Well my little H. obscura "major", def. deserves the spotlight. This darn plant has never bloomed for me, never even had a peduncle until this year. Now she has 11, this is the first multiple bloom I have gotten thus far, the blooms like to blast on me. TA DA... I am so happy she bloomed, now I am working on H. fungii.
It's a beautiful plant. Well it pays never to give up. Now she is showing her stuff. Congratulations Tami.
Patti
Oh, I am seeeeeeeeething with jealousy!
That is absolutely beautiful!!!
Congratulations Tami.
Ann
Wow very nice girl! Why don't you leave it hanging outside tonight:-).
Blessings,
Awanda
Thank you for the compliments. This one just seemed forever to take hold and do something. I almost gave it away last year. Now Awanda, I will leave it out tonight because I know you will be at the baseball game, but I will def. put her under lock and key tomorrow night.
I know that "major" is not correct for this hoya. I do know that David Liddle carries two different species of this hoya, with one of them getting darker red leaves. Mine came from Kartuz years ago. The flowers have more of an orange tinge for me. I think it was Carol that posted a picture of hers and it was a gorgeous pink. I'm really losing out on the pink flowers. :(
So Nightbloomer - Susan, dont throw away your obscura, it is def. worth the wait.
Tami, that is AMAZING! How long (if you don't mind me asking) have you been growing it? I ask because I just got a cutting from Rob's (VERY TINY) and so far only 1 leaf has grown. I'm feeling like I'm doing something wrong that it should be growing faster. Any hints as to how this one likes to grow?
Tami - BEAUTIFUL plant!!
Karen
Good Growin Girl!
Mine has NEVER bloomed. I have a smaller leafed one that stays green even in bright light that blooms every year (its blooming now), but that 'Major' one never has. I keep it for it's lovely leaves though. Mine gets dark red with darker veins. I have a picture of it on the broken computer. Ha. Mine came from Kartuz's too.
Hey....do those flowers smell like "Fruit Loops"? The ones on my regular one do. Just wondering if they would be the same smell.
Marcy
Just lovely Tami!
How old is your plant? Sure is pretty.
Bea
Kim, I know I have had it for 4 years for sure, maybe even 5. I have always had it hanging in a East window, full sun. In the summer I placed a shear curtain up to block some of the sun. It grew very very slowly, sometimes only a couple of leaves a year. Last year I repotted up everyone of my hoya's into nothing but orchid bark and large perlite. After the roots settled in this plant took off, I watered it about every 2 to 3 days. We attached a small GH earlier this year, and the humidity has really helped them all. I have had to move it around in the GH as the buds kept blasting. It still gets alot of light, but it is under a 80% shade clothe. HTH.
Marcy, LOL, Froot Loops. I'm kind of getting a perfume smell, nothing overwhelming. Next shopping trip though I may have to get a box of Froot Loops so I can sniff them, it very well could be Froot Loops !! I love the leaves too, it's a very pretty hoya.
Hi all, I'm just rooting a cutting. Looked yesterday, & it's showing resistence, & two bloom umbels coming out. Don't see any new growth though. Your plant is beautiful Tami. Hope mine grows that well here in the north.
Really? Just orchid bark and perlite? Do you fertilize alot because I wouldn't think there would be much nutrients in that mix - but I'm intrigued. I use those two plus potting soil, but I find myself adding less and less potting soil all the time...
Tammy, leave it outside tonight and i'll come over and water it for you!!!
Very nice looking plant and congrats on the multiple blooms. I just got this one from Kartuz about 2 weeks ago and being the size that it is right now,i'll be old and gray before I ever see it bloom!!
dmichael
I was putting some peat in my mix but stopped all together. I was getting better results without it. I fertilize in April with a bloom booster, and then once a month with fish emulison. Thats it, and there doing marvelous. I do have some of the MSU but stopped using it because my leaves started to get little pits in them. I am not sure if it is the MSU, or a defieceincy some where else, I'm trying to get it resolved. This mix works really good during our monsoons, I don't have to worry about dragging them in and out of the rain, and in the GH I can just get the hose and water everybody without worrying about them getting to much water and root rot.
David, they were rather small plants weren't they? I took a cutting this spring and rooted it for my sister. I was over there today and her's is growing really good. I think the original plant that I received was from an older cutting, because I could take cuttings from it and stick them in the pot with the plant and they would grow faster than the original plant would. It's a beautiful plant, nice and compact to, without big ole long stems having to be pinned back all the time.
Cflowr, with two bloom umbels already, I am sure it will do great for you. You'll be showind us blooms in no time :)
Tami, as we discussed on another thread, I have been repotting the bulk of my hoyas into a mix of bark/perlite too, with the addition of a little charcoal. I was having a lot of root issues with my smaller plants, which seems to be clearing up as the plants settle into the new mix. A couple I thought I would lose look fine now. I'm a fan!
I don't find that I have to water any more than I used too (once a week, mostly) but it is summer in SF (foggy) and the plants are not root-bound. Watering does take longer now, since I take all the pots outside and drench them twice, let them sit for a while, and hit them again with the hose. That bark takes its time soaking up water!
I'm using pretty much the same mix as Tami, but I add peat to mine. I find that soaking the bark for a day or so before mixing everything together helps it to get and stay wet longer.
