Hi Heather. Glad that dear sweet Oreo is doing well, aside from the itchies. Is he itchy all over or mostly on his feet? If it is primarily a foot thing it may be a grass allergy or some pollen that he's inhaled like ragweed. Allergies can develop over time although someone was OK with the allergin earlier in life. Could be a food allergy or combination of any of the following or more. Any new shampoo used? Flea stuff used? Fleas? Poison ivy or poison oak in your yard? Pet fresh? Gone to the groomer to get foofed up? Cedar filled bedding? New mulch in the yard? New food or new dog cookies? Pink? Around the nose or lips? Plastic dishes to eat or drink from? Any balding areas or crusty skin on the body? Sometimes a run of pred may supress the immune system enough that previously dormant mites like Demodex or Sarcoptic mange can start to cause problems. Need a skin scrape to see those guys under the microscope. Pink around the mucus membranes? Could be an autoimmune issue. Need a biopsy to diagnose that one. One of the more common allergins are dust mites. Something like an Ionic Breeze air filter will greatly reduce those guys. Is the itchy skin area thickened, kinda oily and darker than the surrounding skin? Could be a yeast infection. Everyone has their own cause for itchies. Maybe Sarah has more insights to add? She knows lots! :-)

Kevin, those are beautiful blossoms.. They must smell heavenly. Enjoy the warm nights if there are any left. Our trees do lousy once temps fall into the 40's.. Hi Pug! I wish I could say the same about the weather. I love the humidity and warmth just as much as my trees do. It gets hard for me to enjoy the cold every fall. I always wish I should of moved much further south when I had the opportunity. Even the Hoya's will be coming in as soon as this week(( Hope you are well. Good to see you as always. Mike

Kelly, you're right...there are no internodes on my aus.lisa either...hope it stays this way!....it's like a nice-sized rosette. Karen...so many hoyas have nice shiny leaves...and then there are those that look so dull...especially those with the remarkable venations...the leaves look so dull, but are brilliantly beautiful when wet...it'd be nice to have them always look that way. I wonder why some hoyas have such shiny leaves and others have dull-looking ones. Some of the hoyas, expecially the callistophyllas tend to have leaves that actually look dirty and dull....when washed they look magnificent...but, as soon as the leaves are dry, they look dull again. I'm just wondering if there's something natural that can be sprayed onto the leaves to make them look as gorgeous as they're capable of looking. I'd also try it on the finlaysonii complex...though their leaves aren't as "ugly" as those in the callistophylla complex. I wouldn't use anything that would harm the plants...just enhance their beauty. Sorry, the word "ugly" really isn't the case...they just lack the sheen seen on most hoyas. Do you know what I'm trying to say...I know I can be so dense in trying to explain myself! Best wishes, Patrick

Mike MN. go to the site Pug gave above for Hobby Lobby. Then up top of the site page look for "Weekly Specials" and click that then when that page opens look for "View Coupon" and click that and you will see a printable coupon to slip in your wallet to get the 40% off your purchase. Coupon ends Sept. 19th. A new one will come up for next week when the new ad is published but we never know the discount percentage. I looked at the trellis's but they are for pots bigger than I use normally. They are for 6 inch or bigger pots. I didn't pick any up today but could like said above put a smaller pot in a bigger pot to station the trellis. This would be easy for potting up because you would just replace the Hoya pot with the trellis pot and stuff soil mix around the soil cube of the 4 inch pot to fill in.,,,,,Debbie