Well, I'm far from an expert, but on first glance I wouldn't think it's a regular carnosa. The woody stems, light green colored foliage, and thickness of the leaves make me think it's something else. But the buds and flowers do look like carnosa. Maybe a cultivar of the plain old carnosa? I could be totally wrong and it could be the regular grandma's carnosa, but it makes me think of another hoya. What that hoya is...I don't know! I just can't think of it. I'm sure you'll get an ID here. Gabi

Tracy, There really is a darwinii species (though I've never seen it myself...) and Ted Green describes it on his site and has a pic. It looks nothing like tsangii (or so-called DS-70) and from Ted's notes, it's probably both rare and hard to grow. I get a little annoyed when vendors sell common plants with uncommon names. I don't know what you paid for your tsangii, but I've bought two big ones at Lowe's, the biggest in a full 10" pot for under $15. He lists nothing with the name incanna - a lot of times, when a capitalized name follows "sp." it's a place that one was collected from. But I've never heard of a place called Incanna (though that doesn't mean it doesn't exist!) Personally, I would ask the vendor where they came up with the name and where their plant originated. It would be great if you could post a pic of the plant... As for your plant list, I find bella to be a real mealy-magnet, so keep a close eye on it. Kerrii, multiflora (which is really javanica), tsangii ("darwinii") and australis are easy to grow. 'Krinkle 8' is a cultivar of carnosa, so it's easy, too. I find polyneura a bit fussy, but once you get it's needs down, it does well. Serpens is one I've killed a few of over the years, but I have one that's doing well now. The key is to not let it get too dry OR stay too wet. It's a bit of a tight-rope walk! Denise in Omaha

For anyone who wishes to order hoyas from Thailand or any other foreign country for that matter,make sure that you can get a phyto certificate to accommodate your shipment before you pay for it. Customs has been getting their panties in a twist lately and destroying any shipments that are not accompanied by proper documentation. I had a rather large order of rare hoyas coming from Thailand that were shipped on 8/11. The box finally showed up at my house on 8/26. EMPTY!!!! All that was in it was a piece of paper from customs stating that the cuttings had in fact been inspected,were found to be insect and disease free but due to no phyto ( my fault) with the shipment ,my hoyas were destroyed. Bad part about it was that instead of the idiot inspector destroying the box as well, I mean hey if you trash the plants,trash the box too,they found it amusing to go ahead and send me the empty box. A letter would have been fine, my name and address were right on the box!!! The Thai vendor who is someone that i've dealt with for several years now was gracious enough to replace the shipment for me,with a phyto this time. That box was mailed last Monday 9/14,it arrived in N.Y. Saturday 9/19 and it was at my house yesterday 9/21,sent EMS. It took exactly 1 week from the day of shipment for me to receive the order and everything was in excellent condition. david

I think a thick yet simple wood mantle, wide on its face so that it comes down at least as far as the top of the large, pinkish stone left of center. Not sure how many inches in rea life - perhaps that would be 8 inches at least? I would like to see it supported by similarly simple wood corbels. I would probably seal the stone first to see what the colors look like before deciding on the color for the mantel, but I would probably go on the darker side to help balance the black firebox. Once that is in place, then you can pick accessories, but I would look for a few more substantial pieces, rather than a lot of small stuff. I would try not to put anything all the way to the outside edges of the mantel - pull them in a bit, or they feel as if they are trying to escape! LOL Let the ends of the mantel help define it as a mantel, rather than just a place to put stuff.