latifolias, new hoyas, addictive personalities.........

Ummmm Gabi, you haven't even begun to tap your potential hoya space!!! Priorities girlfriend, priorities!! Just give me an unlimited budget, and Carol's hoya catalog, and we can fix you right up.

Karen, your greenhouse is fabulous. What a professional, clean, looking space. I am sure it will fill up nicely in no time at all. Do you even bring the green house hoyas in during winter? I have a neighbor with an EMPTY green house. I live in an older neighborhood, and this one was built in the 1940's, and was built to last! Every time I leave the house, it occurs to me, that I really could use that space. HA! It is so permanent though, that I would have to move my hoyas across the street, and I just can't bring myself to accept that idea.

Keep the pictures coming, I am seriously having much more fun than my cleaning plans would provide.

S

Little plant stand and big multiflora in corner next to the balcony door (in the "dining room"). By the way, I am lucky enough to have another sliding door in the bedroom, which you can see in the bedroom table picture....it gives GREAT light. The whole apt. is wall to wall windows...*almost* as good as a greenhouse!!

Haha! Sara, I know I have plenty of space for more hoyas ("technically"), but I don't want to get kicked out of the apartment! You are a very very bad influence....love it :)
Do you have ANY idea how tempting it is to put a hanging hoya in front of EVERY window? The east wall is literally ONLY windows. Remind me NEVER to invite you over....my apartment will be LOADED with hoyas, and then I'll get kicked out for sure! Hmmmm....do you have any room for a hoya pal????

Gabi

Sara - clean house vs play plants or take pics of plants??? No contest!!! LOL Yes, we do have several large windows (put in with hoyas in mind!), one of which is a bay window. And thanks, I love my greenhouse, and am out there all the time - DH doesn't mind, he says it keeps me off the pole!! (just kidding...) If you look in the upper right hand corner of the pic of my screened-in porch, you'll see part of a new greenhouse going in. Too bad you don't live closer, because I got it from a guy who dismantles greenhouses (his family used to run a large nursery) and sells them by scrap metal weight - 7 cents a pound!! I got a 20' wide, by 36' long by 12' high greenhouse frame, AND a 4' by 4' greenhouse fan along with two shutter windows, and other miscellaneous things - for one hundred dollars!!! Like I said, too bad you don't live close, because he has a bunch more. All that's required is making your way through thigh high weeds, over about 55 acres of river bottom acreage, with a toothless man who knew just where everything was - can you just hear dueling banjos? Actually, he was very nice, and I was very excited!
Karen

Gabi, I have an entire finished basement that was originally designed to be a duplex. I am sure that as long as the fridge is filled with beer, DH would have no problem moving down there!!! HAHA!

You have no idea just how bad of an influence I can be. My friend Helen had one hoya last September. With in a month of hanging out with me, she had 20, now she is well over 65.

Gabi, just keep slipping them in......subtle works, then one day they notice that maybe there is a plant there that wasn't before? And, irony of ironies, when I try to give a way a non-hoya, or a common hoya (my mom admired my rubra once, and I sent her home with it, fully knowing that I could get another in a matter of hours), just hear the protests fly.

They do come around, eventually.

S

LOL Karen, I live in rural MT - far fewer green houses, but auto junkyards, tractor junkyards, and lots of beef!! Yes, I can picture it, and hear the banjos!!

Too funny about your greenhouse keeping you off the pole! It's good to have a DH with a sense of humor. When I start to complain about remote control monopolization, Bryan asks me if there isn't a plant that I need to go mess with!!

S

That's my trick...but instead of beer I keep the playstation games comin'. I try to slip the hoyas in, but it just doesn't work! So funny that you mentioned that about your hubby...about the protests when you give away a plant - Sam will deny it till the last breath, but I am constantly waking up to "come look at this hoya...I think there's a peduncle on it". Haha...you are right - they do come around!

So fun to see how everyone's windows and doors are blocked with hoyas! Sara, I think you take the cake as far as quantity. (Although I stopped counting mine long ago and am in denial about the sheer #.)

And bathing with hoyas - now that's taking dedication and affection go a entirely new level! LOL.

