Ah, fall.

I love fall. Not only is it the season I was born during, but we finally get relief from the heat. Cool, crisp mornings...apple cider...pumpkins. HALLOWEEN. I can't not love fall.

I've been learning to neglect my plants more. Overwatering at this time where they are slowing down is not good...so I didn't water anything this time out. I did, however...

find a scale insect on my new H. buotii. Yikes! It's the first scale I have ever dealt with. I promptly took a plant label and pried it off. Then I sprayed with my water/dilute rubbing alcohol/dilute neem concoction. It's slightly separate from the others...I didn't find anything on anything else. Ugh.

Everything is already starting to slow down. Soon, they will come in. That should be interesting! My first winter with these plants.

Reminders.

Just some odds and ends.

Nematanthus albus 'Santa Theresa' bloomed! It smelled a little funny (sort of citrusy but deeper) and lasted about 2 days. But yay!

I just love new leaves. This is H. merrillii.

 

New leaves:

• H. var macrophylla
• H. clandestina
• H. mindorensis
• H. sp 910307

How to root Hoyas on a budget!

What you need:

An aquarium. This is a 10-gallon tank and it cost about $16. I'm sure they're cheaper elsewhere. This will house plenty of starter plants and about 6 larger cuts.

One bright ass light: $15. This is a "special" compact fluorescent bulb that is self-ballasted and supposedly has the full spectrum for plants to use for growth. It's certainly bright! You can probably get a regular CFL for about $10. It beats buying the large T-5 fixtures, which can get costly.

Pots. The big pot is going to hold my mix and the plastic solo cups will be the pots. I like the clear cups because I can see what's going on immediately. They're $3 at any supermarket for about 16.

Bamboo skewers. $2.

Your choice of soil. I use a lot of components, so I lose money on this...but I'm still experimenting and improving my mix.

Hydroton, orchid mix (fir bark, charcoal, pine bark) and Organic Mechanics mix. Have I mentioned that if I can't find OM mix, I usually go elsewhere?

And of course, Hoya cuttings! Lots of people trade for them but I don't have much to offer yet...so I am buying these outright. I am considering selling cuts or actively trading out cuts if they get big enough next year. 

 I am missing the submersible aquarium heater. You can get one online (50W) for $9. You may also want to get some plastic with cutouts or just use plant saucers turned upside down to line the bottom of the aquarium. You need to make space so that the bottom of the pot doesn't touch the water. More on that later. So this will cost you about $50, but most of this is an investment. You won't need another aquarium, heater, or other materials for quite a while. The bulb will last over a year and most of them are energy efficient. We're trying to stay green here!

Hoya fungii, Hoya surigaoensis (H. sp EG00897), and Hoya latifolia (!!!!!!!!)

Hoya macgillivrayi and Hoya cv. Pinkie.

I've modified the mix by added larger grade orchid mix as well as hydroton. Use you favorite mix, of course.

An example of the mix. I've tried to pare down the big chunks - they're solid!

The cuts in the new aquarium.

I don't know if you see what I did here, but the pots are on top of the overturned saucers. The bottom is lined with about an inch of water. Until I get my submersible heater, they will have to thrive in the humidity.

Sprayed with a dilute Superthrive solution and ready to be bagged.

Not very elegant but it should work very well inside. :)

I'm looking for a different fixture to put the bulb in (with a reflector). I bought this batch because it had H. surigaoensis and H. latifolia in it - I need more big-leaved Hoyas in my life. Fungii and macgillivrayi are duplicates but there are several macgillivrayis so I may just have a different one anyway. Hoya Gods, let them grow!

For ~$50, you too can have a ghetto aquarium setup. But hey, it beats spending over $75 more on a T-5 fixture and aquarium hood.

Goodnight!

Un deux trois.

I just spent an hour and a half uncovering, watering, and taking pictures of the plants.

The happy family. I tend to keep the Hoyas up top and everything else falls in line.

Can you tell I love Coral? She's finally kind of trailing like she is supposed to.

This Echeveria has recovered nicely from being bitten up by a cat (presumably - we have a lot of strays).

H. var macrophylla is doing well after having stressed vines from shipping. I had to cut them back and they don't seem to mind.

This is by far the quickest growing Hoya I have. It's H. fitchii and though I know the vine gets kind of washed out at the end...it's at least a foot and a half long.

H. pubicalyx 'Bright One' is so cute. :) It's a happy grower, too.

H. mindorensis is FINALLY growing some more. It's one of the slowest growing Hoyas I have.

The next two photos are of newer Hoyas I forgot to document. This is H. merrillii.

And this is H. clandestina. It's starting to grow for me.

And now we start with the cuttings. This is H. limoniaca.

With its peduncle.

H. elliptica, which I am very surprised at the rate it rooted! This Hoya doesn't usually travel well, so it's finally perking back up.

H. cv Mathilde, which just lost two leaves. Oh well.

H. mymrecopa.

H. lacunosa 'Thai Clone'. So far, it seems to like me MUCH more than lacunosa 'Sno Caps'. We shall see.

H. leytensis. Such a cute little Hoya.

Here are the other huge cuttings from Ebay. Much larger than Joni's, but slower to root.

