Bud Update

Polyneura has bloomed!

Thinking praetorii should be busting open any day now...

As well as buotii...

Hoya bella 'Luis Bois' may take a little longer...

Congratulations Kelly! they all look beautiful!!!! I'm drooling over them lol.
Enjoy them !!!

And.....this evening I discovered....vitiensis! It has several peduncles now, but this is the only one with buds. Last time it budded it blasted all but one bud!

Thanks! I hope everyone doesn't get tired of the pre-flower pictures, but I just LOVE buds!

I love the pre and actual flowers pictures. I'm so impressed of how many you have blooming. Congratulations and enjoy them they are gorgeous!
Lourdes

Kelly I love buds too!
They are like a promise you can believe in.

For the last few weeks I have been enjoying
watching the buds develop on my Krimson Princess
and rope Carnosas.

I think carnosas are underappreciated and sometimes
I think they are my favorite Hoyas.

Thanks, Lourdes!

Allison, post some pictures if you can! Seeing all of the buds makes me feel like I've hit the lottery!

Kelly

Okay, some of the best I could get with a stupid point and shoot
camera:

Congratulations Alison, I love those buds!!!

Count me as another who probably likes the buds as much or more than the flowers. The buds are all glossy and cool looking. The anticipation is half the fun. Some flowers can be awful messy dripping nectar all over the leaves and what ever is under the plant. I confess to having cut off a few blossoms after getting sick of the cleaning up. The H. lobbii pictured here opened all of its buds about an hour after taking this picture.

Doug

Congratulations Doug, those H. lobbii buds look so pretty, it seams that the H. multiflora likes being in sh.

Lourdes,

I'm not sure that I'm going to keep the multiflora in semi-hydro. I only recently started the plant in the photo from a plant that was over seven years old that kept losing leaves. They would just yellow and drop off. Contrary to popular belief, I think that it is possible to water one of these plant too much, because after examining the roots many were rotted off. The s-h however was a really fast way off getting it to root and flower. I only started this plant about five or six weeks ago.

I was going to ask you what size container it is in? Someone mentioned growing them in AV pots(Lin maybe?) but I can't one big enough.

I think it is in this pot right here: http://www.firstrays.com/cgi/store/commerce.cgi?cart_id=1233590230.28279&product=Containers&pid=538

It is pretty large.

Doug,
I have seen a lot of hoyas in semi-hydro on the internet and they seem to do fine. I have very few and I like how it works, however would be scared to switch them all. I think that five or six weeks is a short time to have it blooming already. Why if you don't mind me asking, you are not sure of keeping it in s-h? I also bought different size containers from First Rays,
The H. campanulata is in s-h too, but I've noticed that the new leaves are very small, I might be doing something wrong. . ..maybe not be adding enough fertilizer????

Lourdes,

I have probably 16 or so Hoyas in semi-hydro, and have started switching a few of them back to conventional growing. Some of my reasons are: they dry out very quickly even with spaghnum moss on top; some are getting full of algae; they are trickier to grow in the house without making a mess. Finally, some of my Hoyas that are grown in a conventional method have really started to put on lots of new growth, which is encouraging me to move back to that method. I'm definitely not giving up on semi-hydro, and still think it is one of the best ways to get a plant started, but I am being very cautious.

Doug

I know exactly what you mean. I'll keep rooting and maybe will keep a few in semi-hydro, but to me it is more complicated than it looks. Algae has been a problem for me too, I wash them and it's gone but still I don't like it.
We'll see, thank you Doug.

Alison,
Love those pink buds! They're gorgeous!

Doug,
What color are the flowers on your lobbii?!?! I don't know why, but this is one hoya I'm obsessed with! I have two - one is from Carol - it hasn't flowered yet, but I think it's the pale pink or orangish color (maybe Carol can chime in)...it just started putting on new growth! Woo Hoo! The other is suppose to be cream...however, that one started to fail miserably shortly after I received it, so it's down to one node, but it finally rooted!

Probably 2/3's to 3/4's of my hoyas are in semi hydro. I use plastic self watering pots from Walmart- less than a $1 for a 4" pot. So far I'm really happy with it - although it's not without challenges. Haven't quite figured out to use stable supports in all of them. If I accidentally tip one over it's a mess! My one cat likes to pick the hydroton pellets out of the pots and play soccer with them in the hallway. The pro's have outweighed the cons for me so far!

Kelly

Kelly,

This is my lobbii, I would call it dark red in the center. I can't remember the IML #, but it came from Carol a couple of years ago. It does really well for me and likes my conditions. I have propagated it and both the mother and daughter plant flower quite regularly. I would have to say that it is one of the easiest Hoyas for me to grow in my conditions. I have never heard of one that was cream colored - that would be really cool.

Doug

Beautiful shot!!

Oh, Doug! They're lovely! I can't wait until mine from Carol flowers! Keeping my fingers crossed that my other one survives! There's also another version that's almost black...I want that one as well....

Kelly,

Are the self watering pots that you use the type that you just pour water into the attached saucer that has a place for you to pour into. Do you just keep that resevoir filled with water all the time. If those are the pots that you use, I could see the big advantage being that they would be dark and algae would not be such a problem. How often do you have to water? If you get a chance could you post a picture of one of your plants showing the pot?

Doug

I adore pictures of buds and flowers!! We appreciate your efforts to take the pics.

Doug,

Yep, I'll post a picture of the pots. I water about once every week to week and half right now. I always water from the top, although I don't know that it's necessary. Usually the bottom is just about dry when I water. Definitely no algae issues!

Kelly

Thank you Kelly! That was very helpful. I'm going to move a few of my s-h hoyas in the clear pots over to these walmart pots to see how they work for me.

Doug

I use those same pots they say the water lasts 2 weeks but in a couple days my plants have sucked all the water up.