You win some, you lose some.
It has been kind of a mixed bag for me plant wise this year. I had some stuff happen to me that was significantly traumatic, and my recovery from that caused me to neglect a lot of things I am normally quite attentive to in my jungle. Happily, my collection and I are on the mend but there have been some losess. I have been feeling pretty rotten about those, the most significant being the loss of my beloved Hoya javanica. All I have left is a single cutting I am frantically trying to root, and will probably be buying a replacement for just as soon as I can.
Joining my javanica on the death list is also Dischidia pectinoides, not surprising there. Was going to ship it out to another user but it died before I could. Then there is Hoya campanulata, cummingiana, davidcummingii (had that one rooted and doing great too), lacunosa "Langkawi island", and Hoya latifolia. All lost. Such a rotten dissappointment on all counts. Especially javanica and latifolia.
Still, there have been some wins. I wanted to vent my woes and share some of my happy Hoya exploits of the summer here. Some things have done very well, and most I was able to save before they declined to far. So, here are some of the season's Hoya exploits I am happiest about!
Langkawi Island bit the dust, but Thai Clone rooted like a champ and has a peduncle forming alread.
This cutting of H. truebiana I recieved this year is already putting on new growth!
H. surigoaensis rooted like a champ. Thrilled with this gorgeous lass.
Speaking of gorgeous, my H. villosa from cutting is putting out its 3rd new leaf for me.
Hoya praetorii keeps budding up, eventually I will get it to bloom before blasting. And my H. darwinii continues to thrive, which is always a solid point if happiness for me.
Lots of new growth and a peduncle forming on my H. imperialis.
My little H. chinghungensis is growing like a bad weed.
No new leaves yet on my H. meredithii yet, but it sure seems to be doing well so far.
And of course, flowers.
H. shepherdii
H. bella
Comments (9)
Kim
7 years agoMore of this year's flowers-
H. heuschkeliana
H. sp DS-70
H. lacunosa "snocaps"
H. obscura
inconspicua
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Comments (11)The rant wasn't wasted Ken; I read it with great enjoyment first thing this morning. For me, the loss is much more economical than personal. As you get older there is the realization that some things just aren't meant to be. I don't mean settle or overtly accept things as they are. Do the best you can, learn from your mistakes, and then move on. However with the prices of our conifer beauties...their loss can momentarily sicken me. Anyway, just taking a break from yard work. My husband will be delighted that 12 rose bushes came out today. We badly need rain here. The ground where I was digging is dry and will drop a soaker hose on the bed once it's cleaned up a bit. Haven't seen the sun for days because the Sacramento Valley gets fogged in. Daily highs around 45F to 50F is perfect working weather! Barbara...See MoreGardening: You Win Some, You Lose Some
Comments (8)Oh, that's terrible about the fruit. They must've needed to make jam really, really bad. Well I think maybe it's time for me to put a pin down into the hole of my gates. If anybody steals my gourds I'm going to be incredibly hacked off! One of the problems is that the park outside our back fence is lit all night. They are gracious enough to have disabled the street light that is only a few feet outside my back gate and that used to shine into my windows. If that was lit all the time then people would be able to see everything in my yard very well. I had a friend who lived out on the edge of town and had a couple of acres that had her garden totally stripped one summer -- in the night while they slept. The dog didn't even hear them but there were lots of shoeprints in the dirt, like maybe there'd been several out there picking. One of the neighbors said they saw a white Suburban on the road during the night at a time when normally the only traffic down there is people who live there. But I still don't know why a person would take soybean pods that weren't even totally filled out yet -- DH thinks it might've been birds (?) But birds go to bed at night, don't they? I suppose something could've been out there yesterday afternoon when I wasn't out there and I easily might not have seen anything back there. We have doves that visit the yard. I don't know if they'd eat the soybeans pod and all ?? I'm thinking I might go look up that website from the other thread, to look at that camera. There have been lots of times when I could've used one. DGS had a few days where kids came up under the carport and egged his truck and wrote things on his windows. He sat in the office and watched out the window and nearly caught them one night, about midnight. But he didn't recognize them. I felt like he should've sat there and watched them till he knew who they were, but that's his precious truck and he just wanted them to go away so he ran out the front door yelling and they ran away. It would've been nice to have a camera then, so we could share the pictures with the police. Even if DGS had recognized them, it still would've only been his word against theirs....See MoreWhen will I ever learn? KD Story.
Comments (31)I feel bad for you in this situation. It always upsets me when people don't realize that work such as you are doing is actual work. Same with RE brokers. When we were looking, we found a realtor we liked and she ended up doing tons of work on our behalf. She was so helpful to us that we were bent on making sure she got a commission when we purchased. So even if we saw a house at an open house and she wasn't involved, we made sure to get her involved so that she'd get her commission. She told us that there weren't many people like this. But back to kitchen design. Sometimes it's hard to know where to draw the line between "work" and what people need to do to get the business. We interviewed 4 kitchen designers. One came out to the house to take detailed measurements and spent weeks trying to reel us in. He had beautiful design ideas, but he refused to talk price with us as he had us come in numerous times to look at refinements in the design. Great design, but when we heard the price we almost keeled over. Two other KDs came out and took measurements and put a design plan together. We didn't ask them to come out-- their business plan involved taking measurements and putting design plans together and hopefully we'd like the plans and choose them. They, too, spent some time on their plans and time with us discussing their ideas. The fourth KD said he wouldn't come out to measure without a $2000 deposit, but we should take rough measurements ourselves and he would put together a rough design. If we decided on him and paid the $2000, he'd come out and measure and do detailed elevations. Ultimately, we went with the fourth guy, who did the least work up front. We just liked his ideas best, even in rough form. So ultimately, the first 3 KDs did a bunch of work for free-- but this is how they told us they wanted to work. Now we never led the other 3 on like your potential clients did. Nor would we have thought of taking their designs and shopping them around to others to try to get a lower price. But I'm sure that we left these people feeling like they wasted their efforts with us-- when in one case the price was all wrong and in the other two we just didn't like their ideas. So where does one draw the line between auditioning KDs for the best idea and totally using someone?...See MoreRECIPE: Some you win, some you lose, and some.....
Comments (3)Ale (or beer) and cheese soups have a long tradition in England and early America, Westelle. In my experience, nobody is indifferent to them---you either love 'em or hate 'em, with no middle ground. We attended a Madrigal dinner at the local college, where one of the courses was Stilton & Ale Soup. What surprised me was how many people actually liked it. Or pretended to, at any rate. I enjoyed it. Friend Wife took one taste and passed....See MoreKim
7 years agoThanks tlbean. I was assaulted earlier this summer and I was an utter wreck afterwards. My plants bring me so much joy, losing so many and amongst them my absolute favorite Hoya in the wake of things just made everything harder. But life goes on, sometimes just have to remember what you have and be greatful for it. I kind of went into hiding after for awhile, but I am blessed to have lots of wonderful people in my life who helped me through it all.
Here are some pics of my once glorious javanica-
PROJan Sword-Rossman Realty 239-470-6061
7 years agoKim thanked Jan Sword-Rossman Realty 239-470-6061Kim
7 years agolast modified: 7 years ago
aurorawa
7 years agoKim
7 years ago
tlbean2004