Ric:
I don't know if you are around DG but just in case you happen to stop by, I wanted to wish you a very Happy Birthday ... hope you have a wonderful day!
Happy Birthday ricfl
Yes...Happy Birthday, Ric!!!
Thanks for the well wishes......very much appreciated. Haven't been around DG much, still working on rebuilding my hoya collection due to the freeze we had here in Florida.
Ric....send me a Dmail with some ideas as to what I can do to help you recoop your collection....or a new collection????
Ric:
Florida had record breaking cold temperatures this past winter ... the worst winter I've seen in the 43 years I've lived here. My husband has been here since before he was a year old and he said it's never been so cold. We've been in the Daytona Beach area since 1973 and we've experienced frost and a couple of freezes over the years but nothing like we had this past winter! We had many nights in the mid 20's ... I'm surprised anything survived! I hope I never see another winter like it again! I heard on the news it even got down to the upper 30's in the southernmost point of the U.S., Key West - which is really amazing! I know my sister and her family in the Fort Lauderdale area freeze when it gets down to 50º, they really didn't like the cold this past winter!
I lost many Hoya's as well as other plants over the winter but I've been talking about downsizing for quite awhile anyway, I'm getting too old to deal with so many plants anymore! I only had about 50 or so Hoya' s to begin with and am down to @ 15, mostly common varieties that are usually found at Home Depot, but I still love them. Ric, I still have merrillii that I got from you in a trade last year. It hasn't bloomed yet but I love it for the gorgeous foliage now that it's getting a lot of sunlight! I lost large brevialata's and DS-70's but the major losses were favorites I had received in trades as small plants a few years ago, two really large Hoya's (Iris Marie and Imperialis). Neither of them had bloomed for me yet and I had hopes of possibly seeing flowers this summer. I lost many large Croton's and three large Euphorbia tirucalli that I'd had for 20+ years, and other odds and ends. All of my plants had been moved into an unheated porch and covered deck and had blankets over and around them but it was just too cold for some things to survive I guess. I still have a lot of plants to play with that keep me busy and I still talk about downsizing even more because when my husband retires in four years we plan to travel a bit, so I won't have time for playing in the dirt!
Ric, do you have a wish list of plants you are looking for? I just checked your trade list. Are you still wanting patella and magnifica? I have those two, they aren't large but I'm sure I can get a cutting from each. Any plants other than Hoya's that you are looking to replace? Do you still have the Monstera deliciosa, or did it freeze? I have a couple extra of them if you want another one. Just let me know, okay?
Hope your birthday was a good one! Have a great week,
Lin
Thank you Carol, I appreciate the offer.
Lin......I got patella and magnifica from a very very wonderful and generous lady in TN, I also got to meet her in person and we talked hoya for hours, the following day I met another amazing lady in Georgia, she has an encyclopedic knowledge of hoya and was also most generous in helping me re-build my hoya collection. I could of spent many more hours talking to these ladies.
Sorry you lost many hoyas. The weather was brutal and I was out of town when the temps dropped to 28 degrees. My garden looked horrific....I'll post a pic later. The hoyas were covered but most did not make it. The monstera I got from you turned black and lost all of its leaves....but its coming back and its looking quite nice actually. I have heard in the news that this past winter was the coldest in 96 years here in St. Petersburg, hopefully it will be longer than that before we see these cold temps. I'm already planning for a 12 x 8 green house to shelter the hoyas in the winter.
ric
Here is my back garden a few weeks after the freeze
It sure was a winter to remember for Florida. What a shame those beautiful palms were hit! It was just so cold for so many nights, most tropical plants couldn't survive. Over here on the east coast we've had 20's at night over the years but it usually warms up considerably when the sun rises ... this winter we had many days where it never got above the upper 30's!! It sure made me want to move to the islands!! I hope I never see another winter like it.
I had a large Schefflera tree in the backyard that was taller than the house. I planted it as a little skinny, short house plant many years ago. It had been through some cold nights in past winters but nothing like we experienced this year when it totally froze. I had my husband get his chain saw out and cut it back to about 2' of trunk and I planted Clematis vines to grow around and over it.
This was the tree on November 9, 2009
And, three months later on Feb 6, 2010:
LOL Christine. The Schefflera is a beautiful tree but I should have never planted it so close to the pool area. I had been trying to get my husband to cut it down for a few years because the roots were cracking the cement pool deck! It was way too big to dig out unless we had a bobcat machine come in to do it. I don't know what possessed me to ever plant it in that location as I've known for years from having family in South Fla. that you should never plant a Scheff close to the house or sidewalks, driveways etc. The roots can crack the cement foundation of a house! It made a good shade tree but we have two Queen Palms in the backyard that are growing so they will provide shade eventually.