the "ribs" are a bit raised.  The leaves do get a bit larger on villosa, and they're a little less tapered at the tips.  Both are very attractive!

But boy did I get excited on Saturday when I was watering and I discovered one of my caudata's has a budding peduncle!!  I just feel lucky that the two clones I got last summer are both doing so well - I certainly wasn't expecting flowers so soon!  Check it out (it's not a terribly clear photo, but as it develops, clearer photos will be forthcoming!)...

Besides this caudata, I have two others.  This one and the above one I got from Nancy (Pug) last August.  Because they were SO different, I assumed she sent me two different clones, so I potted them separately.  As it turns out, however, they are from the same plant and the leaves are apparently just extremely variable.  Check out the bigger leaves...

This leaf is massively bigger than the other, the splotching totally different, and it's surface is more course (less smooth) than the other.  That's a lot of differences!!  I plan to keep growing them separately for this reason.  And the third one I got from Joni last year.  It rooted fine but has not grown even an iota...

This one reminds me more of the bigger one, in splotching and texture, though certainly not in size.  I think I'll put it in with the bigger one.  I need to separate the bigger one from the lucardensiana I rooted it with.  It's a beauty in its own right...

Can you tell how much I like textured leaves?  This one is going to be quite a viner, I can tell!

I'm taking cuttings of certain species - some because they need to be restarted, others because they're big... Here are some I'm just getting started...  

H. 'Minibelle' (2)
H. cardiophylla 
H. carnosa 'Krimson Princess'
H. carnosa 'Krimson Queen'

And I have a lot of well established rooted cuttings, off the top of my head...

H. macgillivrayii
H. onychoides (I think I'm keeping this one to put back in w/the mother plant)
H. obovata x. carnosa (good sized!)
H. macrophylla (I think I have two of these)
H. lobbii (I plant to start more of these)
H. australis ssp. australis 
H. australis ssp. tenuipes (a few of these)
H. davidcummingii
H. diversifolia (w/a slip of 'Iris Marie' in with it)
H. pubicalyx 'Royal Hawaiian Purple' (nice sized!)
H. 'Dee's Big One'