Hey everyone! Just thought I'd introduce myself. I live in London England and have been growing hoyas for around 3 years. This year I increased my collection to just over 90 different types. About half are rooted cuttings at the moment, so I've been kept kind of busy baby sitting.....!! I got most of mine from growers in Sweden as well as from Paul Shirley in Holland. There are only about 2 kinds readily available in England - H carnosa and H. bella so building a collection can be a bit of a challenge. But hey that's half the fun isn't it? Wish I had the climate to be able to grow mine outside like you do Carol - I've been admiring some of your photos of your plants growing up the palm trees in your garden - really cool. My favourite hoyas are the large, very perfumed types like macgillivrayi and archboldiana. But then I also love those types with attractive foliage of which there are many.........yes, as you can see I'm hopelessly addicted!! Hopefully it won't be too long before mine mature and start producing flowers. I'll share some photos when they do! Take care. Matt
Hey everyone!
Yes...Welcome! I admire all of you in cold climes who grow and bloom your hoyas so well...they seem to thrive in Sweden!!!
You know, I can't find a fragrance in H. archboldiana...I wonder why?
Carol
Carol, that might be an interesting topic for a thread - scent in Hoyas. What do you think? How about what is the group's favourite hoya for scent?
Welcome Matt,
Do you grow your Hoyas in the house or do you have a greenhouse?
I am waiting for the day when my macgillivrayi and archboldiana bloom. Right now they are still too small for blooming. Looking forward to hearing more on how you grow your plants.
Deb
Welcome, mattadeus. And your'e right- scent in hoyas would be a great topic, especially since scent is somewhat subjective, and somewhat affected by genetics. Why don't you start a new thread on the subject? We'll all chime in, I promise.
Thanks all,
Hi Deb, I grow my Hoyas in the house and the greenhouse. I have some of the smaller new plants in two rooms in south-west facing windows where they get about 5 hours sun during the day. In a typical English summer that's about 3 times a year LOL! But they seem to be OK so far. I have a small 8' x 12' greenhouse and keep the more tropical growing plants in there. The larger subtropical ones I give a summer vacation outside. During winter I use a heated growing bench that keeps them snug and cosy. I am fascinated by tropical and subtropical plants with scent and have around 400 other potted plants that I've collected after trawling foreign suppliers on the net. As you can imagine it gets quite heady in there sometimes!
Hope to have some pictures soon Christine, although these babies had better get moving to catch up with the great plants you all post here.
Mark, nice to meet you. I'll take your advice and post the thread. You're right, scent is very subjective unlike colour for example and can be interpreted very differently by different people. Should be fun!
Matt
Welcome aboard, Matt. It is great to have such a diverse group of people with a common passion for Hoyas. Will look forward to reading your posts and seeing your flowers.
Welcome Matt!!!
Hope things are okay in your part of the world. Looking forward to seeing you pictures.
Kathy
This message was edited Jul 22, 2005 6:10 AM
Hallo Matt! I could probably use some pointers from you, I live in the artic tundra they call Minneapolis. Do you use any flor. lights?
Heather
Good to meet you, Mel, Kathy, Susan and Heather!
Kathy, thanks for your kind wishes. As you know we are having quite a lot of terrorist activity here in London at the moment and only today I was on a bus that was stopped by police; the passengers evacuated and the road cleared after a suspect package was reported on board. Many of us didn't even realise something was wrong until the police cars roared up. It gets kind of scary when things get that close to home although fortunately for everyone it was a false alarm.
Heather, I don't use lights but have considered using them. We only get about 8 hours of daylight here in the depths of winter and the sun is also really weak so conditions aren't good for plant growth. Without lights we have to try to stop tropical plants making weak growth here by slowing them right down with lower temperatures and little or no feeding until the sun picks up again in spring. It would be great to be able to have strong healthy growth and flowers under lights all year round. You know, I could be talking myself into using them!!
Take care all of you
Matt
Hey Matt!
Welcome, and just so you don't feel bad....I live in CALIFORNIA and all my hoyas live inside too....half at my office, and half at home. Glad to have you aboard..... this is a fun forum! Lovely people, good information, and friendly chat.
Karen
Edited....just so you know Matt, all our Yank hearts and prayers are with our British friends as you fend of the idiot bombers. Our faces are glued to the news. Please take special care of yourself, your family and your friends and know that ALL of you are in our prayers. Make the time to look around and be cautious. And bless the Copper who wielded his gun just like a Yank cowboy. I'm sure he saved future British lives. :~D
This message was edited Jul 22, 2005 9:24 PM
Hi Heather,
I use fluorescent lights all year round but especially in the dark, dreary days of winter in the pacific northwest...its probably quite similar to Matt's weather.....it can be dark with not much sun so the hoyas benefit only if it is the smaller ones because they all cannot fit under the lights!! As long as i keep the lights changed on a regular basis and i use a timer, its easy and they stay looking good right until spring as they daylight increases.....i recommend them.....oh and welcome Matt!
Sandy
This message was edited Jul 22, 2005 9:41 PM
This message was edited Jul 22, 2005 9:42 PM
Hi Karen,
Thank you so much for your kindness and words of encouragement. And thank you all!! The warmth shown by everyone in the group has been really amazing.
Sandy, good to meet you! I think I will use lights this coming winter, especially as some of my plants are very new - really just rooted cuttings. Hopefully it will give them a real boost - and me too! As a keen gardener the dark days of winter can be a really frustrating time, waiting for the sun to strengthen in spring before the enjoyment can resume of watching one's plants grow and flower again . This way, it'll be summer all year, if only in my growing room! Bliss!!
