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!