Nice ones, Karen! That variegated australis is on my wish list, and I'm hoping to get one this summer. But I am glad to hear it's a slow grower. The australis ssp. tenuipes I have is fast, fast, FAST and the other, ssp. australis (which I used to think was ssp. sana, but I've decided it's not...) grows pretty darned fast, too. I need some slow growers to offset the fast growers...

Do you know where I can get all the hydro supplies? I've found a couple sources for the leca stones, but not the little water meter thing or the special nutrients. I'd like to try one plant in it (maybe a tropical I'd otherwise murder...) and see how it does. How long have you been growing the var. kerrii this way and has it put on much new growth?

Denise in Omaha

Your hoyas all look very healthy - thanks for sharing the photos! Golden (keep em coming :0) )

Hi Gang,

Thanks for the nice words.

Well, the Hydro growing H. kerrii varieg. seems quite slow. I only bought it last Sept. & don't really see new growth yet. However, can you see it's rather lopsided? Because of that, it has to be on the edge of something like in the photo. Well, where you see it is on the edge of some furniture (& in front of a window), btwn my bedroom & the kitchen. I come around this corner a lot & fast & I bumped it accidentally & the whole thing went flying. Wet leca stones everywhere, they're round so they roll, right?

Can you guess that the branch that broke was the vine w/ 3 peduncles that hadn't yet set bud? Arggggggggg. I tried to save that vine but it was leafless so of course, it didn't make it. I don't know how old this is but am guessing it's quite old, Âcause these are such slow growers.

The particular Hydro supplier I used & who came to speak at my Indoor Gardening Society last fall was:

www.creativehydroponics.com

Creative Hydroponics
379 Amwell Rd
Hillsborough, NJ 08844

Hope it's OK to list this here, I have no financial interest in them, just bought their plant.

But 'cause this is so interesting & I had more Leca stones, I've started two other small Hoyas in Hydro. Helps that I have tiny lattice type pots, so I've set the lattice pots in a larger cup w/ Leca stones on the bottom & keep an inch of water in the bottom. I don't have meters for them but water every couple of days & they're doing well. I'll try to get pix maybe in a few days, but it's some H. nummularioides & H. bella. Numm does OK for me in mix, but I've lost several Bellas over the years including a beautiful variegate which is hard to find. Bellas can be very water fussy, they want more than normal moisture, but not too wet -- quite a difficult balance IÂve found.

Don't know if some of you remember, but some of us have grown H. kerrii varieg before w/ a lot of trouble. Not only very slow, but often aborts its new leaves, or grows them into the side of a heavy clay pot which will abort them.

This Kerri varieg I've noticed has leaves quite close together & then long stretches of bare stem, doesn't really present good spots to cut it. I'd thought I'd try to cut a few pieces make it less lopsided, but doesn't seem so doable right now. Maybe IÂll try that again later in Spring.

PG it's nice to see photos of your plants, you must be thrilled to have a new camera.

I think you are right in applying the name Hoya shepardii to your mystery Hoya. I found out the trick to blooming mine after watching it form peduncles left and right for over a year. This species mainly flowers in the cool weather of fall or if you can find a cool spot for it during the winter. If you don't water enough the buds will never form and if you miss a watering they will drop. I have had only mild success flowering this Hoya seeing as there are probably over 50 peduncles on my plant, this one's a fast grower and the blooms smell wonderful.

Mike

PG,

Congrats again on your new camera! Those are really nice and healthy hoyas you have there...keep the pics coming!!

PG, great looking plants!!!

Well thanks folks, yes the camera is so exciting! FINALLY I can show my Hoyas even tho' I've got far fewer than I used to.

Thanks Mike, those were interesting insights you shared abt my suspected Shepardhii. I keep that in the edge of a west window along w/ its cousin a Ceropegia sandersonii. I DO let them dry btwn waterings, but haven't lost any of of the penduncles & they also seem to lengthen, the senior one is probably 3 times the length of the one in the pix.

I'll have to work on the cool, I do keep the window open below them, but there's a radiator under the window sill, which isn't hot, so I must have turned it down a while back ('cause I've got 6 different Aloes on the sill). Maybe I'll try to water it a bit more often & see what happens. Very helpful (also reassuring) thanks!

Karen, I cannot see the photos! It said "This image has been removed or deleted..."!
Oh, I want to see those hoyas, too. Please help!

Xuan

Oh no, so sorry, I moved them into an album last night, not realizing that it'd move them from here. Well, let's see if I can get them back, yikes, sorry.

So I guess I'll have to learn to make albums first, then post the pix, yikes!!

Glad you got a camera PG! Nice hoyas and great shots...looking forward to bloom pics this Spring/Summer (fingers crossed..)

Gabi

Hi PG!

Great pics. I haven't tried my hoyas in Semi-hydro. I do have a few orchids I have been playing around with and one is finally in spike after 3 years in semi hydro media. I might have to try some hoyas this year.

Rebecca