OK, Ladies. Firstly, I am of Sara's mind ... Gabi, you have so much unused hoya space - we could fit loads more in there! Second, I am green with envy at Karen's greenhouse (again!) - I'd just live out there. Well, now that I've moved from a teeny-tiny apartment to a HUGE house with lots of southern, eastern, and western window exposure, my green pets have been able to spread out some (although, I still have not accessed two bedrooms because of lack of plant life - Carol, my order's getting longer).
So to begin with ... my bedroom which has a master bathroom that I DO NOT HAVE TO SHARE WITH ANYONE (mrahhhhhahahahahahahah).
Picture 1 - bathroom window

Picture 2 Bathtub "area"

Picture 3 small left bedroom window

Picture 4 - small right bedroom window with hoya incubator

Picture 5 - bedroom bay window up

Picture 6 - bedroom bay window down

Picture 7 - south living room window (oodles of space to go) - just don't tell my roommate

And, my dining room table - with one small multiflora/javonica barely surviving ... (LOL)

OH my gosh....snort snort....that is one hoya piggys' heaven!!!! Beautiful. And such great light!!!

Yes, Carol ... and it is all your fault! (teehee)

Another person who bathes with hoyas! I think DH would put his foot down at hoyas in the bathtub...but then again, if I got rid of him, that would free up how much more space for plants? Hmm....

I keep telling him we need to move to a bigger place...ostensibly for our 11-month-old baby, but in reality....

Ann - is there a hoya you don't have???? Good thing you moved to a bigger place! Gorgeous plants, Ann, all of them!!

See, Gabi, Sara and Ann are right - where there's a will there's a way in finding more space for hoyas!! (teehee)
Karen

Oh, my goodness, Karen. I look at your greenhouse and realize how many I am missing. Don't worry, though ... I've got a list that is longer than my rap sheet (just kidding, I've got no rap sheet). Hmmmm ... I wonder how long it'll take to fill up all of the empty window space throughout my house ...

Ann....all I can say is WOW. I mean, that lighting you get is amazing....and your bathroom is a jungle! I love it!!
Gorgeous hoyas and set-ups everyone!!
Gabi

Ann, how DO you bath with all those plants in there? You must have separate shower, right?

Gabi, that serpens takes up the whole window. You are so lucky to have all that bright light, and from what I know about what you have bought lately, you should have it all filled up in no time...I personally would hang more, at least it gets them off of the tables and floor space... but the thing is, once you hang them, all of the sudden, you see MORE room on the tables and floor space, and then you need more plants to fill up that empty space. It is a viscious cycle! A bigger house is the answer.

Macon - love your view! And for those of you trying to slip new plants in, you can always say it was a friends plant and she didn't want it anymore or that it wasn't doing well and she wants you to nurse it back to health. Back when I had someone to answer to, I just used to treat the plant situation like I did with new clothes or shoes, saying "This old thing? Oh, I've had it for months!" I don't live with my current boyfriend, so it isn't a problem....he makes jokes about the plants using up all the oxygen in my apartment, but i don't know how he'd feel about living with them long term. I gave him a Christmas Cactus last Christmas, and figured he'd let it die and throw it away, but he has actually nurtured and cared for it all this time and it looks great, so maybe he will be ok with all my plants. I plan on having a greenhouse anyway, so the house won't be overly filled up.

I will have to get some camera batteries and show you all the dark cave I have to live in with all my poor babies.

Ann, I think that you oinked at me a little while back there..........I think that was just not nice - you win the hoya pig blue ribbon!!!! HA - the fair is in town, and the newspapers are filled with 4H stuff. How did you get all your plants to California, and keep them looking so awesome? Really, that is my biggest fear, having to move with all of my hoyas. Please tell.

Now, as far as sheer numbers go, honestly guys, I don't even have 100 hoyas yet. I am really close, I am at 98, after this last shipment from Carol, but I know number wise, you all have me beat. Or else I am just not utilizing my space as well as I thought. Though I don't have hoyas in my bedroom yet, just my huge epiphyllum, a jade, and a slowly dying schlumberga. I guess I am just filling one room at a time.

Jen, go get the darn batteries....I am sure that you have had dead batteries since your trip to the greenhouse with gabi and eddie. Just kidding. But seriously, I would love to see where you keep your hoyas, and maybe a squirrel or two. HA.

