Random Happening's......it's been too long!

It's been way too long since I have made a post on my blog......I am just really finding it hard to write about plants that aren't doing too much, but recuperating from their move. They seem to be adjusting all right now, and some plants are getting a few flowers.



This is my Alsobia Dianthiflora .......the one I nearly killed last year. It is only throwing out a few buds, but a few is better than none. This pot of Alsobia is kept by a north window, whereas my other one is kept closer to a south window......the one with the lower light conditions is the one getting the flowers.


It isn't really visible in the picture, but there are tiny pink flecks in the throat of the flower. It is one of the prettiest flowers I have in my collection.



This is a pic of the seedlings I am growing of the fruit called "pitahaya" or dragon fruit. Officaially called Hylocereus Undatus. They are not the fastest growing plants, and it might take around three years to see a flower, but it's worth it, because these are really amazing plants.



I had to throw this pic in a post. Before I moved I had never seen anything like this in my life. There was a tree, and all over the tree was these golf ball sized spiky things. Turns out to be a Chestnut tree......I am not sure whether they are edible ye, but if they are, I am going to try and grab a few, and cook them up. Locally, these chestnuts make great children's war ammo.....lol.

Wildflowers around Amherst

So this is where I am now, across the country from where I was originally. I spent close to $400 shipping hoya's and plants across the country.....I know crazy, but I love them.....lol. I think I can finally start getting back to my plants again after a bit of a hiatus.


It's a beautiful place here, I went from a zone 2 to like a zone 5.....what an incredible variety of plants I can grow now outside.....lol. The wildflowers that grow around here are amazing! I think the pic above is of morning glory......let me know if I am wrong someone.......I need some id's on these ones.


I am not sure what the above yellow flowers are, but they are everywhere, and they are quite rampant. I think they are just beautiful. Anyone have an id??


These pink and white flowers are everywhere too, and ants seem to love them. Again I don't have an id, but I sure do think they are pretty. I am amazed at the flowers that grow wild here.



These couple pics of the yellow flowers are again nameless for now to me. They are quite big, and they make a nice little bouquet of flowers for kids to pick and bring home......lol. They are growing wild everywhere too. The sides of the road are scattered with yellow and purple flowers. It is just a beautiful part of the country.


Even the odd things you can find on a walk in the woods here are amazing. Here is an old tree house many many years old we found out back of the house. It is overgrown and broken, but still a beautiful sight to see on a summer day's walk.

Feeding the Geese

We took a walk to the local dog park / duck pond and spent a while feeding the geese this past weekend. We saw a couple species of ducks but mostly geese.


The geese, not the seagulls were not scared at all. They were close enough to take the bread right from my girls hands.


My youngest even tried making one do a trick, being so used to having dogs around that can do tricks. It was so natural of her to try it, it was so funny. If you look close the oldest is giggling....lol.



Who can't say they never tried to get bread onto the backs of them.....lol. Imagine our surprise when she did it!


We never expected to see baby goslings (Hope that's the word....lol). It was so cool to see, they were only feet from the edge of the pond.


They were so close.


Awwww.....they are just so sweet and innocent looking. So un-goose-ish.


If only I could have reached out and grabbed one.....just for a few seconds. Then let go and run after mama goose starts attacking.....lol.


I think we might have to do this again real soon. Yeah, yeah I took some plant shots, but these were so much cuter. Outside plant shots......soon to come.

Hoya Pubicalyx & a Hoya pet peeve

The pic below is a picture of my Hoya pubicalyx. Again I am not sure about which pubicalyx it is, but I will be able to identify it one day when it flowers. I would love for it to be the "Red Buttons" cultivar, but "Pink Silver" is more popular, and this one does not have foliage that reddens. I can't wait to see this hoya take over and cover the bamboo hoop.


Onto my Hoya pet peeves. Hoya's develop aerial roots, and these aerial roots look like mealy bugs or scale. This is turn makes me even more paranoid when it comes to pests.

In the pic below the spots look more scale, rather the mealy bug.

I took this pic and I never altered the picture below and by complete fluke, there was an image of a deer . Of course I only saw the deer once I was positive the two white bumps were not mealy bugs.

Houseplant Handies......Tag your it!

I think it would be fun for the people I "blog" with to tell others what they find are the most important objects or tools used for their plant addiciton. I believe we could all learn some pretty neat things.

I am going to tag a couple people and hope they return to my blog to share with me and others what they use the most when it comes to your houseplant hobby.

Here are my top 5 handies that I use.

Dixie cups (plastic or paper) for plants that have small root systems or for cuttings. I put holes in the bottom for drainage.

Baggies for putting your cuttings in, and the Dixie cup fits perfectly in it.

Butterfly clips to train several plants on a trellis or to control vines and pin them up.

Plant saucers for my plants so that watering doesn't turn into a disater ( you can't really see it too well in the picture, but it is in the bottom right hand corner under the Dixie cup that doesn't have the writing in it.)

