If you want your friends to go ooh and aah at the flowers, then get H. onychoides. An easy plant to grow and bloom and spectacular, large reddish-purple flowers. The leaves are really beautiful on this plant and it's not too expensive either. I have found H. pubicalyx 'Silver Pink' (Pink Silver?) to be very free flowering. My plant blooms and then a new set of buds forms right after the last set has dropped. I had this plant blooming all summer and the fragrance at night is unbelievable. H. motoskei is really the "true" H. carnosa and H. fungii is almost identical to motoskei and carnosa, flower wise. If you have any of the carnosas at all, skip these altogether. Both Red Buttons and RHP are very nice, but the older foliage is very similar to the regular carnosa. New foliage is very nice and the flowers are a pretty dark red. I can't comment on diptera since I have not grown that plant, but I think the flowers are yellowish in color. You might also want to check out some of the plants with spectacular foliage like H. callistophylla or Hoya finlaysonii. Beautiful out of bloom and pretty flowers too. My .02 Mike

Debi, I wouldn't try to duplicate CN's mix - she uses a lot of bark, pumice, and I've even seen some leeca stones in her mix. I'm sure it's great for Hawaiian conditions, but wouldn't work so well here unless you like to water yours almost daily. A lot of people do use the orchid bark in with soil, which I'm sure works fine, but I still find that dries out a bit fast for my taste. Since I've grown so many succulents over the years, I prefer a mix that holds water longer because I've gotten used to watering rather infrequently... Brad, in my experiece, 'Pink Silver' is a slow-to-bloom cultivar, but I absolutely love it for the gorgeous foliage... All the pubicalyx cultivars are fast growers, and the rest seem to be more generous with blooms. I got my 'RHP' as a cutting in the summer of '06 and it's gotten so big, I had to move it up to an 8" pot this year. They're probably the best ones to start with because they grow so vigorously. Denise in Omaha

I've been putting off an update on my hoya, old and new, for a few months now, and it's really just been a ton of new root and foliage growth, no flowers unfortunately. I'm super stoked either way! However, I've found that I have a minor mealy infestation from my retusa and multiflora.... both have had issues with those since they were put outside... Currently treating all with BATS. But aside from that, all are doing well! So, first, i've got 2 neat plants from aurora, a splashy macrophylla and forbesii. The macrophylla, which i believe was a cutting, has some new vine growth. The forbesii, which was rooted, unfortunately doesn't show much sign of doing much, probably just doesn't like the semi-hydro it's gone into. There's also a diversifolia ssp. crassipes. Still sulky, but with root growth! Also, I have a free cv. Nathalie, I think is from you aurora? Then from Denise, I got a few cool cuttings! lobii carnosa ssp. carnosa both australis ssp. tenuipes and ssp. australis And coriacea, which has a full set of 2 new leaves, and more on the way! The tenuipes was hit by mealies, but is none the wiser, and is pushing new growth like a fool. I got 2 cuttings from Susan on ebay (beastlyflower2012), estrellensis (I wanna say it's IML 1256) and a replacement meredithii. I got a DS-70 cutting from a trade with a friend. I never realised how stiff the leaves were! I kinda almost killed most of my purchases from local places: curtisii carnosa "Krimson Princess" obovata splashy obovata pubicalyx "Pink Silver" multiflora (recovering from mealies) compacta pauciflora Not gonna bother with pics for non-cuttings... also #shame As for my Ric purchases, most, if not all are doing amazingly! Small leaved hoya: retusa (mealies, so quarantined) sp. EPC 595 "Eskimo" Mini kentiana sad lacunosa "Poonsak" krohniana aff kentiana IML 1282 ssp. epc 319 Running out of picture space.... Larger leaved hoya: incrassata pubicalyx "Royal Hawaiian Purple" nervosa finlaysonii potsii Topaz Queensland IML 0365 RHM 014-1 surigaoensis IML 1693 mindorensis and lastly, i have a tray of some hoya from Ric that are now in larger pots (roots coming out of the semi-hydro cups), and the arch from Gardino's. (compacta from a local nursery) archboldiana (which unfortunately I found fallen off the table today...) sp. NS 05-055 merillii sp India IML 1598 ilagiorum compacta Geez... I didn't realize how many I had... Whelp, thanks for looking and can't wait to see more updates from everyone else!

Some of them got their first watering yesterday since arriving. A few look like they're starting to have roots poke out the bottom or have a good amount of roots, so hopefully I will have blooms soon (if this heatwave keeps up), or in the spring. Still haven't put tsangii in the birdcage yet. I have nothing better to do today, so I just might toy around with that look. I have a white one that's rounded, and a brass/gold one that's square with a pagoda style top. Hmm, which one? Brad AKA Moonwolf