Comback kids and more...

Now it's been nearly 2 months since we sold the business.  I'm half-assed looking for a job.  I'm considering (and have applied for) a job driving for Enterprise.  I talked to a friend whose retired husband does this and it sound like just the perfect thing for me to do right now.  Who knows?  Maybe I'd like it so much, I might just do it until I retire!  I'm just thinking that maybe I don't want to tax myself so much with bookkeeping.  I'm keeping an open mind.  I know the universe will steer me in the right direction!

So, about my "comeback kids"...  I went out to the deck this morning to assess any damage after a loud, kaboomy, rainy, blowy night.  There were a few pots knocked over, nothing major...  But in the process of dumping out excess water and checking things out, I found two Hoyas that I put out this spring that I thought were goners.  (This is my answer to "bad plant, bad plant" and sometimes, SOMETIMES, results in a "comeback kid"...)  First up is H. cv. 'Chouke'.  I bought this from Gardino's in March of 2015.  It never did very well for me - it would ebb and flow, mostly ebbing!  It would lose some leaves and I'd chop it back.  It would lose a few more and I'd do more chopping.  It got down to two piddly stems and I put it outside this spring.  Well, this morning I'm looking at it and those two piddly stems are hanging on and the leaves look really fat and happy.  So I decided I would move it to a smaller pot.  I think it will make it now:

It's nothing to write home about, mind you, but the QUALITY of the leaves is what impresses me.  I think it's on an upswing now.

 H. wayetti variegata I got from Cowboyflowerman in 2012.  I hung it in my dining room window because it's so pretty and I wanted to see it all the time.  Apparently it was not happy there and it resulted in periodic dieback until this spring when it just looked so sad, I decided "outside you go."  Well, to my surprise, there is all kinds of new growth - dark, colorful "I've been soaking up the sun" kind of growth! I pulled it down and started messing with it and decided it, too, would look better in a smaller pot.  I was impressed with the roots of the three pieces I pulled out and crammed them into a 4" plastic pot and filled in around them.  It looks really outstanding!

 If I watch my P's & Q's, I think they'll both do well over the winter.  I went ahead and put them in the GH, on a top shelf since they've gotten used to high light outside.

So last Saturday, Kathy and I drove over to Des Moines to judge the Mid Iowa Cactus & Succulent Society's show.  In spite of being a native Iowan, it was my first time actually in the city of Des Moines.  It was also my first time to another club's show AND my first time as a judge.  It was a great trip!  It was a lot of walking, which was painful, but it was worth it.  Got to see a lot of great specimen plants, got a free plant and lunch for judging, and bought a couple more plants, one of which is truly bizarre...

 This is a Stenogonia, which is a chimera created by grafting a variegated Obregonia denegrii onto a Stenocereus. My understanding is that the little wavy part under the yellow (normal) Obregonia on top is literally genetically part Obregonia and part Stenocereus. So you have the root stalk, which is Stenocereus, the in-between part is the little "monster plant" that's co-named Stenogonia, and the yellow is the variegated but normal-growing Obregonia. I find this fascinating. 

I seem to be "stuck" in my diet.  I've lost about 20 lbs., but I can't seem to do much more than maintain.  I go up a few ounces, I go down a few ounces.  Up, down, up, down...I need to figure out something to do different that might stimulate my metabolism.  I'll have to do some research on this...

I was out back on the patio (where most of my succulents reside during the summer) and I snapped a few pics of my favorite kind of Haworthias - they're all either truncata or maughanii cultivars...

 

 

 Is it obvious that I can't pass up an opportunity to buy one of these?  LOL!  I can't help myself.  I see one that looks slightly different, I have to buy it.  They're addictive!  They grow so easily and don't need much sun, they're the perfect plant!

More soon!