Tuesday, October 31, 2006

H.pachyclada flowering again


I was surprised to see new buds on the peduncle of my H.pachyclada. It's actually only just finished flowering a fortnight ago. I know that peduncles will continue to produce new umbels but I didn't realise it would be so soon. I must ask the experts on Wax plant forum and see what they say.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

H.shepherdii / minibelle latest


Well Sandy my little cutting is getting closer to flowering and hopefully we can give it a correct I.D. For a while there I thought it was going to self destruct, half of the buds stopped growing and then fell off. There are thirteen left ( I'm not superstitious) so hopefully they will make it through. I thought perhaps because it was only a cutting with tiny roots the plant wasn't getting enough nourishment to sustain all the buds.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Hoya wall



This is the side of our building which faces south. I'm hoping this spot proves to be a good place to grow Hoyas, between the house and the boundary fence is all driveway so being able to utilise the wall is a good option (and a good excuse to grow more Hoyas of course) The eaves of the building protect the plants from direct overhead sun and the house next door being painted white reflects bright indirect light. Towards the end of the day the plants receive about 2hrs late afternoon sun. I'll have to monitor that as we get further into summer but so far so good.
The terracotta pots have a flat back with hole for hanging so I can move plants easily if necessary. So..... we'll see how things go and I'll post another shot of the wall at the end of summer, plus of course anything that flowers along the way.

Monday, October 23, 2006

Hoya lacunosa


We've got several H. lacunosa and this is the first one to flower. The different varieties come from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. It's a smaller Hoya compared to some and its growth habit suits a hanging basket or pot. The leaves are lacunose, which I understand means "cupped" or "sunken" referring to the effect on the leaves the raised veins give. The flower has a lovely fragrance and I've heard that when the plant is large with lots of flowers the effect of that is quite amazing. So for the records our little H. lacunosa flowered in the third week of October. 2006.

Monday, October 16, 2006

Hoya Subquintuplinervis


Just as the H. Pachyclada was finishing flowering I noticed two peduncles appearing on my other succulant type of Hoya H. Subquintuplinervis ( I must be getting to know them I spelled the name without looking it up) I realise these two must flower at the same time approximately because someone on one of the Hoya forums was saying they had received a cross between the two. That will be interesting to see when it flowers. Strangely enough we both agreed that the cross didn't seem to look like either plant. Anyway it's a race to see if this plant or the H. Shepherdii/Minibelle flowers first.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Hoya Pachyclada has flowered


Well my Hoya Pachyclada has come into bloom and for the record it flowered first in October 2006. The fragrance is beautiful particularly at night. It is a succulent fairly slow growing species so it maybe a while before I can take cuttings off it. It would be great if it was pollenated and gave me a seed pod, but I think that might be too much to hope for.