And last but not least, ceiling hooks to obviously hang plants everywhere to save space.



I hope someone learns something new from this post, iI hope others will get ideas from other peoples answers.

Enjoy everyone

Passion Vine Blooming! (Passiflora)

I thought my Passion Vine (Passiflora) was a goner after I brought in from outside this past fall, since I let the frost get to it. I took a few cuttings in hopes to save some of it. Thankfully the plant itself made it (the cuttings did not). I set it aside for the winter off to the side of the 400W, and surprise surprise, it started blooming.


I had my doubts about even keeping this alive for the winter, since it won't live outside here in zone 2. I tried overwintering some peonies, but for some reason, that did not work out. So needless to say, I am really happy to see this living, let alone blooming in the middle of winter.


I had to stick in a couple close up shots, just because I can....lol. This would be quite the plant to play "Name this plant" with, and only use close up shots.


I just love flowers, they are all so different, and it just amazes me that nature can create things this beautiful.

New Calamondin Cutting

Lately, I have been day dreaming a lot about fruit trees. They always catch my eye when I see them, but they can be pricey, and well they can be tricky as houseplants. Not too many fruit trees can grow here, I think I am in Zone 2, maybe 3, but that is pushing it...lol. A couple of my neighbours have a hardy apple tree, and one has a Nanking Cherry that is hardy, and I am going to try and take cuttings this spring of them. This requires a bit of research though, as I have found woody/tree cuttings to be hard to do.

Must be the season or something, but all these cute little Calamondin trees are everywhere around here. So I had to get a cutting, and try it out for myself.

(Photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

So here is the cutting. It reminds me a ficus....kind of, with a mini orange rather than a fig?!? They are said to be able to grow to close to 24 inches over a ten month period, from cutting. They grow roughly a foot a year. I am told they can bear fruit in their second year from a cutting. So it is kind of like instant gratification (at least in the botanical world). I will probably end up buying one if they are still around in a month or so (or when they go on clearance...lol). When they flower I hear they are highly fragrant. I love the smell of citrus, so this will be a much anticipated flower in my house. I do plan on putting it under a 400W MH once it has rooted quite well (My brugs under them love it!!). I love that I can simulate at least bright sun to a select number of my plants.

I rooted this cutting in some well draining coir and perlite. I took the fruit off "sniff", hoping it will focus on rooting and not fruiting. I put it in the window, close to a fluorescent light, in a baggie. So we will see what happens. I have never had success with tree cuttings, at least outdoor tree cuttings, but I am hoping this will be more of a ficus/woody hoya type plant that will root inside under houseplant conditions.

That last statement confused me little, so let me explain. I have rooted woodier type hoya's, as well as Ficus cuttings. I have even had some fuchsia cuttings survive (they were a bit trickier). But I tried last summer to take some cuttings from trees that were growing outside, and they all wilted and died within a couple days. I find outdoor plants harder to take cuttings of, unlike indoor plants, which are somewhat easier. So I am just hoping that this Calamondin will root as easily as a houseplant, and not be so difficult like my summer tree cuttings.

Last night when I was googling around with Calamondins, I read that they can root from leaf cuttings.....and now I am saying "DaMn", I threw three leaves out. I came home with the cutting, potted it up, and THEN did my googling. I guess I know for next time. I came across a fellow Canadian that has been growing these for many years. It was a nice article, I am glad I took the time to read it, I am posting the link in case it further peaks your curiosity.

Mostly an ornamental plant, the fruits are said to be quite sour and bitter. Compared more to a lime than a lemon. I would still love to try one, and I bet they are wonderful in iced tea, or on fish. YAY!!.....two more years!!! OMG I can't wait!! LOL

(photo courtesy of Sebastien Tricoire & Wikimedia)

Not plant related, but it's still cute......My dog singing!!

Well this has nothing to do with plants, but I had to do it, since I have friends and family that check out my blog. This is my dog Gonda. Every time she hears this song she comes running and has to sing along with it. She has been doing it for months, but this is the first time I thought to get her on video. Enjoy......back to my plants.

Pooh Bear joins my indoor jungle

I have been meaning to do it for months, adding a humidifier to my indoor jungle. It is pretty dry here, especially in the winter, so it will be a great addition not only for the plants, but for my family as well. Of course, I kept putting it off, there is always nicer things to buy than a humidifier, but then I came across a Winnie the Pooh humidifier, and being a Pooh fan, I had to grab it. He looks so cute peeking out from behind my plants. If only DH would stop unplugging it.....lol.

"Foliage Plant Care" tag

I could scream every time I see one of these generic plant tags. I mean c'mon, wtf? This helps......how?? LOL.

Had to vent.......I am okay now.

