Okay, I know this has happened to everybody at one time or another, but I don't think it's fair that it happened to me :-)....my h. bicolor (bought from Joni a few months ago) was budding up beautifully; then, thanks to the one of the coolest summers on record in the stupid northeast, we hit a patch of nights in the mid-fifties and every one of those beautiful fat buds blasted....they were very interesting buds too....they started out tiny and pink, swelled up a dark lead-grey, then turned a really deep khaki green--the same color as those little plastic World War II army men we used to play with when we were kids (if you're as old as I am)--and actually looked more like stapelia or huernia buds than hoya buds...
I'm beginning to honestly think that unless you live in the subtropical south, or own a greenhouse, chances of flowering most hoyas are pretty slim...grrrrr....I'm already thinking about the logistics of moving everything in for the winter, and that's a huge adjustment for the plants and I'll likely lose any buds/peduncles that formed over the summer; I can also expect some die-back on new growth...
Oh well, thanks for letting me vent...I'll get over it...eventually...
Shelley
a long whine....
Shelly...some folks are really successful blooming their hoyas indoors in the winter. Check with Doug and Gabi.... I know what a bummer it can be...happens here, too, believe it or not!!!!
Carol---thanks for the kind words...I was actually going to wait until I could figure out how to load a picture before I posted this, but....it seems I "pre-whined" a little early (something I seem to be prone to do...sorry); anyhow, there were actually two bud clusters on the plant, one much smaller and younger than the other...after the cold night both clusters turned yellow and the smaller one did blast...I naturally expected the other to blast too, but it turns out that turning yellow was just part of its normal color change, it hung in there, and on Saturday it bloomed!!! Joni was absolutely right--it smelled exactly like a slice of ripe lime...just amazing and totally unique...the flowers were just gorgeous too...
I currently have 3 hoyas in bloom and they couldn't be more different from each other in color, shape, texture, and scent...h. cv. minibelle has velvet textured lilac pink stars that smell kind of like a mixture of carnosa and incense, h. lacunosa has perfectly round yellow and white fuzzy balls that, to me, smell almost identical to cestrum nocturnum-- night blooming jasmine, and h. bicolor has completely smooth shiny flowers with white coronas and bright yellow green, brown tipped corollas that smell like fresh lime...I think only orchids can compete in terms of the amazing variety in bloom and scent...no wonder we love these plants!!! So, as you see, I'm over my whine...until the next time something blasts :-D...
Shelley