Oh my! My apologies. NOW I understand what the problem is. Apparently, my definition of "round robin" is not what is generally understood in the forum! Where I grew up a "round robin" was basically a group of people gathered into a circle. They paired up for a given activity. Ideally the circle kept going until each person had paired up with every other person in the circle. I have never heard of a round robin where a mailed box actually travels around the country from person to person! In any case, a single box traveling across the country was not what I had in mind when I suggested a 'round robin' -- of course you are right - Hoya cuttings would not travel well in a case like that. I was envisioning people in a circle - i.e., the "round" part. I have no idea where "Robin" comes into it! LOL :) SO -- to clarify for anyone who wants to join in. Let's forget about calling this a 'round robin'. Here is what I envisioned in the beginning. Let's say I am a person in the group: 1) I list 2 haves and 2 wants to the circle of participants in Sept 2006 2) I find someone in the circle who wants a cutting that I have, and I send it to them 3) I find someone in the circle who has a cutting that I want, and they send it to me ) I list 2 haves and 2 wants in March 2007, and we go again. 4) Everyone in the group hopefully receives and sends out at least one small cutting in each round. The idea was to get newbies involved so that they would get cuttings, and in the next round hopefully will have gained or grown enough to send cuttings to others. In the case where a newbie has no cuttings to send, they would send postage. No large cuttings would be planned for unless someone gets really ambitious about sending. The idea being that it in invoked every six months or so. Each person will end up sending and receiving each time we invoke the list. As we go along, newbies will be growing and able to send cuttings of their own in later rounds. Does that make sense?

Sometimes you see people posting when a new stem grows out of these rooted leaves, and sometimes they proudly say, "See! These CAN grow into a plant!" Truth is, they can only grow into a viable plant if at least a small bit of what's called meristem happens to be attached to the petiole. Meristem contains cells than can turn into stem and other plant parts, with some nudging by hormones and other plant-produced chemicals. These cells are basically stem cells that can start quickly dividing and so lead to the plant growing. If they are not present, no amount or nurturing is going to help, as the plant (the leaf) does not "know" how to grow a new growing stem point and does not have the means for it, so it just sits there growing roots, the only thing it knows how to do. Come to think of it now, I wonder why those valentine leaf farms do not deliberately include a tiny bit of stem under the ground on the leaf - to surprise future growers with a shoot more likely happening. I guess cutting is two seconds more time-consuming (you're not simply snipping off the leaf anymore), and with larger area of the cut there is a(n insignificantly) higher probability of infection... But if they did that, I might even be ok with them charging $12 for it. Maybe. Do leaves regrow in the same node if you snip them off, I wonder? If they do, the producers might not be including the stem because they do not want to cut into it and have to wait longer for the new leaves.

To clarify, that's not a Hoya plant, that's a single leaf. As Pepe suggests above, w/out a portion of the stem attached, it's unlikely to grow into a plant. It may grow lots of roots, but it's most unlikely to grow into a plant, sorry. I hadn't heard of them being sold in the Green Sponge, which sounds like what Florists in America refer to as 'oasis', a medium often used in vases as a base for cut flowers.

When it comes to vegetative propagation, more specifically - leaf cuttings, a few plants have preformed primary meristems on the leaves, often referred to as 'foliar embryos' - like Bryophyllum pinnatum. These embryos are already a complete plant with root initials and a stem or shoot bud. Other plants which can be cloned by leaf cuttings, like Begonia, form wound-induced secondary meristems that arise from the process of dedifferentiation of groups of cells and their redifferentiation into a meristematic region which can then give rise to any of the plant's organ tissues. If you know something about the ability of human stem cells to be guided to differentiate into healthy cells which can then be used to replace diseased cells of specific organs, it might help you with the concept of dedifferentiation and redifferentiation. Or, think of potters clay. When wet, it can be molded into a large bowl and allowed to dry until it holds it's shape; or, it could be rewetted and molded into a figurine. If the plant has neither of the 2 capabilities I outlined, it would be necessary to include at least 1 meristem from the stem the leaf is attached to. Many plants are capable of growing roots on the leaf petiole (leaf stem), a 'blind' cutting, but w/o a meristem along for the ride, no shoot can form, no matter how long you wait. Before I was aware of this, I tried starting a leaf from a schefflera. It rooted within a couple of weeks, but after 3 years and a quart of roots - no stem developed. I'm a curious guy, so I went looking for answers so I could answer the question when it arises, as it does from time to time. If May (the OP) is still around: It's quite normal, not at all unusual, for the first 2-3 or 4 leaves on any new branch or stem to be very small and internodes between these leaves very short. Each consecutive leaf will be larger and each internode will be longer as the branch extends (within the limitations imposed by other cultural factors - light, temperature, nutrient resources ..... until by the 5th leaf or so the leaves are capable of reaching full size. Some of these tiny leaves grow no larger than 1/5 the size of a mature leaf. Al