By the way, Gabi, when you guys go to Asiatica, let me know, I may have to give you my list, and some shippng $$. I am so jelous that you all get to hook up and have hoya field trips. My sister rented a short yellow bus for my niece's third birthday party, and took all the daycare kids to McDonalds....Maybe you guys need to ride the short bus to all the hoya growers, then it really would be like a field trip for the special hoya collectors.

S

yeah, I know about the batteries. I really have been busy with school, and since the hoya trip I found 3 batteries in my kitchen junk drawer, I figured I would add the three fresh batteries, even though the camera takes 4...and it worked for a few pictures, then started giving me the "change battery" message again. The few times I have been in the store, I forgot them.

Ok, because I mainly did groupings last night, and was getting tired, I figured some of my hoyas were not adequately represented.......so, here is my kitchen window above the sink. Mainly my small leafed hoyas, and intensive care cutting unit. It has H. sp. biak, kanyakumariana, cv. mathilde, sigallatis (hanging) and various cuttings including the infamous sticks that are not thriving, but I haven't thrown in the towel yet.

Here is my vitellinoides, and heuschkeliana, and a small cutting of wibergiae - stick sibling to the ones above the sink, but with leaves.

Far corner of the kitchen, opposite the wrought iron display, is callistaphylla, compliments of Carol on ebay......some ebay sellers rock

edited to add: the white spots are not mealies, they are hard water spots, because I mist my hoyas twice a day to prevent spider mites, but only dust and wash off hard water spots once about every six months!

This message was edited Jul 27, 2007 8:59 PM

Here is small section of dining room that I missed last night. My pajama clad reflection was in that window, and I am not mentally healthy enough to post a picture of THAT!! HA!

Ann, your bathroom puts my measley bathroom hoya occupancy to shame. Here are the two lone hoyas above the tub. Yes, like Gabi, I have tons of untapped space to fill.

Gabi, I have a separate shower. But I tell you what ... I've lived in an apartment where the shower and the tub were one, and I assure you that I ducked and weaved every morning when I took a shower - I've never had happier plants!

As for Ms. Oinkeroonie (Sara) - yours are bigger, therefore you get the louder oink (lol)

I have lived in my new house for a month, now, and I still can't believe how wonderful it is for my hoyas - the walls are a real icy-white, so they are very reflective. I am pretty sure I can even grow some carnosas on walls across the room from the windows (when I score some at a local big box store I will test my hypothesis).

The amount of new growth on my plants is, frankly, unbelievable. Now I know what people who live in sunny climes feel like - someday I hope to be overrun with vines.

oinky ann

Sara, FYI (since you asked) - the hoya is such a hearty plant that I did not lose one ... NOT ONE plant on a 611 mile journey from Eugene, OR to Chowchilla, CA in the the heat of the day. They were hotter than heck, I can assure you.

I had to move them in two sets, the first in my car - I packed everything in boxes and stuck them in my car so as not to get any direct sunlight on them (but they did get hot in those closed up boxes), so when I got those to Chowchilla, I sat them in a cool, shaded room for a day and misted them with warm water.

The second set to be moved were all put on a rolling rack (you know, one of those big one's on wheels from Costco) and then plastic was wrapped around the outside of the rack (in about the middle of each level) to stabilize the plants (i.e. no fall down). Again, those were in an an excessively hot 22' moving truck for two days.

The only damage done was to any part of a leaf that touched the plastic stabilizing wrap was burned to a crisp - I ended up removing many leaves from some of the bushier plants.

As with the first moved plants, I rolled the rack into a cool shady room and misted with warm water. The next day I started putting them into their nicely lit spots and they've been happy ever since. Even a couple pottsii's that I'd gotten from eBay, that just sat there doing nothing, have new leaves - in just three weeks!

One thing about moving from cooler and humid clime to sunnier and hotter clime is that I water a lot more. Oh, my do I water so much more! Who cares, it's cheaper than therapy!

So, Sara. If you ever decide to move - your hoyas will make it through like little troopers (even the sp. Tanna Island was standing at attention)!!!

Awesome Ann, thank you so much. I have most of my hoyas in rather heavy pots, with trellises, but I think that those big, huge, heavy plastic storage boxes would work, and possibly even stack cris-cross style. What a great way to move your plants. I don't have any plans for moving, but that is a thought that periodically stresses me out.

You are right, watering plants is so much cheaper than therapy! Sometimes I feel a bit guilty, I don't know what a lot of my kids' gymnastics tricks are called, but just ask me about one of my hoyas.....

