Aeschynanthus Longicaulis Seed Pods

Well I completely forgot about this post, so I figure I better get it up. It was such a cool plant event at the time, and then with moving I completely forgot about it. I didn't notice this until I went to water the plant one day and saw a long string of fluff coming off the plant. When I went to wipe it away, I found it to be attached.


I have no idea what could have pollinated this, but I do remember trying to do it myself once or twice, so maybe I was successful. Other than that, it was strictly an indoor plant, and the only insects around would be the odd moth or housefly.


I collected the seeds in a baggie, and I had intentions of sending it to the gesneriad seed bank, but I didn't even find the baggie until yesterday when I was unpacking plants. I am not sure if they are still viable, but I am going to try and plant a few over the next few days, and if they are still viable, I might still send them off to the seed bank.


I have to admit that it was quite a unique thing to see, it's not something one sees everyday. The next time I get flowers on any of my lipstick plants, I am definetely going to try and cross them again, with hopes that maybe it was me and not a stray bug. All I did was take one flower off, remove the outer flower petals, and inserted the one into the other, and moved it around. We all know how it's done......lol. Complete botanical porn......for the gardener of course.

Update on my New Hoya's (Liddle Order)

I opened the baggies for the second time since arrival to check out the hoya's I got through the D. Liddle order. This is the first real update, and I am so excited to see good stuff happening in those baggies.

Purpureo Fusca

This is a cutting of purepureo fusca. I gave it a little tug, and it seemed firm. I wonder how long this one takes to bloom, the flowers on this one are purple on purple, and they are so pretty.

Hoya Caudata

This hoya caudata is already one of my favorites. Nevermind that the flowers are possibly the prettiest in the whole family, the foliage is just wicked. The leaves have a funky texture to them, they can be green and they can have a lot of red in them. They are spooky looking. They look like something swampish and creepy, and I just love them. I potted this one up in a clear 3 inch container, so I can see the roots developing down into the cup. They are just over an inch long, so I would have to say this hoya is doing very well.

Hoya Ciliata

This is the hoya ciliata that lost all it's leaves. I couldn't believe it when I saw roots growing all along the vine. This is the hoya that is nicknamed "the black hoya", as it has nearly black flowers. I see less black in this one as say compared to the two pubicalyx' (reb buttons & RHP), but I have not seen either flower yet, and I guess technically, the pubicalyx' have red in them as well.. The flowers of the ciliata are not as pretty as some of the other flowers, but "the black hoya" caught my attention. This will be an interesting one to grow since I came so close to losing it. It will be my "miracle black hoya".

Hoya Dischorensis

My new cutting of hoya dishchorensis is starting to root as well. The foliage is okay, but I did get this one for the goldish color flowers it should eventually produce. Me and gold flowers have a little thing on the go right now. I go ga-ga every time I see a gold flower.

Hoya Mindorensis

The hoya mindorensis cutting is also doing well. It passed the tug test. The foliage is okay. Nothing spectacular, but the flowers on this one are amazing as well.

Hoya Heutschkeliana

In light of the pending death of my other hoya heutschkeliana, this one is in flowering mode. The one that is dying is supposed to be pink, while this one should be yellow. These are a smaller leaved hoya and I really like the foliage. The flowers are small urn shaped flowers, unlike any other in the hoya family. The best past is that it has started to produce buds on two different peduncles. I am going to let it try and flower rather than disbud it. It is still in it's baggie, so I will just leave it in there until it is done flowering, then let it continue to form roots. I have seen hoya's last in baggie for weeks, so I have some confidence that it will be okay, even if I let it flower (assuming it will not blast the buds first).

All of the cuttings I received are doing fairly well. A few have lost a leaf or two, but nothing major. All have started to root, and most are already quite firm in their pot. I plan on keeping them in baggies for at least a couple more weeks before I ease them out of their humid little greenhouse into my house.....lol.

Participating in this order was such a positive experience I can not wait to do it again. My Thanks go out to everyone involved. I look forward to seeing pics of everyone's hoya's as they grow on various places across the net.

My House Happenings

I had so many random pics that didn't necessarily need a whole post, so I lumped them together and one whole post. So many little things are going on right now, and so other things just are and deserve a pic.


My lipstick plant has a few flowers coming these past few weeks. It looked liked it might go into full bloom, but it has blasted many buds. It might get to partial bloom, and still put on a mini show, but nothing like some of the shows I have seen these plants put on. Still it is the first time I have seen this plant get this far into bloom since I have had it.

