July Blooms, Part 1

Since I've got a minute to be on here, I thought I'd take the honor of starting the new thread for July. ^_^ Strep 'Blue Mars' was smiling at me this morning. I really do love this one!

I've also got a couple Hoyas blooming. Several of you grow Hoyas as well as Gessies, so I thought you might enjoy these, too.

Hoya bella from Nancy. What a beauty! She's growing great! She has two peduncles of open flowers, another that will open in a few days, and one tiny new peduncle. I really love this one. ^_^ Thanks, Nancy, for sharing her with me!

Here's the whole plant, hanging in an east window.

This is Hoya lacunosa, from Lin. OMG what a heavenly fragrance! I could tape the flowers to my nose and be happy all day long! LOL

I'm trying to avoid the Hoya addiction. If it's as bad as gesneriads or begonias or coleus, I'll have to get a bigger house.

No need to try to avoid it. It'll happen whether you want it to or not. ^_^ Somebody will innocently send you a cutting and it's all downhill from there! The good news is, you don't have to blast them with tons of light to get them to bloom and some of them smell so good you just can't resist!

I appreciate your enabling. *L* Tom at Glasshouse Works is the guy who got me started, with a cute little holliana. It stays small, he said. It blooms nicely. It's variegated. You'll love it. All true. Ditto for the tsangii and the couple of others I subsequently bought.

Happy July Everyone!

Amy, it's SO nice to see you! I too just love Blue Mars. To me, that one just speaks to my heart.

I'm going to TRY to remember everything to comment on from the previous thread.

Caffeine, LOVE it but have really been trying to cut down on it. Once again I'm trying to quit smoking and that morning coffee is SO hard but I refuse to give it up. I just don't drink as much coffee as I used to. This time hubby is quitting WITH me instead of me trying to do it alone. We have been on Chantix since the day following my surgery (6/17) and today is day 2 without a cigarette. I have to say, hubby is doing better than me (mood wise) and I haven't smoke yet only because he's quitting too otherwise I know I couldn't do it. I'm not quite as strong willed as he is. Also been really trying to watch what I'm putting in my mouth as this little 5 foot 4 inch 209 pound polish woman just can't afford to gain weight just because she isn't smoking *lol*

I sure hope my pods on Mother's Day don't shrivel up as I really can't wait until I make the "she's having my baby" thread and am able to offer anyone who's interested in growing from seed some of my crosses this fall. I can't wait!! I keep crossing like a fool! Want to hear the good news? You know the "Neil's" series of streps, well the hybridizer of them is going to also grow some of my crosses. I'm SO touched and honored. Gives me the giggles :)

I can't believe that Bella! She is SO traveling the world and looking beatiful! That's just makes me smile from ear to ear! Totally made my day!

Kim

Good to see you posting your beauties, Rain!

I just miss the party every morning. I have a lot of hoyas blooming in the tree but when I was watering yesterday all these bees came out of one of them....another bee nest in a hanging basket. Today I will go out with a vengeance and my 20 ft. spray so I can take a few pictures.

Did I tell you all that when I went to the nursery of that lady who had my two hoya baskets over the winter because she wanted to take cuttings of them for herself, she had let the mother plants die in the hanging basket and she had propagated a whole shelf of them in 4" containers. (long and grammatically incorrect sentence.....lol) Did I buy any of hers? A big no.

Look what I found this morning accidentally. I don't remember why I found this pea size tuber and decided to put her in a baggie.

This is not a clear picture but HCY's Lady Lady is blooming

WOW love the color on that one Gail!
Out of curiosity (probably a Bonnie question though?), where do you find the HCY hybrids?
I can't seem to find any information on HCY and wondered where to start?

What a pretty one Gail and look at that little baby....so cute!

Kim

hi; type in dolly yeh in your search eng. she & her friends do alot, it's a woonderful web site with pictures to dye for, a wealth of info. i tried to put the web site in this message but could'ent.
let me know if you have trouble,it's a chinese web site.thats where all the hcy hybrids come from & there are alot of them
mrsbonnie

Oh I LOVE Dolly's site Bonnie, I use it all the time but where can you buy the HCY hybrids? Does anyone in the US sell them or does Dolly sell them from across seas? Everything (word wise) is hard to read on that site other than the hybrid names. Just curious as to how to obtain them :)

Kim

Been away from this forum for a while waiting for something to happen with my violets etc..Happy to report I have my very first baby today from a leaf .

