Episcia, Pink Variegated AV Babies, Goldfish Flower

My goldfish plant (Nematanthus) has it's first open flower. The rest of the plant is still in bud.....I hope so badly the buds won't blast and fall off. If they don't this little guy is going to have a ton of flowers. This goldfish plant was put under HID lights, which may be part of the reason it flowered, unless it is just that time of year for them, although I have 2 other goldfish plants, one is variegated, that are not in any way showing buds.I have grown AV's for a while now, and I have about 60 babies on the go in various different stages. I have a few leaves put down, and today I was checking for signs of babies, and I found some! I don't have many variegated AV's and I haven't put down leaves for many either. This is the first babies I have seen that are pink. They are so cute.So I got a few cuttings of some Episcia a couple months ago. I thought I had only two varieties, but now I noticed that I have three, and I didn't notice the whole time. I have never seen one of these in flower in person, only pic's of others. I know they like quite a bit humidity so I keep them in humidity domes. So far so good. Even my pink one has not lost it's color, but it is also under florescent lights by an East window.I realized when I went to add my photo's that my pink episcia has grown quite a bit since I last noticed. There are a couple new leaves, and I have only had them for a couple months. So the next two pics are the same plant taken a few weeks apart.

Rooting Hoya Leaves & some Hoya closeups &Brug Seedling

There is mixed controversy as to whether or not one can successfully root a hoya from a leaf, and then actually have growth above the soil I have quite a few hoya's so I figured why not try it out. I have tried Lacunosa, Carnosa, Kentiana/Wayetti although the Lacunosa seems to yellow and die quite quickly.
The only leaves that have rooted are two Hoya carnosa. Hopefully one year I will see new growth. The Kentiana leaf has not rooted, although it hasn't died.
I have also noticed quite a bit new growth on my hoya's since putting in florescent lights in my growing corner. I has to take a few close up pics, because I think the new growth is so beautiful. The last thing I want to mention today is in regards to my Brugmansia seedling. I ordered these from eBay after seeing one in a hydroponics store. It was in flower when I noticed it and I could not believe how big the flowers were. I was then told to smell them, and WOW!! It was very heavily scented but it was not overpowering. It smelled like a very mild perfume. My Brug's should have a double purple flower. I am not too sure how long they take from seedling to flower, I will have to google it later. Originally I had planted 6 seeds, but only 4 came up.

Space Violet & Pink Princess Philodendron

So I found a space violet at a local greenhouse a couple months ago. Of course I had to have just one. So I picked one up and brought it home. I did not want to re pot it since I figured it was from a decent greenhouse, so it must be okay. Again, my ignorance got the best of me. I have only watered it once since I got, so it obviously is not drying out too well. Then, last week I noticed the leaves were looking wilted. When I touched them, they fell off, they were rotting from the bast of the plant. I didn't want to do it, but it had to be re potted, cut down and *sniff* dis budded. Today it still seems to be slightly wilted, but I am hoping over the next week or so for it to perk up.I decided that one of my plants deserves an award. The "Slowest Growing Ever" Plant. And the award goes to my Pink Princess Philodendron. I have never seen a plant that does so little in my life. I got this early this past summer, at first I kept it inside, but seeing that it did nothing, I put it outside. Well the sun scorched it a bit, and it still didn't grow any. I think in the time I have had it it has put on two new leaves......one per plant as I have 2 plants in the single pot. I am wondering maybe if I should re pot it, because it too is in a mix from the same greenhouse, so maybe an airier mix might help. I also have it under fluorescent lights in my living room to give it a little push. Even though this is a beautiful plant with really lovely foliage, it is so freakin' slow growing that I just want to throw it...lol.

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.

Goldfish (Nematanhus) Flowers & Christmas tree

I was walking around today doing the daily plant ritual when I found some buds. It was on a goldfish plant that I snipped cuttings from in the spring. It has been growing strong and to my amazement, it is getting buds. I have not seen this one flower either since I have only had it from cuttings. I am not even sure which cultivar it is, or resembles, so I might have to do that once I see the flowers. Here are a few pics taken today.

On another note, my Black Pagoda lipstick plant has lost a couple small buds, but there are a few that are getting pretty big.

And being the Christmas season, I had to post a pic of our tree that we put up this past weekend.

Pointsettia & Crown of Thorns Blooming!