My variegated rubber tree completely stopped growing this past winter, but has begun to start growing now that spring has really arrived. I have read that it is quite hard to get these to branch, they tend to just keep growing straight up until they are quite large and mature. Mine has branched. I am quite pleased because it won't grow so straight and lanky like they tend to do. I hope the other two trees in the pot would branch as well.


A few of the jade leaves I got a few months ago have sprouted new little plantlets from the base of the original leaf. This cultivar of jade, pictured here, has the neatest fingers like leaves. The tips of them are a dark red, giving them the coolest look.


My dragon fruit cutting, hylocereus undatus, has an odd growth coming in on it. It isn't growing from the side joints like I have seen other branches form on. I have never seen this on any of my epiphytic cacti before. Maybe it's a new branch, maybe not.....only time will tell.


Back in my little world of hoya's, I have a heutschkeliana that looks like it might be dying. A little odd since it is finally spring and most of my other plants are starting to take off. I thought maybe I had let it go too dry, but it still looks like overwatering to me, and that just seems unlikely in this case. All I can do is keep an eye on it and hope for the best.


My hoya compacta is budding, only from one peduncle, but still. This is one of my favorite hoya's. The flowers look alot like my KQ, and smell nearly the same too. They both are reminiscent of chocolate. I would have thought my carnosa would have smelt like chocolate more than these ones, but I was quite wrong, as carnosa seems to smell more floral-y than I expected.


My hoya carnosa flowers are starting to get the messy drippy look now. I think they still look amazing almost more so with the clear sap dripping from it. I even think the dead and gray one in the background looks stunning. This was the hoya that smelled alot more floral-y than I expected. It was a nice scent, but I am not into floral scents like I am say a fruity or sweet smell.

Hoya KQ Flowering & First Schlum Fruit!

I just love it when any hoya in the house flowers. They have such stunning flowers. They almost look fake, like they are made of wax. And the smell........some can smell unappealing, but so far from my limited experiences with hoya flowers, they smell amazing........it is so amazing that a flower can produce such a smell.


This is a Hoya "Krimson Princess". This is the cultivar that has some white variegation in the center of the leaves. The flowers are very light pink, they are quite similar to the flowers on my Hoya Compacta. The color in the pics do not do it justice, because both of these plants have very similar flowers, more so in person that in the pics. Both smell just like chocolate, especially at night. It fascinates me that these smell so strongly at night, and less so during the day.


Most hoya flowers should have 5 petals but the once in a while you get odd flower. The flower in the top left side of this pic, only has four petals. I am quite curious to see if this was obvious when it was still a bud, I have to sift through a bunch of pics to see if I have a pic of it......if I do I will post it here.


I have a few other hoya's trying to flower right now or at least growing peduncles. From experience, just because a new peduncle grows, doesn't mean it is going to flower. I have new peduncles forming on a serpens, a lacunosa, a bella, a nummulariodes and a couple noids that are not even trying to form buds. Others, like my 2 lacunosa's, my KQ, and a carnosa are growing peduncles as well as forming buds at the same time.


I am still learning what each individual hoya likes for sun & water, so some of them, although they are trying to flower, keep blasting the buds. I have found that my lacunosa likes quite a bit of water when it is flowering. I have been having the problem of blasting buds for a few months with this one, but since I have really upped the watering, I have found that the buds are getting bigger than they ever had. They are coming closer to flowering that I have ever seen them get, but there is a very fine line between enough water and too much. Twice I have over done it, and the buds yellowed and fell off, whereas before they were drying / shriveling up from too little water.


So enough about my prissy, but spoiled hoya's. I have managed to pollinate one of my Schlum's......a Thanksgiving Cactus. This is a kind of late bloomer in my house, only a couple Schlum's formed more flower buds after their main flowering a few months ago. I have been trying to pollinate one of these guys since early October-ish, when they started to flower, and this is the only one I have seen actually succeed and produce a fruit.

After trying for a while and not being successful, I came across a fellow blogger's post that mentioned that the stigma on these plants opened after a few days, making pollination more successful. I have noticed my Schlum's do this, so this time around I used a small paint brush whiten the stigma's were opened, and tried to get some of the pollen actually "in" the stigma, rather than just "on" it. It worked, only on one flower, so now I am going to have to wait until next year before trying again.

Hoya Order with Dave Liddle

I have been spending less time on my blog lately. I have had a few glitches over the past couple weeks with my computer, and with my pictures, The fact that I am working too, makes it even harder.

