Hi Toni :) Not sure of the age , but I bought it last year in flower. When it was finished, I put it under lights in the basement [kindof neglected the watering lol] This spring and summer, it went outside in our back yard, in dappled sun. I just started noticing the tiny flower buds about a month or so back. Since I brought it in, it has had natural sunlight,and is in our coolish room. No fragrance as yet,but the little flowers are not open, can't wait to smell them :)

hello, Toni, thank you. i am surprised by the steph. also; and unbelievably, it is getting flower buds again. I used to have it in my upstairs bathroom which gets southern exposure where my hoya is. the hoyas blooms all summer but the steph. would not. i think it was 3 summers ago, i repotted it into a wrought iron hanging basket that is lined with coconut husk fibers (so it is not pot bound) and hung it underneath by balcany outside. it bloomed all summer. when it was time to bring it back in i decided to leave it in that hanging pot and sort of suspend it in a retangular cache pot. the bottom of the hanging basket does not touch the bottom of the cache pot so the roots gets air circulation. when i water it, it never sit in any excess water because it always flows out and i wait until it is almost completely dry and sometimes it is completely dry before i water it again. from that time onwards, in the summer it is in my sunroom with western exposure and in the winter it is in the family room with northeast exposure. this past summer, i gave it a variety of fertilizer: some organic, some chemical; whatever i was giving my orchids, i was giving to it so it was lightly and almost every time i water: 20-20-20; msu; 10-6-16; worm casting, epsom salt, coffee, & sprayed it with superthrive, spray & grow, FE/soap/water mixture, and pure neem oil/soap/water mixture. i still spray with neem oil mixture about once a week (i am paranoid about getting bugs in the house). also check out the info re aspirin on google - had sprayed with that too. I guess I tend to experiment. if the current flower buds mature to flowers, this would be the 3rd time for this year! I hope i remembered everything. puglvr, if you are reading this too, I also used the above sprays and fertilizer on the gardenia too.(actually, in all my plants) sorry I forgot to include them - I use so many different things and i don't even pay much attention as to how much or when: I just do what i feel like at the time and try out whatever i read on the different threads, and buy whatever i don't already have. just remembered, i also use hydrogen peroxide in the water once in a while. sue

As the seeds separate from their cone like state, you can pot them the way you'd do any seed. Use a fine seedling soil and cover the seed, not burying it too deeply. Keep moist, not soaking wet, and warm; wait for them to germinate. I didn't have any problem with 'damping off' and when the tiny seedlings had two sets of leaves I put them in bright light. As they became a bit larger and strong, I transplanted into peat pots usually three to a pot. Settle them in with a watering of root stimulator and watch them grow! Have fun, happy growing! Sheila

Does this warrant an emergency repot? What's the emergency?It doesn't look like your plant is about to go down for the count. No, it doesn't warrant an emergency repot, and, if it was my plant, I wouldn't repot now unless I cut it back fairly hard. I know ideally this should be done in spring, but will it be ok to wait the 7-8 months before then to do so? Yes, you can wait - no problem. An emergency repot would be one that's immediately required if the plant is to remain viable. Not a scare tactic - just a fact - the plant is far more likely to succumb to the ministrations of a first time repotter than it is to root congestion between now and somewhere around the vernal equinox (Mar 21). When roots come out of pots crowding is already in an advanced state. This can't be said with any degree of certainty. Roots are opportunists. Most growers believe roots have extra sensory perception and choose to grow toward a moisture source or where superior aeration or nutrition is found. In fact, roots grow wherever conditions are favorable and don't grow where conditions are not. If roots find the air and moisture levels beneath the pot to be favorable, they will grow there whether or not the rest of the root mass is congested. I water most plants daily in the summer. This isn't necessarily because they need it, but the soils I use allow me to do this. It takes me about a hour to water when I do. it would take 2.5-3 hours if I had to check moisture levels of each plant. I have a 60" tempered glass table in my front garden that is supported by a very large overturned ceramic pot. The glass is textured so allows air beneath the pots as well as moisture. Some, but not all plants in pots w/o legs will have roots poking through the drainage mesh within a short period (a month?) after repotting. Whether it occurs quickly or not at all depends on species and shape of the pot bottom. It seems like there are some hard and fast rules about when it's ok to repot so I wanted to make sure I wasn't breaking some kind of plant law by doing it this late in the year. No hard and fast rules, and I've seen no evidence of anyone trying to rule someone else's world. That said, there are times better than others to repot. or prune hard. As plants go through their growth cycle, their response to root work varies to the extreme. The ficus I repot today will be pushing new growth within a week. If I repot it in January. I might not see new growth until late May, and the plant will be more vulnerable in the interim period because it's defenses are closely tied to its metabolic rate. Someone elsewhere mentioned that these could possibly be "feeler roots" coming out of the drainage hole due to water sitting in the pebble tray which happens sometimes, even if the plant itself is not rootbound. Is this a viable explanation? No, but it's a shining example of a horticultural myth. I tried lifting it out of the pot to take a look at the roots and it wouldn't budge a millimeter... OK - it's rootbound. The best response isn't to repot it now. In fact, if there was that concernthe blooms should come off. Your plant isn't circling the drain. If you have grave concerns, and you shouldn't, you can wait until the bloom cycle ends, then "pot up" (as opposed to repotting) using ballast in the bottom of the pot to eliminate the lion's share of excess water in the medium - unless you're using a high quality medium that holds very little perched water. Ballast Can Make Life Much Easier. To pot-up, cut 4 vertical slits in the root mass, remove the mat of roots at the bottom of the pot if there is one, and repot into a larger pot. This will allow you to avoid all the unnecessary stress of repotting now and ensures the plant will gain a good measure of vitality that will go a long way toward ensuring a fast recovery when it's repotted. It goes w/o saying that anyone is free to do as they wish with their plant. As usual, I'm looking at things from the plant's perspective, nearly acting as an advocate for the plant, which means the only argument would center on what's best for the plant. Al