I took a lot of tips from Tdogmom in preparing for my talks. There were lots of good tips in the thread you read. As I am not actually teaching, my talks are shorter--30-45 minutes to garden groups. My talks in schools take at least an hour. I speak directly to students and bring lots of realia. I call my livestock my "butterfly zoo." So I'm Mrs. S- and her Butterfly Zoo. Kids love it. I have developed a powerpoint--simple--to show photos and keep me on track. I keep my talk to the basics, stressing how BFs are beneficial and a gauge of how healthy our environment is. My handout lists 10 host and 10 nectar plants that are best for our area, plus websites including TDogmom's blogs, Monarch Watch, Journey North, and the GardenWeb. I have photos on the powerpoint of each of the plants I talk about. A lot of these photos show BFs on the plants. I cover the BFs most likely to be encountered in our area. I do life cycles on these BFs so that people can recognize any one of the cycles they might find. I always bring potted plants to show. As Sherry mentioned, the concept of host plants can be hard for some people to grasp. They think that BFs lay eggs on any plant and don't realize the specific needs of each species. I spend quite a bit of time explaining this. I don't spend a lot ot time on container raising as most people are not interested in this. If I was presenting for teachers, this topic would be very important. I may be doing a workshop on this topic this fall, as I've let it be known I wouldn't be providing caterpillars to anyone that hasn't been trained to take care of them properly. When talking to kids, they want to know how to raise BFs. So gear your talk to your audience. I have 3 photo albums that I take with me. One shows the building of my garden and the plants. One shows pictures of the different species that have appeared in my garden, and the third is a life cycle album of the BFs I've raised. I also take my camera as people are interested in what I used to take the photos. I bring field guides, The Lifecycles of Butterflies book, and Wagner's Caterpillars of Eastern NA. And, finally, I have run off the pamphlet from Monarch Watch on becoming a Monarch Waystation. I think it's great you have the opportunity to speak. I find it very enjoyable and rewarding. I've gotten lots of wonderful feedback. I include my BF email address on yahoo so if people have a question, they can contact me. I have a return engagement with one of the garden clubs for next April. They've called me and want to come see my gardens. HTH, Sandy

Oh, I gotcha. I was just wondering why they wouldn't come with labels. I would also guess that there's a lot of cross pollination going on in the wild, so the people you get them from probably have no clue what they really are. Well, you are always welcome to post pics for ID's here. It's like a puzzle to figure them out! Not to mention that you post very beautiful photos. By the way, I would probably tag this one as H. pubicalyx/carnosa with a question mark (cause it's definitely not one or the other), but that's just me :) But if you're not planning on trading, then it wouldn't matter. Gabi

Thanks so much! Sue, I grow this one inside in my FL room...our winter was very cold and that room is colder than the rest of the house, but during the day it gets very warm(south) windows. Mike, since its on the south window, it did get direct sun a few hours a day...its growing appx. a few inches from the window. Sberg, thank you...I'm really not complaining, lol...just a little disappointed because I've never had a big white bloom on any hoyas before and always wanted to see it in person. It looks so much like my KP and KQ blooms, I was hoping to see something a little different. But, still very happy to see the blooms for sure. Tish, I guess its making up for it...I've been waiting for blooms for almost two years!

haha i know i can bee impatient... the rooting of hoyas is completley new to me and this one was the last one to root and put out any growth so i was worried about it... no it never lost a leaf and always looked very healthy besides looking a tiny bit dehydrated oh really hot days, but now its been doing great! when i stay that i keep adjusting how it grows is that the vine has a mind of its own, i keep trying to wind it one way while its growing up and ill come outside a few hours later and it will have unwound and the wound around another way... kind of like its saying, "your not going to tell me how im going to grow! ill do what i want!" haha. i just stuck the cup inside a nice country/apple themed sugar container and then hung it, i still have it clipped to the yarn on the hanger growing up, but when it gets long enough ill probably loop it around the hanger. ive got many more pics to come, just need the time to take pics of all my babies to post. one of my favorites thats coming along beautifully is my H. cv. mathilde, with is sooooo darn cute! i cant help but touch the cute little leaves when i go by it and look at all the new leaves and see the little silver splotches on them. SO CUTE! i promise there will be pics to come of all my babies!