So, it is that time of the year, when plant addicts start buying more plants, and trading cuttings or seed. It is also that time of year when a bunch of people (hoya lovers) get together and place an order with DL, a hoya grower in Australia, that way the group can split on the cost of the phyto certificate,

I got news today from DL, he told me the box of cuttings was sent out on the 23rd of April, they will all go to a woman in BC who in turn will separate the order, and start mailing it out to the dozen or so people that placed an order.

When I contacted DL today, I was told that he was able to give me cuttings I asked for, he didn't need to substitute any of them. Below is the list of Hoya's I ordered. Each one is linked to a picture of itself.

IML 0112 Dischorensis
IML 0965 Caudata
IML 0390 Ciliata (eriostemma)
IML 0713 Erythrostemma
IML 0904 Heuschkeliana
IML 0056 Pubicalyx Royal Hawaiian Purple
IML 0268 Pubicalyx Red buttons
IML 0270 Vitiensis
IML 0768 Mindorensis
IML 0728 Purpureo Fusca
IML 0229 Subcalva
IML 1418 Aldrichii

In addition to this order from Australia, I am also going to participate in a hoya round robin. The concept is that there is a box or two of hoya cuttings, when you take a cutting or two or three, you have to replace it with cuttings from your own plants. As soon as you have chosen which cuttings you want, send the off to the next person on the list. The only cost in this event is the shipping, which isn't much more than ten dollars, if that.

I am so happy that I participated in both the Australian order and the round robin, I will be posting pics as soon as I get them, which should be this week!! YAY!!

More Blooming Av's!

As I promised, here are more pic's of the Av's that are blooming for me right now. I left 3 out because I don't find them to be the nicest ones.....they are kind of plain. I also have duplicates of a few.


The Av in the above pic has bloomed for me once before, a couple months ago. It is one of my favorites. The Av in the pic below has flowered for me before as well. Again, one of my fav's.


The pic below is a new bloomer for me. The flowers instantly got my attention, especially since some of them are pure white, and others have some purple in them. I have never seen this occurrence before in Av's. It has a really unique look to it with the different colored flowers.


Below is a pic of my only "named" Av: Very Berry. The flowers on this one are almost wax-like. Even though I love the flowers on this one, I don't really like it's foliage. The leaves are quite long and it seems to be a large Av, rather than a standard or mini.


The pic below is one of my favorites as well. I just love the fantasy markings and the way it sparkles. This one makes me think Chimera because of the stripes of purple it has. Only one of the flowers on this Av is open, which makes me really curious about the other flowers. Will they have the stripe as well? Of course I am also going to take a leaf from this one, and see what blooms.


And last but not least is another one of my favorites. These flowers are quite large, close to an inch in diameter. This one has variegated leaves as well, which make it quite beautiful even if there are no flowers. Notice in the pic below that the Av on the left has semi double flowers. The flower in the middle is also semi double. The flower on the right is single, only 5 petals. I think it is so cool to see such variations on the same plant.


Up until a couple years ago I had no interest in Av's. I didn't even think they were that pretty. I am not a fan of fuzzy or hairy leaves. I had heard that they required special care, and could be a little tricky to grow. So I had to try it out, I had to know how hard they were to grow. I had to know what people saw in this plant. Well now I love Av's, still not a fan of the fuzzy leaves, but the flowers are so pretty. I always seem to have a few of them that are in flowering mode. Now I can't imagine not growing them. I am such a sucker....lol.

I'm back!!! With lots of Blooming African Violets!!

OMG! The past three weeks have been horrible without internet. I have missed so many posts from my numerous favorite blogs, and missed so many threads from the forums I frequent. I am going to need a week just to catch up. I am so glad to be back and posting again, and I am so glad to be back in the World Wide Web.

So many of my plants are starting to take off again, while many others are starting to form buds. It's starting to feel like Spring, despite the dump of snow we just had yesterday.


I have never had so many African Violets in bloom before. I think I have at least ten of them throwing flowers out right now. Some of them I have never seen before, and didn't even realize how pretty they were going to be. The African Violets in the above pic and the pic below were birthday presents from my family. I can't take any credit for these ones, but the rest I can....lol.


This purple AV is one that I have never seen before. I planted the leaf almost 11 months ago. This is it's first bloom. It's color is more the dark violet/blue color that I see in many other AV's. I dis budded this one because I am going to try and grow a few of my AV's on a "show" schedule, with hopes of lots of blooms all at once, like you often see in AV shows. I would think even the everyday violets we all see in the stores are grown with a similar technique, so that when it is time, they have a ton of blooms. The ones I have grown from leaf are putting out flowers, but only a few, I want to get the "Oh Wow!" effect.


