I've been avoiding this post because I knew there was going to be a lot of happy Californians talking about stuff. Two feet of snow but starting to melt-sooo, it's ice city like one foot lumps on the sidewalk. The weather reports from Washington D.C. are wild, aren't they? Sorry for sending you our weather, though we rarely get five feet at once, either. I hope the Cherry trees are alright. I haven't forgotten that one I bought by mistake. Not even the rootstock made it. They were selling them at K-mart. As we drove home the latin name kept bothering me-I knew I had read it somewhere. The monsters who send those and bouganvillea and Lady Banks Rose to Montana ought to be sent to summer school at a logging camp. 36 degrees on the porch tonight. A front coming out of Seattle is pushing the warm air ahead of it. I was wishing for an old-fashioned chinook wind. Haven't had any in years. You'd wake up in the morning to a howling warm wind and the snow would be gone in a couple days.

Debra- Cherry Sunblaze is three shrubs planted really close together. The little white roses in the pondside roses picture are actully two shrubs side by side. In the rose planter corner, the red in front Be Bop, is one plant but the pinkish white directly in back, Charles Aznavour, are two shrubs. Florabundaville has lots of yellow in front. Four plants of Sunsprite, one of Sunblaze and one of Julia Child. All planted in a row about 18 inches apart. Then there is a pink at the very begining of the row. Above that row are many more roses going up the slope which is not terraced except for the front row. They are all one of each of whatever. Have lots in there. The exception is Home Run, red single rose, visable in the looking up at my house picture. It is two side by side. The curved terrace and the mid yard have only one rose of whatever type but there are many roses and they are close together. In fact they are two roses deep (staggered) in the curved terrace and three deep in the mid part of the mid yard bed. Sort of football shaped.

Thanks for making us aware of this blog. I absolutely love it. You are a great writer, first and foremost, and I love the beginning - you really had me cracking up! Ok, I'm just gonna free-flow here. I hope that's ok. If you'd like to add anything in your blog, feel free. Or just ask me to and I'll add it. I will go ahead and add a few things now. In the meantime, here's my babbling... The unknown hoya looks like H. pubicalyx 'Pink Silver' (some call it H. pubicalyx 'Silver Pink' or H. pubicalyx 'Splash'). All the pubicalyx cultivars are gorgeous and have AMAZING flowers - if you like carnosa, then once your pubicalyx blooms you might just turn into one of us!! Anyway, there is no sure way to ID a hoya until you get blooms, but it looks like it's mature enough to bloom. As you can see, the care is very similar to H. carnosa. About the white leaves on H. carnosa 'Krimson Queen', you are right about the fact that it is better to take them off, technically. But I've read many stories of people who just leave them on, and nothing happens (including me...I have many many white leaves on mine, and it's just so pretty that I can't bare to remove them! No negative effects yet). Check the link out at the bottom of this post - you'll find it rather interesting. Amen about hoyas and mealies. I don't think there is a single hoya grower out there that hasn't had mealies at least once. I have tried a few things, and what I found to help almost immediately is this: rubbing alcohol as a topical to kill the buggers (via spray bottle or q-tip), and Bayer Tree and Shrub (BATS) as a soil drench...1 Tbsp. per gallon of water. But like you said, systemics in general need to be used to do the trick...it's just that I'm partial to BATS. I also add about 15 drops of grapefruit see extract (GSE) to my mister bottle as a preventative - not sure if it works, but I do it anyway. Now, this is just an opinion, but I think eastern exposure is better than western exposure for hoyas. They really seem to like bright morning sun, but I have no real evidence to back it up. I think western exposure is fine, but they may not bloom as quickly in that position. About temperature. You're right that they can't get too cold. However, I thought I'd let you know there is a temperature scale (Warm, Intermediate, Cold) for hoyas. If you look at the David Liddle catalogue, he has the ratings next to each hoya (I can forward it to you if you want). I don't strictly stick to it (I will grow some "warm" lovers next to my cold winter window), but it's something that some hoya growers like to keep in mind. For example, H. serpens (a cold lover) almost died on me when I had it near the heater - as soon as I moved it to a much colder location, it thrived again. Anyway, in terms of your blog, I think what you have written on temp. is great - it gets too confusing when one has to worry about all the different temp. ratings, and I really don't pay much attention. So I agree that hoyas shouldn't be kept in temps below 65. I keep all my hoyas (except serpens) warm. Humidity: hoyas love it. A lot of us put pebble trays underneath our hoyas to add extra humidity. They really do love it. Watering: In general, they do like to stay dry. Better too dry than too wet (like you said). And if you're only speaking of hoya carnosa, then that's right on. But there are a bunch of hoyas that actually like the opposite (never to dry out...they like to stay consistently moist and can actually yellow, shrivel, and/or drop their leaves from "under"watering - lacunosa is an example). Again, GREAT blog. You really did a great job and I loved reading it. Thanks for inviting us!! Gabi Here is a link that might be useful: blooms on a branch with all white leaves (from Leon...AKA Langlin)

From what many of the growers in Australia ( I mention them, because they have been a wealth of knowledge for me) mention of their trials is that Humidity can play a big part as well as Filtered sunlight as opposed to direct when coming into bloom. I do believe with all of these factors that what you speak of Hyn are also causes. Rick