Hoyas blooming in July

I have never had so many hoya's in bloom at the same time before. It must be the maritime sun.....lol. My lacunosa is in constant bloom......walking by it at night is so nice since it fills the air with a lilac scent. My carnosa, that had no peduncles when i brought it here, now has at least six peduncles all bearing flowers at some time or another. This one hangs at my back door, and fills the air with a chocolately aroma.


My hoya meliflua (name I received it as) has finally bloomed. It's been a couple years since I received it, and since then it has grown quite nicely. It needs a bit more space than most of my hoya's.....and loves to tangle its four foot vines around almost anything.





A first time bloomer for me is my hoya parviflora.....i expected a bit more from this hoya, thinking the flowers were bigger than what they are. They are smaller than my lacunosa, making it very difficult to photograph. It has a nice floral scent.


My hoya heutchkeliana is also blooming. This is a cute little one with pink urn shaped flowers that smell just like buttered popcorn.

Spring has sprung outside and in my house!

After dissapearing from the blog scene for a while......I am back.  Nothing was really happening in my plant world, and life got pretty busy there for a while.  I moved again into a more permanent house, and my plants love it!  After watching them all do nothing or die for months, it has been nice to see them take off in this new house.  The lighting in this place is close to perfect, its almost like having a sunroom.

Quince Tree

Hoya Carnosa

So here's a few pic's of everything that is starting to bloom.....some in the house, some outside.  Spring in the maritimes is just the most beautifu season I have ever seen.....much different than out West.

This is the first time I have ever seen one of these bugs in my life......needless to say, I stayed in that night.....it died on my steps, and was pretty nasty to wake up to.  I am told it's a June bug......it definetely looks like it crawled up from hell and onto my screen door.  I didnt know what the hell I was looking at when I saw it.....thought I was hallucinating little devil bugs.....lol.

African Violet

Tulips

African Violet

Quince tree flowers

Hoya Carnosa

Hoya Meliflua

My first hoya (compacta).......dead

This was the hoya that started it all........from this hoya grew an obsession. I saw my first hoya flowers on this hoya compacta, and I will never forget the chocolate scent.

I have been having a lot of trouble with many of my plants lately, the past six months has proved to be quite challenging. I have no way of being able to pinpoint the problem, since there are so many factors involved: humidity is different, windows & sunlight are different, the heating of my house has changed (baseboard heaters now.....below each window, plants don't like that too much either), the windows are draftier.....etc. Add on the fact that I have let some of them go pretty dry, possibly too dry.


It could be root rot for all i know, but I am pretty confident that it isn't over watering, since i am a chronic underwaterer. Most of the plants that are dying or have died already, die the same way. Starting from the bottom and working its way down the stems, the leaves die and fall off. The stems go soft until the plant is pretty much dead. BUT.....in the end, the woody part of the plant becomes hollow inside, it doesn't seem to be rotting away. Root rot happens kind of like this, but it's also possible that it went too dry, and the roots are unable to nourish itself.

Luckily I have another hoya compacta, although this one was much nicer.

If anyone knows what is happening to my plants, please let me know......if you have advice, please share it........it's very discouraging watching my plants die.

Longicaulis & Aeschynanthus Flowers

I am really starting to miss writing in my blog, I tend to favor the good things that happen around my house, but since I moved to the East coast, I am having a lot of plant troubles......which is really discouraging. I will have to start writing about the good, the bad, and the ugly.


My Christmas cacti (actually Thanksgiving cactus) are starting to get buds. Oddly enough, only the ones in the bedroom are forming buds. this is most likely because it is the only room that does not have any artificial light interrupting, giving them 12 hours of darkness. I have a few in the kitchen, the living room and the bathroom that are not getting buds, but they never get 12 hours of uninterrupted darkness. I am planning to put the others in there as well after I make room for them.



This xmas cactus was the fastest one to grow buds. It showed its first flowers a couple weeks ago and it is still growing new buds,

This lipstick plant bloomed last year about the same time as it is now. Must be a winter thing, becuse it hasnt been exposed to c0ol temps, and it also has not had any special light treatment.
I found a website about lipstick plants a while ago, it said that they werent sure there are triggers too.