These fantasy violets are constantly flowering, it is quite a reliable bloomer. It isn't one I get tired of seeing either. I favor bi-colored and fantasy AV's, quite honestly if they aren't semi-double, or double (blooms), or bi-colored in some way, they barely get my attention. Kind of like how I feel about the AV in the above pic, it's okay, but it's so plain. As the collection grows, some plants have to make the move....lol. Impress me, or I am giving you away.


The last pic has also become a very reliable bloomer, almost too much so. I had laid a leaf or two of this last year. Now that everything from that time period is starting to bloom, I seem too have way too many of these guys. I have seven or eight blooming right now, and I have given away close to thirty (though not all of them were this particular type). It's starting to get a bit boring.....lol.

I have more Av's blooming right now that I will post pics of. I also have quite a few other plants that are budding or are in the process of flowering. I shouldn't run out of things to write about for a while......since I am still going through internet withdrawal, I'll be sticking around this time. LOL.

Thanks to everyone that inquired about my absence, I will be reading a lot of blogs over the next few days, I am so eager to see what I missed.

A Murder of sorts

What a graceful life it had. I never knew it's name up until a few weeks ago. It decided to put on an inquisitive show, which made me question it's character.....I didn't know it well.....What iwas it? Luckily, GardenWeb has a "Name that plant" forum, and they identified it as a Pepperomia (possibly glabella). What ever, it was one of those plants that I didn't really like, but my daughter decided to keep in her room. Everything seems to flower in her room, I just don't get it. I wasn't really impressed with the flower. C'mon, seriously,I like Hoya's, Schlums & African violets, and this was some weird little green thing, that kind of freaked me out a bit. It doesn't even compare to the flowers of hoya's, schlums, and gesneriads.......it would be like comparing a squirrel to a pancake......exactly my point.....it just can't be done, it makes no sense....lol.



I have been telling my daughter that she can't let her plants go bone dry, but at the same time said don't over water them either. So one day after school, she asked me if it was okay that her plants had been watered last night but she bottom watered them in a tray.....and they were still in the tray, full of water ( I admit to doing it too once in blue moon, and have never had consequences like this. When I saw her plant, I was in total shock. I had never seen a plant that went black like this. I have seen them rot, I have seen the effects of frost damage and I have seen them lose the will to live after being under and over watered. It was the oddest thing......it had to of been poisoning, it had to be murder. **LOL** I salvaged a few cuttings for her, but I didn't even check the roots out, it was way too far gone. And this is why we are told to never let plants sit in water for very long. An hour or two shouldn't hurt too much, but over 20 hours.....that tends to be a little too long. I guess it depends on the plant, and what you are using for mix, but generally this is frowned upon. Proof is in the photo below. A picture speaks louder than a thousand words.



I had mentioned in my post yesterday that the Dragon fruit seeds (Hylocereus) had started to sprout. When I went back and looked at my blog entry, I relized the seedlings were barely visible, so I took a few more shots today, with better close ups of the seedlings.




If you look really closely (clicking on the pic enlarges it for more detail), you can see that a few still have the seeds attached to them. Planting these particular seeds is a great thing to do with kids. My kids actually tried something new.....lol. They were amazed at this weird fruit I had brought home. The seeds are so viable that kids can plant them, and watch them grow, without testing their patience. Mine didn't even have the chance to ask "when are the seeds going to grow?" & "how much longer?"



So my hubby planted a few of these seeds in some rock wool, and they have sprouted already as well. We mentioned the thought of continuing these seeds in rock wool by buying a bigger cube of it (the ones in the pic are 1 inch by 1 inch), and letting them live in rock wool alone. We are going to try and get a hold of some bigger rock wool cubes. I think it will be fun to see what happens, and which ones grow better.

Baby Dragons!!

I don't think I have ever planted seeds that came up as fast as these "Dragon Fruit" seeds (hylocereus). It has only been a few days, and all three cups of seeds have signs of life. In each cup I used, there are at least 6 seedlings. I am going to let them grow a couple more weeks before I transplant them into separate pots.




Another one of my Lipstick plants (Aeschynanthus) is starting to bloom. It has been in direct sun for a while, turning the top layer of leaves a nice hue of purple. I have to admit that close up, the plant looks somewhat burnt, but at least it is throwing out some flowers. My Longicaulis lipstick plant is almost finished blooming. This one has been flowering non-stop for a couple months now.