Blessings,
Awanda
What a beautiful plant, Tami! I love the red in the leaves.
What grade of bark chips do you use? It looks like it is working well for you!
Mel
I have noticed with using the equal amounts of bark, perlite, and soil, that after a few months, it seems that the bark and perlite migrate to the surface, and the soil to the bottom, where it eventually becomes more compact - around the roots, where I would rather it were looser. Maybe this would be a solution for me as well, to cut way back on the soil amount, and maybe just fertilize a little with each watering.
Everytime I mix a batch of medium...I find it is getting lighter and lighter!!! I use both #2 and #3 Perlite in the mix...almost equal parts perlite and fine orchid bark...with cinder and SOON I will try some charcoal, too.
THE O N E lesson I learned from TamiF is a layer of Coarse Perlite in the bottom of the pot. For striking cuttings, I use about 3/4 of the pot with perlite and the top with regular mix. THEY LOVE IT. Mind you...there is a lot of water around here....rain which sometimes drives into my shade house, humidity, my heavy watering hand...and with new cuttings those that get down into the Perlite are really really happy.
The ONLY place hoyas grow IN SOIL/dirt is in peoples' homes. In the wild they are barely in anything...and their roots/rootlets have a lot of exposure to the air (aerial roots = ).
Hope I didn't hijack this thread...it WAS about blooms, wasn't it? Mine coming soon!!!
FINALLY - h. motoeski bloomed last night. Very pretty flower - and so far, the largest I've seen. They are each about a half inch across. Very faint, pleasant fragrance. Perty!
Karen
This message was edited Aug 4, 2007 11:05 AM
Pretty. Don't you love the big, white, roundness of them? I think that is why someone mis-named the plant "Snowball".
My motoeski blooms LAST a long time too. It is one of my favorite hoyas.
Marcy
And h. callistophylla - pretty flower, no fragrance I can detect. But heck, with those leaves, who cares!
Karen
And coming really soon - h. fungii. This is my baby - I started it from a cutting, it survived the "deep freeze," so I'm really proud - it should bloom this weekend!
Karen
Are motoskei and cv snowball the same? I have a small motoskei growing from cuttings, but it is slooooow, I get very frustrated with cuttings that are extremely slow to take off, and you would think that the plant that is supposedly the "real" carnosa would grow quickly, like all the other carnosas....but some angel from this forum just sent me a very generous cutting of carnosa cv snowball. The leaves are a darker, richer green, and also flatter in shape than the motoskei cuttings I have.
Darn it, what is with my fungii that it wont bloom? Very pretty Karen.
Mel, I use the fine orchid bark, and I get it at HD. It's already mixed with a very small amount of perlite, so you have to add more.
Mark, are you using the charcoal for some added benefit, or just for better drainage? It does take forever to rehydrate the bark, but at least ya know you can never overwater !! I really hesitated to use this mixture, as we are soooo dry here, and I thought for sure every hoya was going to be a gonner within months. But I can't believe how well they have grown and the peduncles that have formed. I'm a fan, too !!
O.K. I am off to have a chat with H. fungii.
I have never seen orchid bark mixed with perlite at HD - what is the brand? I buy Schultzes there, but it is only mixed with charcoal and some sort of light weight pumice-y kind of rock. I have some potting up to do, and I plan on using less and less soil, I have noticed that the chunkier the mix is, the happier the plant seems.
Tami, charcoal is supposed to have anti-fungal properties, and absorbs impurities. Don't know if that the anti-fungal part is so, but it looks neat, is the right particle size, and adds some weight to this very light mix.
'Snowball' is a mysterious name. The plant sold as it now has pink flowers and is a gorgeous plant, one of the best hoyas. My speculation would be someone originally named motoskei 'Snowball' and some plants got mislabeled somewhere along the way?
This is pottsii 1192 (from Vietnam).
Mark...don't you love the fragrance of that one????
I'm so jealous! Everyone's blooms are just stunning!!!
Ann
This is the same pottsii 1192 as the previous photo, but with better lighting.
Here is H. hypolasia in bloom...very interesting and different flowers.
and H. bordenii
H. erythrostemma...IML 1428 "all white corona and corolla...". Well...that depends....
H. cominsii...the flowers are closing...the unbel is huge....
Just one side of H. aff anulata IML 1120....
Carol, your erythrostemma is gorgeous! What a perfect combination, glistening white with a bit of hot pink. I'll bet those flowers really stand out from the foliage, don't they?
As to the Perlite/ orchid bark mix, you have to MAKE it.
As Shakespeare once wrote, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are sold by Home Depot"
or something like that, anyway.
hey Shakespeare - I make my own mix with orchid bark and perlite, but Tami mentioned an orchid bark mix in an above post that already has small amount perlite mixed in...I was wondering what brand it is, I am not familiar with it.
Oh, sorry! I guess I shot my mouth off just to hear myself talk!
The orchid mix that I use has,bark of course but besides that it also has the large sized perlite,lava rock (pea pebble sized) and charcoal in it as well. I add 16 dry quarts of this stuff to a 40 qrt bag of soiless potting mix along with another 8 qrts of perlite.