Botanical names are infuriating

I guess to some people, having the real botanical name for their plant may not be as important as it is to others. But once a person dives deeper into the world of plants and starts collecting different cultivars, or different plants in the same family, the botanical names become more important. Honestly, the only plants I want and need to be correctly named are my gesneriads and my hoya's, and this is because I have a growing collection, and I try not to buy the same plant.A while back I bought what was named a Black Pagoda lipstick plant. It was on clearance, near death, but because I didn't not have this cultivar, I grabbed it. It has grown beautifully and is very lush and full of buds. Well as I was googling things last night, I realized that it was not a Black Pagoda lipstick plant. The flowers do not resemble this at all. After much reading, I deemed my plant to be Aeschynanthus Longicaulis, a parent of the Black Pagoda. So whoever gave this plant it's tag, messed up.

As if it isn't' bad enough to see all those stupid "tropical foliage" tags, the plants they do give names for are most likely wrong. So here is a pic of the flower of the plant formerly known as Black Pagoda, now Longicaulis. This link shows a pic, and has other pics of the cultivars in the aeschynanthus family.

Monstera Obliqua, mini AV, mix and......winter : (

Winter is once again here; the snow is here to stay. It gets pretty cold in this house, and my windows ice over when it gets really cold. So as I am looking at my hoya's the other day, I noticed some new growth on a cutting I had, and noticed it's backdrop was a sheet of ice. It was a pretty neat thing to see.
A few months ago I got a cutting of a Monstera Obliqua. This reminds me of a heart leaf philodendron, but with splits in the leaves. This is not to be confused the Monstera deliciosa, which is a kind of like a giant version of the obliqua.I started the cutting ( 4-5 nodes, 2 leaves) in water and it started to root. Then it fell out of it's glass, and the root dried up. Take 2. Again I put the cutting in water and put it high up on my cupboards, again it started to root. And again it somehow fell out and the root dried up. Take 3. I gave up on the water rooting since it was jinxed from the start. It did have the little white callouses that sometimes become roots, so I was optimistic. Well it has finally rooted quite well, and even put on a couple new leaves. This plant had a rough start so I thought it deserves to be mentioned.The next thing I want to write about is the mix I use for most of my plants. I have noticed over time that my mix has changed and ratio's have changed.I prefer not to use peat at all because I have an under watering problem and I find it to hard to re wet. In it's place I use coir that is low in sodium content. I also use perlite and lots of it. Lately I have been using Orchid bark as well. I still have some plants that are in very heavy peat mixes mixed with perlite and vermiculite, but over time I am noticing they are not drying out as well, and some have started to rot. They have compacted quite badly and it has only been about a year for them. So here is a pic of the basic mix I use that I mentioned above. Depending on the plants needs, I adjust ingredients slightly, but not too much, and nothing other than what I mentioned.And last but not least I wanted to capture this little cutie while it bloomed. It is a NOID Mini AV. It is in a one inch pot, much like a Dixie cup, that will give an idea as to how small this one is.

First Post.....what to write

Well, I have never had a blog before, but it seems like quite a cool idea to keep it more as a plant journal than anything. My life is pretty boring, which I am kind of thankful for, and my plants keep me sane......really they do. When I need a moment to myself, I run to my plants. I guess I will start by telling a bit more about the kinds of plants I grow. My absolute favorite plant in the world is the Hoya. Whatever hoya it may be, I love it......well that isn't true (some I love less than others) but all in all I think they are the most unique and beautiful plants, not only for their flowers, which are totally unreal, but the foliage is amazing as well. I would say my hoya collection has become a hoya addiction......but c'mon, it's a healthy addiction.
Here is a pic of my hoya lacunosa forming buds. They keep blasting on me, but there are a few on the go, so hopefully one will make it to blooming soon. Now for some that have never seen a hoya in flower, they are spectacular!! Breathtaking!! Here is a pic of a hoya pubicalyx, gives an idea as to what they look like. Of course there are so many types of hoyas, so I cant obviously place pics of them all in here, but here is one of my fav's.
Now, enough of hoya's for now.......the other plants I grow. My second favorite group of plants I grow are gesneriads. This includes aeschynanthus (lipstick plants), nematanthus, columnea, episcia, streptocarpus, and of course the ever popular African Violet. Now most of the time I prefer succulent-y foliage, but this group of plants can vary, alot of them have more textured or hairier leaves. But the foliage can be amazing, wild colors, wild designs, and the flowers again are spectacular!! Here is a pic of an episcia that I have. It is still just a small plant, as I just received it as a cutting from a really nice person!
Here is a pic of a Space Violet Bloom. The history about the space violets in a nutshell......NASA sent some seeds to space for a few years.....when they returned to earth, the AV's that came from these particular seeds had special traits. They were larger, ever blooming. The whole story can be found here... http://www.optimara.com/everfloris.htmlThen there are various other types of plants I love......pothos (these are just the coolest plants, everyone should have at least one), philodendrons, schlumbergera, dischidia, ceropegia......and the list goes on. I can introduce other plants later, because listing them all would just be a whole project in itself. So I will end this post with a cool pic of one of my schlum's (thanksgiving cactus). And hopefully, I can really commit to keeping this plant journal alive!!