I have made a new "blogging" rule for myself. I read so many blogs in the run of a day, but never really comment on them, unless I have something to say. I am going to start leaving comments on every blog I read, so that the blog author knows there is an audience. I am quite honored when people leave comments for me, so I figure I should return the favor and leave comments on other blogs.

Thank you everyone that stops in once in a while, it is nice to know that someone, somewhere is reading my blog with interest.

Dragon Fruit.....Hylocereus Undatus

I remember a movie where all these rich folk would come together to watch this "rare" plant open it's flower. They had to do it at night because the flower opened at dusk and closed up again before morning. I was always intrigued by the idea of this......but honestly I didn't even know if it really existed.


I had never tried a Dragon fruit before..I always look in the "weird fruit & veggie" area, but had not convinced myself to buy one. So today when I went to the grocery store I gave in and bought one. They are a bit on the pricey side at $4.oo a pop, which means that I won't be buying these in bulk, and I won't buy them to often. BUT, I had to try one, and to my surprise it was actually quite good. It is a mild tasting fruit (I compare it to a bit of melon and a bit of coconut) with almost the same texture of Kiwi.

It was after reading Mr Subjunctives blog about those grafted moon cacti, that I realized there really was a flower that opened for one night, and it comes from the same plant as the dragon fruit. Well I had to have one, so the easiest way was to plant some seeds. From what I have read they are quite easy to sow. But I don't want to wait years for seedlings to grow up. Then I remembered that Mr.S said the base of those colorful moon cacti were indeed Hylocereus (most of the time). Wouldn't you know, WM has them on sale right now.




I bought a couple of those moon cacti, and within minutes of entering the house, Off With Their Heads!!. DH wants to try and root the colorful moon cacti, even though I have told him they can not survive on there own. But, when I cut off their tops, I guess I did leave a 1/4" of the base. So he thinks, maybe it will work.




So it finally all came together for me. The Dragon fruit, the moon cactus base, the night blooming flower......I had no idea they were all from the same plant. Maybe one day, when the Hylocereus is ready to open a flower, I will invite everyone for miles around to come and sit around my plant, and watch it open. Just like the movies....lol.

Does anyone know of any movies that had the night blooming flower in it?

Why I love Nasturtiums (Tropaeolum majus)

I can feel Spring coming on. The air smells fresher, the snow is melting and plants around the house are starting to take off. I am more of an indoor plant enthusiast, rather than an outdoor one, therefore I don't plant things that require a lot of extra care. Here is where Nasturtiums come in.


I bought a package of seeds last year and spread them into a couple containers, and in my pitiful front garden. They all bloomed beautifully and once they were done, I collected all the seeds. This year I think I am going to start them early to give them more of time to mature. Mine was still flowering up until the first frost.

(photo courtesy of Flickr)

(I hope I "borrowed" the pic properly,
this should link back to the original site I borrowed the pic from,
I take no credit for this pic)

What is great about these you ask? It would be shorter to list what I don't like about it. Nasturtiums thrive in poor soil and they are very drought tolerant. My kids love them, because they can pick the flowers and make someone a little bouquet (there is so many flowers that picking a few is not even noticeable). Wait, it gets better, Nasturtiums are edible, both leaf and flower. I tasted the leaf, and it tasted somewhat like peppered lettuce. I can't even think if I tasted the flowers. I can't say it was gross, but I can't say it tasted great either I would be iclined to use it in salads, more as a garnish. The flowers can be used as garnish or decoration as well.

(photo credit to flowersoul.com)

I will continue growing Nasturtiums as they are easy and almost free (buy one package then collect the seeds from it, and you never have to buy more). They are so easy to care for. If you want guaranteed flowers in your garden or container plants, think Nasturtium.


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dAmN mEaLy bUgS! & Yellow Datura's

Damn I hate these things. They make my skin crawl, and it grosses me out to no end when I see them. Really, what is their purpose? Do they really need to be part of the food chain? Would the world collapse without them? Can they at least stay off MY plants? Especially the Hoya's?!?

I took it as a photo opportunity, and grabbed a couple pics. If you really want to see them up close and personal.....then click on the pics, either way they are still gross. Then I promptly did the q-tip dipped in alcohol thing. The alcohol just kind of melted the mealy away until it was a wee blob of brown. And of course every other mealy bug ran and hid away, because I can't find another. Now I will be on Mealy watch for a week. GROSS!!


On a better note.....Double Yellow Datura's. Found some seeds today. I am going to have the best flowers for miles around.....lol.

(photo courtesy of TM Seeds)