I have never really paid any attention whatsoever to Pointsettia's and I want to emphasize this. I knew what they were, but that was about all. Pft.....I thought people bought them for the flowers.........how ignorant I can be....lol. The foliage turns color once day hours are cut back, and I must say the foliage is stunning! I remember the big red and green point's you see at everyone's home around Christmastime, but I had no idea there were cultivars. There are purple ones, white ones, pink ones, and multi colored points. I guess they still get flowers, mine has little buds, but they are not what the plant is grown for. Well, needless to say, I had to get just one, I admit they still don't peak my interest as much as my hoyas, but I had to try. I have no idea if it will last until next season but hopefully I keep learning, and I will be writing about next year. Here's the pic.One of my constant bloomers is my Crown of Thorns....Euphorbia milli. Again this isn't a plant I had a lot of interest in, but I had to have just one, because I do like them. I bought them out of bloom because they were cheap and split them up. Both pots sat in South windows, but the one upstairs was slower at flowering......possibly because that would have been the pot I transplanted to. But since it started blooming, it has not stopped either. It is a cute little plant. It seem to lose it lower leaves quite regularly, but it continues to grow upwards. Since getting it early in the summer, it has put on at least four inches, and will probably have to be cut back in the spring.

And last but not least I am glad to see that my hoyas and gessies are still continuing to grow even though we are getting about 10 hours of light a day right now......I have had the lights set up since late summer. I hope all my plants can keep me going through the cold winter.

Kohleria & Annual Plant Shuffle

Well its that time of year where I start to see some of my plants go into decline because the sun just is not around as much. This year I have more plants than I ever had, so I have been doing the houseplant shuffle. I only have so much window space, and some plants naturally need more light than others. This is the time of year I am happy with my various pothos around the house and my heart leaf philo's. They can go absolutely anywhere and still be happy enough to make it through the winter no problem. One of my poor hoyas hanging just off from my North window just went into instant decline when the day hours got shorter, it's vines shriveling up into nothing. Luckily for it, a pothos in a South window can take it's place. I have had to add a couple fluorescent lights around the house to accommodate these plants, but yesterday, finally I think I got it. Here is a couple pics of my house right now.
So a few months ago I ordered a few Kohleria rhizomes from eBay. Never having grown them, was a bit nervous. But soon after planting and watering the rhizomes I got growth. A couple have been pickier than the others in regards to the humidity, but other than that, they seen to be growing quite well. A couple are growing in clumps with a few crowns, one is quite large with only one crown, and the other couple are still small and single. I can't wait to see what these look like when they flower. I have seen pictures, and they resemble the flowers on my alsobia dianthiflora, except these have vivid colors unlike the alsobia that is more a plain white with a couple little pink flecks on the inside. Anyways, here is a couple pics of my growing Kohleria.As I was uploading pics for this thread, I realized I wanted to put this in as well. I have a large alsobia dianthiflora (gesneriad) and for a few months I have been trying to propagate it, and I have failed a couple times. Well I finally got it. In a little deli container, with the lid on the whole time until it was rooted. I would really like to be able to make more hanging baskets of this one, as the momma plant is beautiful, hanging down almost a full foot. It looks like a net of tiny rosettes cascading down from the pot. It is just gorgeous whether it is flowering or not. So here is pic of my successfully rooted alsobia dianthiflora.

My Round Humidity Dome & Black Pagoda Buds!!

I wanted to do a little piece on the couple of humidity domes that I keep little plants in to see how they grow. This is my round humidity dome (a cake bottom and dome from a DQ cake). In this one I have a hoya lacunosa, a hoya kentiana (wayetti), a hoya KQ, a lipstick plant, a black pagoda lipstick plant, a goldfish plant (nematanthus), and a couple duplicates. They are all in one inch pots, and I keep it pretty moist in there. I am also kind of watching to see if these plants bloom faster than their parent plant. Small one inch pots should make them root bound faster. So I can see if this has an effect. I took all the cuttings around the same time a few months back, and since then they have been growing very nicely. As you can see in the pics if you click on them and make them bigger, there is a lot of aerial roots on the go in there. Eventually it will look like a mini jungle in there with every plant intertwined.So as I am taking pics of the plants in my humidity dome, I notice something......well......different looking on my black pagoda lipstick plant. Upon further inspection......BUDS!! I have never seen this one flower in person either, so I am excited. Right away I checked the momma plant, and sure enough, it too has buds! YAY! So maybe from the diminishing daylight hours.......although I can't even really be sure. The momma plant is in an east window, and goes quite dry, well bone dry before I water it again (I have under watering probs....lol) and the plants in the humidity dome, well they are obviously kept very moist, and they are under a couple fluorescent lights. So I don't know how they wound up blooming at the same time, other than the season, because they have no other factors in common.
So my luck lately with flowers are that they are blasting before they ever bloom. So I get to see buds, but no flowers. Just recently this has been re occurring with my hoya lacunosa and my other lipstick plant, so I won't hold my breath on this one either, but it sure would be a beautiful thing to see.