Irish Flirt. I am thrilled after this long wait!!

Gina Marie is look lovely today!

Snuggle's little dreamer.Love the varigated leaves.

Tomahawk

Moonlit Waters. This has very large blooms. Just beautiful!

Bea, how nice to see you here :)
What beautiful babies you have!
They all look so happy and healthy :)

Great to see you and welcome :)

Kim

Louisiana Lullaby. So girly.

Thanks Kim. Good to be back. Must have a lot of patience with violets I am learning. But the payoff is worth the wait!
Anastasia

Kim, I ordered my HCY Lady Lady from Dave'sviolets.


Beahive,
Welcome! Here is my Irish Flirt trying to bloom. Don't you just love growing from leaves, cuttings! Louisiana Lullaby I am drooling over.

OMG My hoyas are ten times that size and have never bloomed. They may have to go to the bad compost heap if they don't straighten out.

gessiegail..Can't wait till you post it in full bloom. This one caught my eye and all I could get was a leaf cutting. I will need to enjoy yours until my babies grows up.

Andromeda Strep

This message was edited Jul 1, 2008 8:16 AM

Concord blue

Jason..wish the camera would capture the true colors! Much prettier in person!

Aquarius

Just Stunning Bea :)
Love that Aquarius....beautiful.

Kim

Bea, who hybridized that gorgeous Aquarius?????? I can look it up.......

Susan, these pictures are for you ! See, we all have accidents , lose plants to dropping on the floor, etc. I have to wait until the soil dries as I have carpet in the rooms with gro lights................what a mess I made from the top shelf by knocking over a plant to the floor.

The shelves below the one you just saw..........

Think I made a little mess to be vacuumed up?

Happy July 1st everyone! Love all the beautiful blooms to begin the month of July!

Amy: I love Hoyas! And, even though Lacunosa is a more common one, it is one of my favorites because of the fragrance and that it seems to bloom a lot throughout the year! I've never tried bella ... I was thinking that I read that one was hard to grow? Is it fragrant?

Beahive: Welcome! You have some lovely plants! That Strep Aquarius is wonderful! I have always loved the Concord Blue too. I just can't seem to keep any Strep alive in my house though!

Makshi: Regarding your hoyas ... Can I come dig through your compost pile? Preferably right after you dump those hoyas? ^_^ I love them because I can ignore them and just let them do their thing. Mine do seem to bloom better for me when I remember to feed them, and I usually use the VF-11 plant food.

WOW, what a way to start the month of July! Gorgeous flowers and babies everyone!!!!

Just wanted to show some pictures I just took. A nice, cloudy day, good for photos. I love how cool Caladiums look in the HOT summer.

another.

Last one...

Hi Everybody! Boy I go out of town a couple of days and then have to work my fanny off for a few days and look at what I've missed!! I have a whole extra June thread to go through plus we've started July off with a bang!! ^_^

Beautiful pictures everyone, Beehive you have some awesome streps!! Amy love the hoyas!! I have several new pictures to share but most are still on my camera! I also have d-mails to write but probably won't get to them until next week ....

I got a call from my favorite cousin who has decided to drive the 15 hours to my house along with her DH tomorrow and then spend the long weekend!! She is the one that got me going with gardening outside and I got her hooked on streps for the inside! LOL I can't wait to talk plants all weekend and send her home with tons of stuff too. LOL

Gail I have babies popping up on the leaves you sent, I am so excited, seemed to take forever!!

Amy I am getting first blooms on more and more of the streps that I started from your leaves. My newest one is just gorgeous, love it ... my first Jason.

Edited to say that Beehive is right, the camera does not do Jason any favors! The throat is a stunning yellow to go with the dark purple blooms, gorgeous in person!

~Brenda



This message was edited Jul 1, 2008 3:56 PM

And here is Cassandra's first bloom ... so pretty.....
~Brenda

Pretty pictures everyone!

Welcome BeaHive,Beautiful AV's and streps your growing.


KIM!!!!! Congrats going out to you.Thats great news about your crosses being grown by the hybridizer of Neil's streps.Good luck to you sweetie with your no smoking.It's a hard thing to do.

Finally my seed grown sinningia is going to bloom for the first time. It's from the mixed gessie seed you get when you join the gessie society.It's about 2 1/2 years old and had 2 stems on it till I droped it and one broke off..I wonder if I will ever be able to ID it.

Hi there brenda.Beautiful streps.Cassandra is a beauty.