Stemma V.1 #3

The latest Stemma is now finished and has been sent out. Depending on which mailing list everyone is on, there should be a copy either in their mailbox or one appearing in about an hour.
This issue features Hoya lacunosa, an article from Carol about her adventures in the Philippines, and an over-view of the Hoya lanceolata complex.
Look for the many contributions from members of this forum!
For those wanting to subscribe, please e-mail me at:

markroy68@yahoo.com

And check out the winner of the photo contest, it's someone we all know quite well.
Mark

Right on Mark!!! Mine is printing right now. Awesome night time reading. Bryan doesn't understand why I have to print everything when I download it too!!

Thanks again for another great issue, your talent is nothing short of brilliant!

Sara

Thank you Mark!
I'm taking my laptop to bed with me tonight so that I can lay there like a little hoya piggy and read #3.
Ann

Brilliant, Mark. And to think you are one of us'n!!! You really have a knack for explaining the complicated so that my old cells can get it...for telling a story clearly...for making this whole conundrum seem not so impossible to understand! I find that if I read slowly and pronounce all the words slowly...I can understand it all. Hey...not a rocket scientist here...!

Thanks Mark...you are wonderful!

Mine is printed now too. I sure am going to enjoy this. Now where can I hide from the kids:) I briefly skimmed it and love the pictures. I Sound like a little kid myself, looking at the pictures first.

Mark Thanks so very much !

Bea

Hey Ya'll,
I joined the International Hoya Society, and I get a STemma in the mail. But it sounds like everyone is getting the new issue on the internet. How do I do that? I can't wait for the mail after hearing the news!
Thanks for any info.
Katie

Hi Katie - welcome to the forum. If you check the first post on this thread, Mark gives his email address, and you can request a copy be emailed to you. Hope that helps!


Karen

Thanks, Karen!
Will do.
Katie

Thank you Mark. I can't wait to read it.
Patti

Got mine - looking forward to reading it.
Dawn

I printed it all out, punched holes, put it in a folder/binder, & now I have a neck cramp from improperly reading in bed since early this morning. Ha. What a beautifully illustrated, informative, and well put together book. It is very easy to understand and didn't even cause my brain to short circuit with too much botanical detail. Ha.
Thanks so much for doing this and making it available to all of us, Mark.
You are a jewel.

Got it, looked it over quickly, and am looking forward to my lunch hour so I can read it properly. Great job, as usual Mark! Thanks!
Christine

Matilde...When you joined the International Hoya Society you get FRATERNA by mail. Stemma is totally Mark Randals baby, and a work of love and dedication to help us poor mortals muddle by!!! You must write him and get on the mailing list!

Carol

oh...That 'Mark' is *you*!! lol!

I recently saw the link to sign up for this on a vendor's site, and wondered to myself why I hadn't heard about it before!

It was in my inbox this morning...thank you, all who contributed to this issue!

Thanks for the correction, Carol! You're right. Mark sent me one - I love it. I read your article about your journey to the philippines - sounds so exciting and interesting. Thanks for your contribution! The Stemma is truely a work of art! And so informative! I found out I have lancelota.
Katie

I'm glad everyone seems to be enjoying this issue!
I have had one report, however, of a subscriber having difficulties opening the Stemma file, and later being unable to view the pictures. I'm not a computer expert, and I know everyone has a slightly different set-up (brand-wise), and so it is important to me to get feedback on the quality of each issue.
Has anyone here had any difficulty opening or viewing this issue or experienced pixelated pictures? If so, I would greatly appreciate hearing about it, either here on this post, via D-mail, or at my regular e-mail address (at the top of this thread).
Thanks,
Mark

I didn't have any trouble at all. It downloaded as an Adobe Reader file and then opened right up. All pictures came out beautiful and printed out great.
Marcy

Great Issue! I don't print it out, though, my ink cartridges for my printer are like $36 each and seem to last only a week, I am too cheap to print out longer stuff...I really like the lacunosa article, everything I wanted to know and probably more. It would be great if it could be a REAL magazine some day, I find there is a huge gap in the market when it comes to magazines about tropical plants.

Mark,
This issue is wonderful!!! Thank you!!!

I'm learning how to pot them up. Whether to do hanging baskets or have them climb up something.

Maybe you could have a contest of the most unusual display. There are some really neat trellis but I'm having trouble finding them and don't want to learn how to make them. LOL!!! I know I would learn something from that.

Jeri

Mark, mine opened just fine.
You might want to advise the person(s) having difficulty opening it to download the latest reader. Older reader versions do not support pdf's made on newer versions of acrobat.
Ann

Mark, beautiful piece of work the 'Stemma' is! Thank you so much for your time and effort and Carol, thanks for such an informative article, trip. It was as if I was there with you and your group! Such beautiful pictures!! I could go on and on!

Larry

Oh yes, I did have a problem opening it since I used Foxit reader for pdf files. I had to download abobe reader to open it and as I said, it was a wondrous piece!

Mark - I had just started Stemma, when my sister stopped by - and hijacked it!! (she used to be on DG - BetsyJ) She was blown away by how gorgeous it is, as was I. So, I have to print out another copy, but what I've read so far is wonderful - really on "my level!" Thanks so much - great job!

Karen

Mark,
I tried to open it at work but I couldn't view the pics. However, I had my SO open it from home, and the pics came up just fine. So I'm assuming the computer I use at work doesn't have any updated programs. But I was able to view the last volume on here (my work computer)...just thought I'd mention that.
Thanks so much for all that great information!
Gabi

Jen, I think Stemma is a real magazine now. If you mean a printed version, that would be nice, as nothing compares to being able to take a magazine to bed or into the bath, does it?
I think the future of all magazines is going to be digital, especially after the recent postage hikes.
The big problem with botanical journals is that there is a ban on publishing plant names or determinations in digital media. As Stemma doesn't publish new species, that's not a problem for me, but once the ludites in charge of taxonomic rules get with the times, I think we will see a flood of botanical journals moving into digital distribution.

