Recent blooms

Blooms are a-poppin' and peduncles are a-buddin'!  And there's a whole lot of growin' going on, too.  Here's the scoop...

Hoya latifolia has finally started to open.  A few days ago, the buds were still growing, and I was beginning to think they would never open...

Well, last evening, they finally started to open.  And WOW, are they FRAGRANT!  The smell just knocks my socks off.

And to think they're not all open yet.  Wonder how strong the scent will be when they're all open?  There are only two peduncles blooming, but they are large with lots of flowers...  I'd like to see it get some new growth now - growth that will actually make it and not abort all the leaves...

H. micrantha is blooming this morning...

Teenie tiny flower clusters aren't much more than an inch across, so you can imagine how tiny the flowers are.  (Compared to latifolia, whose whole flower ball is about the size of a baseball...)

Also blooming now is Hoya cv. 'Jennifer'...

These flower clusters are VERY tight and end up being about the size of a ping pong ball.  They look absolutely perfectly round.  And it's interesting because the leaf size of 'Jennifer' is pretty massive while the flower balls are particularly dainty looking.

My macrophylla in the sun room has put on a new giant leaf behind my back:

It's right down by the pot, too.  The macrophylla in the GH - the one I started from the big leaves that broke off - has a new shoot, too, and I'm hoping the leaves will be large, but since it's sitting in so much sun, I won't be surprised if they're average size.

And that Dischidia that I got from Tom, the one whose leaves turn a bright yellow in sun - it's blooming and I've finally ID'd it as D. philippinensis...

I probably never would have found the blooms if I hadn't gone a-whackin' at my Hoya rubra.  Rubra had taken over the shelf it was on and I had it clipped all up and down the shelf.  Well, in the last year, it has gotten a little dehydrated and sad looking, so I decided it was time to whack it up and start anew.  I have five huge potfulls rooting now.  I decided to root in the chunky perlite, as that seems to go very fast this time of year.  I also whacked at the bhutanica that sits on the shelf immediately below rubra.  I didn't get nearly so radical with it - just got one potfull of cuttings.