It's Sunday - our cactus club meeting is today.  But I've been puttering around and have some observations to record...

A month or 6 weeks ago, I put together a batch of cuttings of mini-leaved Hoyas in a miniature tray that came with a dome.  It had 12 plugs, and i put Hoyas like curtisii, krohniana, cagayensis, etc. in there.  A few were duplicates, like I started two krohnianas.  I just potted up the two krohnianas with a curtisii cutting - seeing the two close together in there inspired me to put them together.  Both have tiny distinctly heart-shaped leaves, and the contrast of the two is going to look fabulous together!  Krohniana is super dimpled and plain green, and curtisii leaves are coursely matte with what I would call "calico" markings.  I can't wait for it to grow!  If it grows fast enough, it may be "showable" by show-time...  I know it wouldn't win anything because it would be two species mixed together, but I think it would be a sigh to behold, so I would be willing to show it knowing it wouldn't win...

I also tried to root a couple sigillatis cuttings.  One dropped it's leaves and did nothing.  The other one kept it's one leaf, but hasn't rooted yet.  I put it in the pot with the mother plant in hopes it will root, but I don't hold out a lot of hope.  I seem to recall that sigillatis was a bitch to root!  It's a gorgeous little thing, but drops leaves with the slightest bump.

I think it looked better then (in this photo, which was taken in 2010) than it does now.  But at least it's growing.  I have it on the top shelf of the GH - I think I'll move it down a shelf when I get things moved out this spring.  

One that rooted fast was a couple cuttings of dischorensis.  This is one I've had since 2010, from David Liddle, and it did just so-so for a very long time.  Last year, it got some decent growth on it, and this year, I took those two little cuttings, just to put back in with the plant.  They both rooted fast, and I put them back in with the mother plant just this morning.  There was a nice long new vine on the mother plant, and I saw another new growth point down on an older stem.  This could be the year for this one to bloom!  I hope so!  The photos I've seen of the flowers are yellow, and they look waxy rather than hairy.  

Yesterday, I found finlaysonii had open flowers!  This is one I got from Shirley on GW back in 2011.  I've also got one I got from Gardinos the next year, much larger, that went into a decline after I got it.  I whacked it up and started cuttings in semi-hydro, and after that, the mother plant recovered.  That one is much bigger (as is the one in semi-hydro) yet neither of those have bloomed yet.  Here's the bloom cluster on the older, smaller one...

Very pretty, but not terribly fragrant.

I took this nice sized wayetti to Phyllis yesterday:

I picked up an owl pot at Walgreens to put it in and it looked so nice!  Once I get back to see her tomorrow, I'll post what's going on there.  At this point, I have no idea what the story is.  Picked Phyllis up from the woo-hoo ward at Immanuel on Thursday because neither of her daughters would accept her calls.  Tried to get the story out of her then, but she couldn't focus long enough to tell me what was going on.  I have a feeling they have her on a lot of drugs... unnecessarily, IMO, but I haven't had much contact with her in many years, so there may be plenty I don't know...

Off to the meeting!

 

 
 

It's Easter Sunday - just farting around, taking it easy.  We're going down to Merry's (my sister) around noon to hang out with the family for awhile.  Until then, I've been watering.  Thought I'd take a break and do a bit of blogging about the Hoyas I got from Gardino's a few weeks ago...

I lost my incurvula/brevialata last fall.  It was by no means one of my favorites, and when it started to look rough...yet AGAIN...I just kind of let it go.  Well, I missed it - why I'm not sure, probably was looking at some flower photos.  So that was one I decided to replace.  It came in great condition...

I'm going to dry growing it moister this time. 

One that I thought would be very similar to brevialata is bilobata.  I was wrong!  The leaves are significantly smaller than I expected.  It's a real sweetie and I'm glad I ordered it.  It came in a tiny 1.5" pot full of sphagnum.  I'm not sure if I should leave it that way or move it into my typical soil.  As of now, it's still in the sphagnum and I've got it growing above my sink, where I see it daily and won't forget to water it.  It's small enough, I may just grow it in a seashell...

I had read references to cv. 'Chouke', but I didn't know much about it.  Since Gardino's had it on their list this year, I ordered it.  Interestingly enough, I found this article... Article ...that explains how both 'Mathilde' and 'Chouke' came about.  I had no idea two different clones could come from one seed pod!  Fascinating!  They are definitely different, though...

I got me another 'Krimson Queen'...

It's one of those nice, 3-tone clones they call tricolor.  I've always had some problems with both 'KQ' and 'KP'.  They go along doing fine, then suddenly, they become unhappy.  I suspect it's usually a root problem - I don't know why, but that's what my gut tells me.  I've got a 'KP' that was one of the EA plants that started to go south.  I took cuttings and started it in with some cuttings o pubicalyx 'Pink Silver' and they are growing above the sink.  Both seem to be very happy right now.  The other problem is that 'KP' always wants to revert back to all green.  Since it's been in with the 'PS', it hasn't grown much, therefore it hasn't tried to do that yet.  It's a little different clone than I've grown in the past so maybe it'll be a bit stabler.  

I also got a diptera, which to me looks exactly like vanuetuensis.  But in photos, it's flowers have a bit of red behind the center, whereas vanuetuensis flowers are just yellow.  I'm not sure it's worth growing both for that tiny difference, especially since the leaves I find a bit ho-hum.  We'll see!..

 
On the other hand, for pure leaf nirvana, here's what my growing vitelliniodes is looking like...

If THAT doesn't knock your socks off, nothing will!!  This I got as a cutting from Kathy in July 2012.  I think it put on just one leaf each year since I've had it, and sometime either late this winter or early/early spring, it put on another that must have grown fast as suddenly, there it was in all its glory!  And now, it has two vines starting.  One definitely has a new leaf forming, which I am trying very hard not to tough as this is one that the leaves fall at the drop of a hat.  (Which always makes me wonder - how do those species survive in nature??)  This one is kind of like deykeae - when I look at it, I hold my breath...  It's so unbelievably beautiful that I constantly fear that I will screw up and lose it.  So I walk by it and glance at it, trying not to fuss over it or give it any reason whatsoever to dislike me!  Silly, but true!  LOL!

And the last one I wanted to talk about today is pusilla.  I've been growing it awhile myself (since 2013, from Gardino's) and it's done well for me.  But now I also have one from Chuck, one of the species he was selling at our last club meeting.  I knew I already have it, but I figure I will put them together eventually, but in the meantime, his could be sort of a "stock" plant to take cuttings to sell.  Interestingly, though, it's very obvious he grows his a lot "harder" than I grow mine.  Leaves are a bit washed out, more succulent - it looks more like it would look in the wild.  Here's mine...

I will be trying to get back regularly for the next few weeks as I go through my Hoyas and document some of the changes.  There's all kinds of activity to report.  Just this morning, I found this...

This is pubicalyx 'Red Buttons' - I found this hiding amongst some Ceropegia foliage.  I'll have to search the plant for more budding!