Boy..you HAVE been a busy bee for it being this early in the morning.
I now have one of those "special" lacunosas too (Thanks again Kim), and the first thing I did was take cuttings. Since it is in that awful soil, you must take off the bottom saucer right away. I even tipped it out of the pot and let the soil ball sit on newspaper for awhile to drain it. It was still a week more before it dried out. I have it outside in the fresh air so it is looking a lot better now, but it had me worried for awhile as it started going downhill shortly after I got it. Most of the cuttings have rooted though so I do have back up. Ha
Marcy
August Blooms
I almost lost my "regular" Lucanosa over the winter because of this soil. It did fine until just before spring (Feb maybe?) and it turned yellow and a lot of leaves fell off. Seemed like overnight. I really didn't water it that much either. It looked really bad. Then I remembered reading somewhere on here that the soil EA uses holds water something bad so I popped the bottom off and waited. Once the weather warmed up, I put it outside and have hardly watered itt at all this whole summer. That thing is blooming like crazy! SO needless to say, ANYTHING I get that has the EA name on it, the bottom comes off first thing.
Marcy you shouldnt have any problem beleiving then when I tell you that the water was pouring out of it when I took it down from the rack in the store. I always remove the bottom trays from those EA plants but I have noticed that the soil they are now using does tend to dry out much quicker than the old soil did. I dont know just how many EA distributors there are around the country or if they all use the same soil but the ones i'm finding over here on teh east coast dont seem to stay as wet for as long as they used to.
When I got it home I took the saucer off the pot and squeezed it and the water just ran out of it. I dont know why but most of the IDIOTS that HD and lowes have running their garden shops seem to think that the plants need water everyday. When you here them advertise on TV they always talk about how experienced and knowledgeable their garden shop people are but seriously do they think the palnts are drying outovernight!!!
If they have different people working those departments and one waters they should leave a note or something saying that they have watered the plants. I think just to be on the safe side I may take some cuttinngs from mine and get a back up going just in case.
Marcy you have to get up early in the morning around here to get things done because after 12 noon it's just wy too hot to got outside to do anything. I of course still have to mow the lawn and get all of my cactus plants moved to their new home so I have no choice but to go out and get it done.
It hasnt quite made it to the century mark as they said it would today and it looks like we might even get a shower as there are some dark clouds to the west of us. Some rarin would be really nice as it's been rather dry here this sprign and summer.
dmichael
I used to think that H. patella was quite fussy...and then I started growing it VERY warm and letting it dry out more before watering and growing them in higher light....and they are growing like weeds!!! Every plant in the tray blooms at the same time...EXACTLY at the same time so it is a very happy site indeed!!!
Here is my lacunosa which flowered for the first time the other day - it surprised me with its speediness! Do the flowers not last very long? Mine only lasted a few days.
Dmichael, you can have some of our rain - it seems we've had two weeks of summer and the rest has just been rain, rain, rain. Luckily I haven't been caught up with the floods but even after a month of relative dryness some people are only just getting everything sorted out here - but as a plus side everything's still looking very green.
Here is that tray of Performing Pink Patellas....
H. pauciflora
Carol, those patellas are amazing. Such a pretty flower.
Marcy, patella is actually related pretty closely to macgillivrayii and onychoides.
Oh Geeze, Carol you make it look so easy. I wish I had a tray full of blooming patella.
Ditto on what Tami said! My poor Patella is just sitting there, but has put on lots of growth!!
Blessings,
Awanda
Mark....I didn't know that!!!! That would mean I should keep it on the dry side in the winter, eh...which is what I did last winter but for the wrong reasons!!!! Whatever works!!!
Thanks!
Edited to say that as I started to keep it drier (thinking it didn't like water) and it co-oincidently happened to be winter it really perked up and started growing happily. Had I known it was related to the Archies I would have known to do it.... Guess I lucked out!!
This message was edited Aug 17, 2007 4:29 PM
Beautiful blooms everyone!!!
