Mostly plants today...

 I don't think I've bought even one Hoya this year.  I got a cutting of H. linearis from Karin, but that hardly counts.  I've tried that species many times and failed, so I'll be surprised if it survives, but I am taking Karin's advice on how to grow it... in pure perlite.  After a month or so, it's still alive and kicking, though it hasn't grown yet.

Below is Hoya patcharasalai, aka icensis.  At the beginning of spring, it was one of those looking not-so-great.  It was wrinkled, seemingly not taking up water as it should.  So when it got warm enough, I put it outside with the other flailing Hoyas, though I did not whack this one back.  With the rain we've had, it's fattened up nicely and is putting on new growth, so I brought it back in for safekeeping.  It's a bit washed out from getting so much sun, but it still looks terrific!  I'll keep a close eye on it to make sure it doesn't start to wrinkle again, and if there are any signs of that, I will move it to a larger pot...

Today, I decided to whack back my biggest Hoya krohniana.  It's such an adorable Hoya, but the leaves tend to "wash out" and turn yellow once they mature.  I think it may be grown best in no direct sun and I'm going to try that to see if it keeps its lush dark green leaves.  But in the process of whacking, I found this...

A crested stem!!  In the 50 years I've been growing Hoyas, I've only had one other that formed a crested stem.  It's very unusual!  And the itty-bitty leaves on it are just darling!  I'm anxious to see what happens as it grows out.  

Last week, I was puttering around out on the back deck, checking on plants after a rain storm the night before.  I have a kind of ugly plant I grow, only because once in awhile, it blooms.  It was kind of tucked under a little table and I walked by at just the right angle and the big bright pink bud caught my eye.  If I'd waited another day or two, I would have missed the flower!  So it was lucky that I saw it when I did.  Sure enough, the next evening (after work), I found the open flower.  I almost forgot to check on it!  And here are two angles...

Sure glad I didn't miss that show!!

Back to photos I took in June, I think I finally figured out how much light is just right for my Echeveria agavoides 'Lipstick'.  It seems every year, it gets burned.  This year, I put it down on the 3rd shelf and in the middle so that it only gets a little afternoon sun and it looks truly spectacular:

Plenty of red on the tips but no dark burn spots.  It must be a species that is a little more reactive to full sun because most Echeverias thrive in full sun.

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but I discovered a long time ago that when I have trouble with Haworthias that lose their roots (and this can be a problem with some species...), if I put them in with sun-loving plants, as kind of a "ground cover", they thrive - no root loss.  I think this is probably because the main plant in the pot pulls extra moisture away from the Haworthia so that it is less likely to sit damp too long.  So I have a lot of clumping Haworthias in with larger succulent.  These are in with my mom's big old Desert Rose and seem to be perfectly happy out in full sun:

I believe these are a form of Haworhiopsis tortuosa.

I have a form of Aloe brevifolia I got a few years ago that got to looking crappy so I cut the two "heads" off and rooted them separately, and this is the one I intend to keep:

I don't know if this is the true species or a cross.  It appears smaller and a little less chunky than the true brevifolia, but I can't seem to find a photo that better matches mine to confirm a different species or sub-species.

Pachyveria clavifolia is in with one of the dish gardens:

You can see the flower stem, though the flowers weren't worthy of a photo.  Pachyveria is one of those inter-species crosses, Pachyphytum and Echeveria.

Gasteraloe 'Thais' is one I just got this spring from Mountain Crest Gardens.  I got a couple of plants for outdoors as well - I was thoroughly unimpressed with those and will probably not buy plants from them again.  Two of the other three didn't make it.  They were Sedums, which are notoriously hard to kill, so that surprised me, but they weren't exactly hale and hardy to start with.  At least the Gasteraloe is a cute little thing!

And one last one for today is Haworthia marsaii, a new one I got this spring:

It's one of the miniature Haworthias and I look forward to it filling this wide, shallow pot I put it in.  Looks like it has a good start!

A couple things I wanted to get down "on paper" in case I need it for future reference... Last Monday (which was the 6th), I saw the eye doctor again.  I'm not sure if I've talked about this here, but I have glaucoma - a form that is caused by "flaking off" of the eye color.  My regular eye doctor has told me for years that I am predisposed to having glaucoma for this reason, so it came as no surprise when my pressure started to go up a couple years ago.  And last year, it got high enough in my left eye that he sent me to a specialist.  And for the last many months, probably since before the beginning of the year, I've been going in for them to check the pressure.  At first, they put me on two different eye drops which brought it down some, but not enough.  So then they did a laser procedure that literally took two seconds.  Then I continued on the two different drops - one twice a day, they other just before bedtime.  It came down a little more, but they still weren't happy and switched out the twice a day drop for a different one.  It still wasn't down enough, so they did the laser procedure again, but this time, it took quite a bit longer and was a little uncomfortable.  It felt like this thing was kind of poking my eye.  Not that I could actually feel pokes, but it definitely felt like it was making contact with my eye.  Anyway, my eye was sore-ish and light sensitive for the next few days, but I've been noticing the last 3 mornings that my vision is seriously fucked up when I get up.  Like I'm looking through a veil.  Once I put the drops in, it does improve, but it's still fuzzy-ish in that left eye.  And each morning, it seems a little worse.  So I'm starting to get a little concerned about it.  I wanted to document this in case they've done something to screw up my vision.  For now, I'm going to assume that the pressure builds up at night and the drops bring it down.  That's what makes sense, and maybe this is all completely normal as it heals.  But if that's the case, they could have given me a heads-up!

Today is the cactus club meeting, so I need to get moving for that.  More another day...