Matt
Welcome to the group Matt and Happy Hoya growing. You came into the middle of a whole bunch of Hoya addicts here so be careful :).
Milan
Ah, Milan.....we don't bite......much! LOL
K
Hey Milan, good to meet you!! Phew!! That's a relief about the group! I'd hate to be the only addict around here................and I'm notoriously bad at being careful - so I'm told ;>)
Matt
This message was edited Jul 24, 2005 5:53 AM
....we all come from umbel beginnings.
Perhaps we should change IMHO to IMUO!
Where in London do you live? There is a member of this group, SodaPopKid, who reads the threads but seldom posts (HI, David!). He lives in Boston (or is that Baastaan?) and has the MOST amazing collection of hoyas all growing inside. I understand they are going to film the next Tarzan movie in his house!!!
http://www.bigislandgrowers.com/ghp/AHmiszk.php
Be safe.
Carol
Hey Carol,
I live about 7 miles from the centre of London in a leafy suburb of south east London called Forest Hill. No forest now though - just a hill!! Adjacent is another district called Penge (pronounced penj) which is an Old English word meaning “the edge of a forest” So in times gone by there must have been an extensive wooded area here. Ah, the wonders of progress…!! Forest Hill’s only modern and tenuous claim to fame is that it is a mile away from Dulwich Village where Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman bought a mansion. …….OK, so it turned out to be a short lived and tenuous claim to fame!! Desperate? Who said “desperate”?!!.....
I have seen David’s page – great plants, really healthy and seriously taking over his living space. He is incredibly committed to them and does a great job looking after them. With 90+ hoyas in my house, I can identify with the space problems he so admirably deals with, particularly as 45 or so are as yet just babies and already the place looks full! Wonder who’ll win the ‘space race’ - the hoyas or me? Silly question really…………..!
Matt
I used lights too for the first time last year, (ran out of windows..ha ha). I bought a thing they sell around here called a "mini greenhouse" which is a multi shellved lightweight thing you easily put together and has a plastic zippered thing that fits over the whole unit. I installed the 2 foot floresent lights by attaching them to the underneath of each shelf so they shine down on the shelf below.
It worked great for keeping them going all winter, but I found it didn't really "fool" them into thinking it was still spring/summertime. They did slow down and then I quit fertilizing also to give them a rest period.
They sell all sorts of lighting units in garden magazines, but one can sometimes improvise and invent much cheaper ways of getting the same thing.
Marcy
Hello Carol.... I am off to work and will be chatting soon as work comes to an end Sept. 5th. also will be sending pictures soon of my plants.... take care Hoya lovers. yours truly David :))
I'm kind of late getting in on this, but I wanted to join in and welcome you!
Each time I see your 'name'....I can't help but think of the song 'Rock Me Amadeus' by Falco....
Mattadeus Mattadeus... Matt-a-deus Mattadeus Mattadeus... Matt-a-deus Mattadeus Mattadeus, Oh Oh Oh Mattadeus.....!!! (lol!)
Welcomed with a song - what could be nicer!! lol. Thanks, it's good to meet you Nan. This is a really great community of people. I feel really privileged to be a part of it.
Matt ...♫ ...♫...........
This message was edited Aug 4, 2005 11:53 AM
Yes, I'm late to. But I'm here...lol. Welcome Matt! There are so many wonderful members who grow some unusual hoyas. I'm starting to get a collection but it sure is darn hard in getting them...lol.
:) Donna
Matt welcome aboard, it's always great having another hoya addict. I lived in England (Ipswich) for two years when I was younger. I just loved it, except for the long and cold winter days:-).
Agape,
Awanda
Hey Donna,
'Good to meet you ........and it's good to know you're there. lol! Have you thought about buying plants from some overseas suppliers? I know Anders at 'Botanova' in Sweden sends plants to the US although I'm not sure if Canada has different import restrictions. His plants are all good and he has a great selection. The ones I bought from him were really well packed and have rocketed away! I think Carol in a previous thread recommended him too. His site is
www.angelfire.com/ks/botanova
Good hunting!
Matt ...♫ ...♫...........
This message was edited Aug 5, 2005 1:31 PM
Hi Awanda,
.....Amazing that you lived in England. I know Ipswich and Suffolk well. I have a weekend cottage in Norfolk which is the next county. Did you ever get to the beaches along the north Norfolk coast or travel along the Norfolk Broads? I know what you mean about the long winter days though. It's strange looking at our zones that we're both 9a. I am apparently 9a because the winter temperature here in London rarely gets below -5C. Yet I bet I know where you'd rather be in winter time out of the two!! lol
Take care
Matt ...♫ ...♫...........
Thanks for the link, Matt. I'll off to check it out.
:) Donna
Hi Mattadeus, we lived in Felixstowe for a while and I got to visit Trafalgar Square, see Big Ben, St. James palace and other places of interest. We were stationed at Brentwaters-Woodbridge. The hardest thing for me was learning to drive on the other side of the road, and getting used to the round-abouts:-). We did visit Norfolk. I plan on returning to England for another visit. This is such a small world after all!! You're right I will take our winters anytime. we rarely get below 40 degrees.
Agape,
Awanda
Great!! Well when you do decide to come and visit England again, look me up and I'll show you around.
Matt ...♫ ...♫...........