Yeah all these August blooms are nice, I just wish I had some!!!!
dmichael
Your patellas sure are pretty Carol. I love the pauciflora too. That's the one DL cutting that didn't make it....sigh! So, I'll just have to enjoy other peoples' I guess. lol
Sandy
My pretty H. memoria opened today.
:-)
That is an EXCELLENT photo, Ann.
I agree....great picture Ann.
Thanks!!!
Sweet little sigillatis...
Wonderful foliage on the sigillatis and memoria!!
Beautiful pictures!
Ann - I have memoria, and, although it's a pretty hoya (I love the leaves), I'd love to see it bloom, too! How do you grow yours?
Karen
Christina, I didn't know sigillatis opened to show petals like that, I thought the flowers were more ball-like, like DS-70
The flowers in the sigillatis photo have just opened. They look like this after a few hours.
...which is the stage I have seen them in, the petals folded behind. I just bought this hoya at a nursery in early July, love love love it - not a big plant, more like 4 small ones in a 8" pot. I have been keeping it on the dry side, it get about 2 hours of morning sun... Three of the little plants are sporting vines now, so far so good - The mama plant at the nursery was spectacular!
Christina, do you find sigillatis has more color in the foliage with more sun? Mine is pretty green, not alot of the red...I think that even without flowers, this one is awesome looking, but I'd like it to have more of the red in the foliage.
Yes, Jen...H. sigallatis likes to grow on the dry side...and the leaves turn almost a bright pink with more light...even more indirect light!!! I run hot and cold growing mine - sometimes a diamond sometimes a pain in the @@@@ !! Now it seems to be happy and is flowering too. Yours looks wonderful!!!!
Carol
Thanks Carol - I really love it - unfortunately, the only brighter spots I have to put it in will be too bright and will burn it. No happy mediums for my poor hoyas. 8(
My sigillatis gets a lot of sunshine and seems very happy with it! I water it quite often, since I've been told it doesn't like to dry out...
Here's the whole plant. I hung up the flowers among the leaves.
/Christina
That is one gorgeous plant, Christina!!!
Karen
I can see you have MORE than just a green thumb, Christina!!!! With your probable lack of high humidity watering more often probably makes sense....
I put a H. carnosa cv. Krinkle 8 out to grow up a tree outside our lanai where I spend most of my time. It is in DEEP shade and growing like gangbusters up the tree, but no blooms visible. Yesterday, I drove the cart down the 'middle road' where we almost never go trying to decide what to chop down and what to keep....and there was the biggest flower on the K-8 just winking at me. Glad I had my camera.
Karen, sorry it took so long to reply to your post - got myself a little busy this weekend. I grow my H. memoria in my bathroom where it is set back about 3.5 feet from a south-facing window in Chowchilla, CA (think desert country). The bathroom is painted almost an ice-white and has a mirror that runs most of the length of the bathroom, so the area is very bright. I am a little surprised, however, that it bloomed. I really thought I was putting it in enough light to grow, but not to bloom (I kind of stuck it there when I moved in and hadn't had time to think of a better place for it).
Everyone's bloom photos are just GORGEOUS!!!
Speaking of blooms ... Here is H. cv. Noelle putting on another show for me. I love this plant!!!
Ann
And, for fun ... H. javonica opened up last night too.
ANN - your photos are so beautiful!!!!
Thanks Ms. Carol!!
Thanks, Ann - think I'll move her into more light....and yes, your pictures are beautiful!!
Karen
I never knew there were so many types of hoya, I had a bella in my kitchen in UK and it was wonderful, a friend had a carnosa which I greatly admired, so when I came here I got myself a carnosa cutting which is growing very nicely in my Patio, I assume that I can plant it outside and leave it in the ground - any advice would be appreciated. I just love to see all your pictures of the different kinds. A real eye opener.
Here's cv Noelle -
Karen
Just lovely!