What great ideas. That croton is fantastic, tsugajunkie, Such fullness and health in the center. Most houseplants seems to lose leaves in the center. That one clearly loves whatever you're doing with it! I think I'll get two or three bougainvilleas and try them out in different spots both in and out to see what they like. I would love to get some kind of bloom on them beyond their first greenhouse blooms. If it can happen in Alaska (VERY impressive, Lindain) then surely it can happen here...eventually! Your tree planter idea is super. I have PLENTY of trees where that would work. It will be a great solution for keeping plants from cluttering the deck or draping themselves along the ground. Perfect idea! My house coolness varies, so I would do well with plants that like variation in temps. I thought cyclamen liked cooler nights, and I think I have some ideal spots for them. If the sun's out then it gets in the upper 60's in the house because of the normal and reflected light coming in the windows. Then nighttime cools down. We've had rain rain rain all week so it's been whatever the thermostat is, and I generally like it at 60-ish in winter. So, this home temp will have a good deal of variation depending on how much the sun's out. Plants that like it cooler I'm trying to keep in more westerly windows. One thing I'm more worried about is air flow. Houses are very tightly insulated up here. Winter will be a time of still air unless I introduce some artificial wind on the leaves. Don't know how much that matters, but it's something I think about. Even though I couldn't do my own gardening in the south, I do remember learning the hard way that houseplants need infrequent watering because of the humidity. Root rot found a home with me. When I moved to NH a few years ago my plants dried up and died. What a difference the dry winter air made! Now I'm used to plants needing more frequent water up here. In addition, almost all of the heating up here is oil-fueled furnace with radiant baseboard. This house has blown dry air (propane gas), which makes it even drier than most other houses here. These past rainy days have kept all the soils inside very wet, which I don't like. Our normal weather should return soon, along with some good dry days. during normal times of dry air I am misting them, especially the ivy. Well, I have some fantastic things to shoot for. Now it seems that I need to make my next priority finding more pots! Hello, HomeGoods and TJ Maxx...in May. I suppose I can wait.

These look to me more like aphids - I hope somebody else can confirm. They are too big to be spider mites. The fact that you saw dead ones near the plant is also a give-away - spider mites generally are not found like that. Do you see tiny webbing near the youngest growth on the plant? If you do not, they are likely NOT spider mites (if you do, then it's almost certainly them though). The infestation seems to be pretty severe (is that stem completely covered with them?) - BUT if they are aphids, the good news is that they are pretty easy to control. As you already found out, they get dislodged by a simple spray of water. Once they are off the plant, most aphid species can't get back onto it. Because of those highly crinkled leaves, it's very difficult to hit all the nooks and crannies with a water hose though. Best to take it outside and hit it with a spray from all sorts of directions very thoroughly. Some soil may be washed out, but it's way better than leaving any suckers behind. You can easily top up the soil. People have also successfully controlled bugs on H. compacta by completely submerging the whole plant, pot and all vines, into a bath or other container of soapy water (a couple teaspoons of gentle soap, not detergent, per gallon of water) for a few minutes to an hour or so. Your plant is large, so I am not sure if this is realistic. You need to swish the plant under that water so that it gets to all the hiding places, just like a spray should. The soap removes the protective coating on the aphids and causes them to die of dehydration. Soap solution can also be sprayed on the plant, but I think it'll be ineffective here because a spray bottle just does not create a stream forceful enough to reach behind all those leaf angles. No matter what treatment you choose, it's a good idea to repeat it, even after they all seem completely gone, weekly or so, a couple times, just to hit the ones that may have survived, before they breed. Good luck! (You don't need much here, but still...) A 40-year old wedding gift hoya is something VERY special, and I hope very much you can control these buggers.

Have you tried a pearl catch? It's like one of those long grabber claw things, but much smaller and finer. Can you get directly to the screw? Could you use really fine needle-nosed pliers or hobby tweezers? Can you get a screwdriver to the end of the screw itself, like you were doing it up? My thought is, if you can get to that part and have a cheap screwdriver you don't mind messing with, you could put a dot of JB weld glue on it (very strong two-part stuff) and them engage it with the screw and let it set (you'll have to prop it in place) or some other sort of fast-setting glue - maybe 5 minute epoxy....it hopefully will give you enough grip - downside is you'll have to dig the glue out of the screw slots to re-use it, and if you use JB weld it won't be easy. (I used JB weld to pull a broken-off quick release drill bit out of a bit holder - it worked perfectly. If you can get behind the screw, maybe you could hook it with a j-shaped wire, or even a cable tie?

Of course I have to trod after you, Lilo. Between the two of us, the film industry would go bankrupt. The one quote I have to agree with, is he one about SF writing and the rest of the literacy and entertainment world has not really acknowledged it's validity.