Monday, December 17, 2007

Odd Schlum growth & my Hoya compacta

Today, on my search for new buds on my Schlum's, I found a very odd growing segment on one. Instead of being flat like they normally are, this one has three sides. If you look closely at the center of this pic, it can be seen. It is not standing erect like the other segments, so in the pic, it's top is facing towards you. I have never seen this before , so I don't know what could possibly cause this. I think it will be quite amusing to see it grow. I wonder if the segments that will grow on it will become three-sided as well.
One of my absolute favorite hoya's is my Hoya compacta, I love everything about this hoya; the twisted leaves, the flowers, the scent. It flowered quite readily this past summer. It is in a 6 inch pot, and to be honest, I have not changed the mix since I got it almost a year ago. I have good reasoning behind it though. It is root bound in this pot and it goes dry every 3 or 4 days. So I know that it is still growing well in this mix. I want to put off as long as possible as to keep it snug.

I was totally shocked that this picture came out as clear as it did. In the center of the pic, a small peduncle started to grow. It is still laying on the branch. This peduncle started forming a few months ago when the plant went bloom crazy, but it never grew past this point. When the flowering stopped, so did the growth of this little peduncle.


Even though we are in the midst of winter, most of my plants have continued to grow. There are a few that have stopped, but most have continued to grow. This is a pic of a new leaf emerging from one of my hoya's.

2 comments:

MrBrownThumb said...

I wonder what is going on with your Schlum. Maybe just some recessive genes from all the hybridizing they've had to endure.

Today I was noticing that some of my schlums have flat segments while some have a pronounced ridge down the center of the segment.

Tracy said...

I have schlum's with that obvious ridge as well. I can not find too much on the web about xmas cacti doing this, it would be interesting to know.