H. lobbii (red flowers). Part of it broke off during the initial soak so I just made it another cutting. The top leaves look rough, but it is finally rooting.

The other part of the H. lobbii cutting.

Cute leaves on it, too.

Oh thank the Hoya gods...this one (H. fungii broad form) is finally rooting! I was afraid it would just rot away. The roots are definitely nothing to write home about yet, but it's not dead!

I mean, look at these leaves.

The collector thinks this is H. villosa. She knows better than I, so until I can refute it, the name stays.

Whatever it is, the leaves are really pretty. I was looking at H. globulosa (mostly because it originates in China) and these two are supposedly very similar.

This was a bonus cutting! H. macgillivrayi. It's happily rooting along. Grow grow grow!

H. fischeriana, which looks the most beat up of them all. It is thin-stemmed after all.

H. fungii typical form. 

That's enough of a pic dump. :)

Overblast!!

I don't know if anyone noticed, but the last 2 or 3 posts have been titled after DDR songs. I know, my Asian is showing.

Anyway, I'm posting because !!!!!:

From Joni (mystery bundle): 

H. elliptica EPC-641

H. leytensis IML-1287

H. cv 'Mathilde' IML/SRQ-3075

H. lacunosa 'Thai Clone' IML/SRQ-3047

H. pubicalyx 'Red Buttons'IML-0268

H. limoniaca IML-0092

H. myrmecopa IML-1375

From Ebay:

H. lobbii (red flowers)

H. fischeriana (bonus)

H. macgillivrayi IML-015 (bonus)

H. fungi typical form

H. fungi broad form
H. multiflora IML-153 (2)

H. mindorensis IML-1776

H. villosa IML-1663 (?)

!!!! You guys, all but TWO cuttings rooted! I thought I was going to kill them all.

Multiflora is doing absolutely horrible, even in hydroton. I guess I will just have to try again next year in the spring. I read that it's finnicky and slow to root anyway, so at least it's probably not anything personal. Ha.

I went outside today because we're supposedly to have tornado-like conditions here in Philadelphia. I tried to pin down and cover everything I could, but I could not resist taking a peek at the non-Joni cuttings. They all had roots! I am just tickled pink. Even the fast-becoming-a-favorite-H.fungii is rooting quite nicely. I haven't lost one cutting put into the buckets...I think this will continue next year. :)

Tomorrow, I will take pics. I hope they don't tip over.

A.

This week hasn't been the most fortuitous. I have:

- had the worst stomach pain of my life. I hope that is not like childbirth or I may have to tell my BF that it won't ever happen. I vomited and was in the bathroom all day. I think it was food poisoning.
- my dog saw a dog, got out of his leash and attacked another dog. I was not a happy camper.
- I got pissed off on my birthday.

So, yeah. Onto the plants. I wasn't around all week, so I was definitely anxious to see how they were. Luckily only one plant (it's actually a cutting - H. multiflora) is not doing so hot. The tub of cuttings was flooded (Philly got lots of rain during the week...Jersey did too) and some of the stems got bent. Otherwise, everything looks great!

H. pubicalyx 'Red Buttons' had a bent stem. So, I cut it and divided it. This piece is definitely rooted.

This is the top portion. It has crazy aerial roots, so it should root just fine.

Onto the next one. I ordered some hydroton for H. multiflora. It's soaking in a solution of water and superthrive.

H. multiflora really suffered. Look at its yellow leaves. :(

All potted up. I didn't have a big enough container, so that explains my setup. I hope it roots! 

So, this is where we stand with the cuttings:


From Joni (mystery bundle): 

H. elliptica EPC-641

H. leytensis

H. cv 'Mathilde'

H. lacunosa 'Thai Clone'

H. pubicalyx 'Red Buttons'

H. limoniaca

H. myrmecopa

From Ebay:

H. lobbii (red flowers)

H. fischeriana (bonus) [YAY! It rooted! It resisted a good healthy tug and I could see white roots out of the node. I thought this was a goner.]

H. macgillivrayi IML-015 (bonus) [this one seems to have a root out of the first node. I will check it next week]

H. fungi typical form

H. fungi broad form [this one seems to have a root coming in. I dug the cutting in further and will check it next week]
H. multiflora IML-153 (2)

H. mindorensis IML-1776

H. villosa IML-1663 (?)

I am very happy with how these ended up. Even if I lose two or three, that's a fabulous ratio of life:death.

I had to bring some of the Hoyas in today to prop them up:

Excuse the quality. I had to crop my heinously messy background. She lost a few leaves but grew them back in spades.

BAM. Look at that gorgeous new leaf.

I am pretty sure. H. sp 910307 hasn't grown one iota, but look at those leaves. Love.

  Here is proof that some of my plants thrived in my hothouse of an apartment: 

Flo^2. Luckily, her crown of leaves isn't completely drooped like Flora had.

Jazzy had one point of new growth when I left on Saturday. This was it...

BAM. She must have needed the constant humidity to grow from more points. Just when I think she is done with the new growth and flowers...

This snazzy fellow from Violet Barn had this bud when I left. Not quite as developed - so I was shocked when I saw him! He is supposed to have a white-throat bloom. I cannot wait!

My AC gang. They hang out on top of my AC and get the best sun.

Charlie is still blooming on several runners. Such cute blooms.