April Fool!!

First, I wanted to say that I sat down this morning and went through the last week's worth of blogging and made corrections. I can't believe that I actually proof read everything because I missed so so many errors! My intent was to just change the font to match the rest of my blog. When I dictate on my phone, I don't get a choice of fonts. I expected to find a few errors, but I was appalled at how many I found!

And on to the statistics... Getting harder and harder to find the numbers on a daily basis. I don't know if that means that they're having trouble keeping track of it, or is reporting it is just winding down. They keep saying that the next two weeks are going to the devastating... That the numbers will explode and the number of deaths will rise significantly. But what I found is a statistic from yesterday, 172 confirmed cases, and they cited 2931 that have been tested and test negative. They said the majority of cases are here in Omaha of course, but there are few cases out of northeast Nebraska. Still, a hundred 72 isn't something to be terribly concerned about. Of course I think it's probably highly likely that there are a lot of people running around that have it and just don't know it.

This is a gift that I ended up getting from the Cactus Club Christmas party. I say "ended up" because it was kind of a funny situation. We played the dirty Santa game, so when your number comes up you have the option of stealing a gift that has already been opened or opening a gift of your choosing. Well, this one had already been opened and I stole it from Kathy thinking it would be great for rooting plants. Well, it promptly got stolen from me by Claude. Then at one of the next two meetings, Claude brought it in and gave it to me. He said, "I couldn't figure out what to do with it and figured I'd just give it back to you!" After seeing it and losing it, I had planned to go looking for one. The member that brought it said that she had found it at HomeGoods, but I hadn't had a chance to go looking for it thankfully.

I didn't get a chance to show a picture of a Gasteria flower. I found one of my smaller ones had a flower spike on it. They're such cute little flowers, and apparently they're edible as well. That's what Chuck Hansen told us years ago, after which I tried one. Wasn't impressed!

It kind of looks like a Christmas garland, doesn't it?!

Hoya curtisii made it through the winter! It's a species that I've always had some trouble with. I got this one a year ago as a bunch of cuttings from my sister. It rooted quickly because it was spring and did fine last year...even grew! I didn't water it like I would most Hoyas. I would water it lightly so that it didn't get wet all the way to the bottom, and I sprayed it often with my vf-11. In the winter is when I usually lose them, but it got through the winter just fine. It had some dead stuff on it, which I took off. And I took all the pieces that had stretches of leaflessness and put those back in the top of the pot to root. I watered it good this time, but I'll go back to watering it like I did last year.

H. sp. Khao Yai  is one I got from Kathy in  Colorado as a cutting. Kathy's Hoyas always do so well for me and this one has been no exception. I can't wait for it to put on new growth this year... It's always so shiny and attractive, like a small version of macrophylla.

And here is the deykeae that I got from Marco, and it already has a new vine coming on!  I took a look at my big one, my original one I should say, and I think it has a brand new leaf on it! It's small and dark green like a new Leaf. I'm surprised I didn't see it coming on! But I also noticed an old leaf that's kind of wrinkled so I'm a little worried about that. Hopefully it'll be okay... I'll keep a close eye on it!

H. sp. Kunming, Kina... I got this one from Dee in Florida as a cutting in 2011. It's been a little bit temperamental for me, which is why it's so small. It puts on new growth nicely, and then older leaves yellow and drop. I can't quite figure out exactly what it needs to thrive. You can see a couple of dark green leaves, those are new this year. And you can see older leaves that are kind of rough looking. Maybe someday I'll get it right!