Mark, thanks once again for another great issue of Stemma. The photos and illustrations were superb, especially the contest winner.

I actually prefer the e-zine format because I can use the Adobe tools to search the text and zoom in on the illustrations. Not to mention that it is so much easier to store and locate the issues. (I have years and years of old American Orchid Society mags in binders, in boxes, and stacks in my closet and never seem to be able to find the one I want!)

Sofi, I am the winner of this issue's contest - thank you very much for the compliment on my photo!
Ann

Mark, I think you are light years ahead of us. We have been promised a "paper-less society" for years. I keep thinking I should print out these issues, or take them to "Copies R Us," but then, again. I come back to "Why?" It is right here on my computer - where I sit every day, where I keep everything - don't even have to think about where it is or have to dust it off. Not too long ago, someone asked me if I knew how to propagate Dischidia and I printed out the beautiful article on "Mounting Dischidia" from the last issue, giving credit where credit is due, of course.

Again, Kudos to you and your wonderful talented team for a beautiful issue. This might even be the answer to Carol's "What If?" If so, I'm happy.

Mark, I love love love having a computer, but nothing replaces the real written word, be it books or magazines, so yes, that is what I meant, that it would be neat to see Stemma as a printed publication. There certainly should be enough advertisers to help carry it, both in the hoya world (growers) and in the tropical plant world in general.(ferilizer companies, pot makers, soil makers, greenhouse manufacturers etc etc) Any magazine on any subject today is at least 70% advertisements!

Another thing I am curious about, I wonder where I could order copies of those old botanical prints of hoyas? I would love to have a few framed!

I would also love to have some of those old Hoya botanical Prints Framed. I also wish someone would put out a nice Hoya calendar.

Yes...what ever happened to that calendar project that was supposed to happen last year?

To me, printing out the Stemma is just as good as getting it in magazine form (and it is minus all those annoying advertisements). Ha. I just punch holes in it & pop it into one of those school cardboard notebook thingys & it is just like having a book. ( I have all my Fraternas in a large notebook with dividers..but I think I like the individual small folder types better)
I LOVE the way Mark has put it together with even a glossary section for the words we may not understand. And I really like the map page too showing where they are found, as my geography is BAD, so that helps me get insight into the location of these places I have never even heard of before. Everything is easy to find and beautifully depicted with the photos. Thanks again Mark.
Marcy

Here's a link to a seller of high quality botanical prints, including many ascelpiads and hoyas:

http://www.meemelink.com/prints%20pages/prints.Asclepidiadaceae.html

This seller is in the Netherlands, and I guess the denomination is in Euros, but that should be easy enough to negotiate.
Many of the Curtis' prints are available digitally, and you could certainly have a high quality print made at a photo shop, which could be framed and I think would look almost as good as an actual print, for a number of years. I think they don't age so well.
One of the main reasons Stemma is digital and FREE, is so that it is as available to all interested parties as much possible. When you start printing it in bulk, large fees come up that require a hefty membership fee from subscribers and advertising revenues. I'd rather spare myself and the readership from that. As many have said here, you can always print it out on your own dime, and at 70% advertising! Thats more ads than content!
Another large plus to the email delivery system is that everyone gets their copy at about the same time. Nothing kills discussion like a two month discrepancy in delivery times. By the time the last people have gotten theirs, the first recipients have already digested the work and moved on.

Personally I am Fred Flintstone when it comes to computers... AND I love getting information on the computer en lieu of in the mail. Guys...we have just so much natural resource at our disposal and we are depleting it quickly!!! (Forget bug sprays!!! Whether or not we use them in our teeny environments isn't worth thinking about). Most recycled paper goes to Asia - anything with high quality photos printed on it has a clay surface which is NON recyclable... Boy I get excited and I can't spell.

It is the 'convenience' we miss. Ergo, we have convenience stores, convenience foods etc. - On the computer we can 'throw it away" with a button and I can choose whether or not to file it or print it out.

I COULD go on and on, but you really know what I would say.

RIGHT ON, Mark! You Rock!
Carol

No, I don't think it is convenience for me, and you have a valid point about the resources used, but I don't buy alot of magazines, the artist's Pastel Journal here and there and that is about it, I grew out of the homemaker and glamour mags years ago and I don't read the newspapers, the news depresses me - so other than paper to draw or paint on, my consumption is low....I think my main reason for being interested in a printed version, besides what I said above, is that it would probably be full of even more info and pictures, and as long as the advertisements are geared towards things I would actually be interested in buying, I don't mind them...

I'm with you, Jen...very low consumption of printed material. But it's the jerks who send me, un wanted, all of the catalogues and flyers.... if they had to go digital...we could block them!!! I would MUCH rather receive STEMMA as a magazine...but I don't and Mark makes it digital and I am happy!!!

Any thoughts on offering a set of 1 year's worth bound together through one of the online print-on-demand book printing outfits?

Keyring, I have been considering something like that. I need to look into it more.

Thanks Mark, for another great issue. I saved issue 2 and now 3, and have printed them out and have them in a binder. I keep going back and re-reading the issues. Great inforfmation. If someone out there has saved issue 1, could they email it to me? I missed out on the very first issue.
My email address is: ima_digger@yahoo.com
Thanks
Eileen

Thanks Eileen. I like it when people share back issues, that's why I always have the older issue taken down from anywhere it is available as a download when the newer one comes out. They're really very easy and fast to attach to emails.