S

Sara, maybe it is the pictures, but I don't see how any light gets in with those awnings! I have 3 foot eaves all around my house and they block so much light, I have barely had any flowers since moving here. The only time the light gets in is either where the skylights are or early am or late in the afternoon when the sun is low enough in the sky to creep in sideways. I hate it. My last house was so bright that I had plants in bloom in the middle of the room.

I love love love that kumin-blahblahblah (sorry,but still have to look that one up before spelling!) Its the one in your kitchen window in the ceramic pot with the flowers painted on it.

Ahhhh! I'm so jealous of you guys with your lots of space and huge windows! I live in a fairly small apartment with houses so close to me on either side i could probably reach out and touch them. The only good room in the place that gets light is my "porch room" (a room that used to be a porch but someone enclosed it) which isn't heated in the winter, so plants can only go out there in spring/summer. I went nuts so far this year buying plants...and I have no idea where I'm going to cram them all when I have to start bringing them back in from out there. I already have plans to buy some more fluorescent lights just to get them through the cold weather. I would post some pics...but mine aren't displayed very well :(.

Willow, I am here in the northeast too so know what you mean about the long winters with plants... the flourescents do help, nothing is as good as real sunlight, but they are still better than light that is too low. Some people even have plants blooming under them.

I went to the hardware store and got two long under-the-cabinet light fixtures, then replaced one bulb with a cool bulb, since both fixtures came with warm bulbs, and I heard it's best to have one of each. The whole deal wasn't even $30, this winter I may get another set. I need to somehow set them up so I can fit some of the larger plants under them, as well as small ones. My plants are all crammed into certain spaces as well, you can't worry about ambiance when you are trying to utilize every little ray of light coming in! So, I feel your pain!

Your pictures are wonderful and so much fun to look at. I have all my plants in mixed up places right now as Paul has decided to reroof part of the house so I am having to move things all about (what a mess.) In fact I have to come up with a shady area at another house to move ALL of the ones on the side of the house (around 300 or so little plants) EEE-GAD!
So I can relate to all the "moving plant" stress. (both the plants and MINE.) Ha
Sara...where did you get those cute little trellises above the kitchen sink. The one like the kanyakumariana is on???
Marcy

Willow, you should post your pictures anyway......I am sure that things don't look as bad as you think!! Honestly, I was looking at mine after I posted, and thought: the wall in the living room really isn't that blue, the opaque shower curtain that I have in front of the glass blocks looks really tacky at night (but prevents major sunburn in the morning), and compared to Karen's bright, airy curtains my house looks really dark!! But it isn't. I have to remember that everyone here is probably looking at my plants, not how truly dusty my floors are!!

Marcy, those awesome little white trellises are actually the little fence sections that people use outside to put borders around flower gardens. I bought them at Joann Fabric when they clearance out all of their seasonal things around July and August, as the fall/Halloween things come out. They are metal, but there is a little ring on the side, where they could hook together. The trellises and pots I like are fairly expensive at regular prices, so I wait until the season is switching, and buy tons to just store over the winter, then come summer and spring, usually I just have to purchase soil and pearlite.

Jen, I know it is hard to see the light in my house, but the awnings are metal slats, and like fences that you can see through, they let light in, but it is more filtered. If I did not have the awnings on my west and south windows of the house, it would be brutally hot. Honestly, if I don't pull the sheer curtains by 4:00, I have leaves sunburn even with the awnings on. I went outside and took a picture, hopefully it will help....... Even the glass blocks on the east side of my house will act like magnifying glasses, and will cause intense sun burn spots on my leaves. Hence the tacky opaque shower curtain, which really doesn't show up during the day - the light makes it less noticeable. I used to tape paper over the blocks, but Bryan was pretty appalled, so I needed another option.

Sara

Thanks for relating to me Bhavana! I already have two light fixtures set up in my spare bedroom...now known as the "plant room". I just went to HD and bought 2 regular shop lights. I bought the "daylight" bulbs and got these results from my globulosa...

Ok ok, lol, Sara, ya talked me into it. You're good at that...first ya talked me into adding cuttings to my order and now sharing pictures of my "mess" lol.....
Please pay no mind to the crap in the background...I just have way too much stuff for this small place, so it all goes out into to the porch room.