The plant got knocked off the grow bench on its head in late Sep (squirrel, I'm sure), which broke the main half of the stem off at the base and uprooted the other half, which was barely rooted anyway, so I took a couple of cuttings and started those. In all honesty, the plant was growing very poorly, and I could see that the stem was compromised at the point where it came out of the ground. I remembered I'd taken a picture of it for this thread, which made me reluctant to toss it, but as I think back on things, the tiny size of the rosettes when I pruned it and it's subsequent refusal to put roots down should have told me something was wrong. This plant's history includes a long stay at my business. I noticed it was doing poorly, so at some point I decided to take it home for an outdoor summer vacation. What I think happened to it at work is, the window washers we have come in every 2 weeks aren't careful around the plants on the window sills. I think they likely allowed some of the soap solution they use on the windows to get into the soil. I've tossed or given away a lot of aeoniums, but this is the first that gave me any growing issues. Al

I've been meaning to respond to this thread since you posted it, GT. I looove the topic, and am just having a hard time finding time to organize my many many MANY thoughts on it. So I figured I'd just take my collection section by section and pull the plants that I feel fit in this category. Here is today's installment. Hoya australis ssp. australis This won't be my only australis entry, in fact it's not even my favorite australis, but let's face it, australis is one beautiful Hoya. You know how psychologists proved that we are attracted to faces that are symmetrical and prefer composite images (that average out features) to real faces? To me, australis is like that composite face. Round and full like the moon, perfectly proportioned, with a pure matte spring green color. Then australis ssp. australis has that peachy down all over it, like it's been gift-wrapped for a baby. Hoya sp. Lata Iskandar (Aleya) A lot of Hoyas fall into the "you had to be there" category because they have leaves that seem to be made out of special materials. These leaves are firm, thin, round and cupped, but unremarkable except that they have that same faint silky iridescent sheen as cagayanensis. And it's easier to see on this plant because the leaves are broader and catch more light. Hoya sp. Kunming Kina Hello, Kunming Kina. A lot of Hoya people like this plant and it's because it's very tolerant and the leaves are atypical for the genus. Classic "rare-plant-that-you-can-trust-a-beginner-with." You can't really tell from photos, but the leaves are thick and plump, like someone inflated them a little bit too much, and their veins dig into their flesh like the scoring on an unbaked loaf of bread. They don't drip or spring from the vine - they just hang stiffly, the way little girls hold their arms away from their bodies when you put a fancy dress on them. It's hard to describe but this is one of those plants where the vine and pedicels are very appealing - smooth and thick like plastic cables - the same is true of meliflua, but, of course, Kunming Kina is a discreet mannerly size. Hoya fungii seedling This is a bit of a departure because you can't see the leaves very well in this photograph and it's not a plant you could just pick up at your local Hoya vendor. This is one of the seedlings from Sue's fungii, maybe crossed with something else. I got it on a trade from a lovely GW member, who grew it, and as you can see the leaves are so heavily splashed they are 75% silver, and of course they have that amazing fuzzy fungii backing to them. I just really like this plant. Hoya dasyantha Ah, perfect. Now we have a perfect example of GT's criteria. The unphotographable leaf. Dasyantha has such interesting leaves, because they are this inky dark green, but they aren't that thick, so the light shines through them beautifully, creating this subterranean effect like light sluicing through the dark waters of a pond in deepest shade. It has very beautiful ornamental veins that make it look like a gothic window if you catch it right. Hoya oreogena (IML 1214) NOTE: I purchased this plant as graveolens - please note the IML#, and see the explanation of the naming issue here. Ah-HA! Another good criteria-meeter. You can barely see the leaves, and I took this photo at the same time and location as the others. It's because these leaves have this silky matte look, like washed silk, and dark green color like something you'd see at the bottom of a well. As black as they are green. I don't even know how to describe what makes them appealing. They're hard and uneven with crisp curling edges, and they're just interesting somehow, like that girl on the subway with the not-pretty-face you couldn't stop staring at. I've always liked this plant from the day I got it. Hoya balansae Actually, this is the plant that oreogena most reminds me of. They have leaves of the same shape and size, except balansae's are kelly green with thick lichen-y camouflage. I just really like the way the surface of the leaves have this rough granular look to them, from the heavy speckling, but when you touch them they are smooth and hard, like stones rolled paper thin, then shaped into leaves. Hoya parviflora I don't know whether other people see this plant the same way I do, but I just love to look at it. It's like lacunosa's edgy big sister, with spiky plum-colored hair and long sharp nails. I just love all these plants with small long dark dagger leaves. They look so ornamental and so mean. It's awesome. Hoya aff. thomsonii (EPC 215) "And now for something completely different…" This is probably the single most eye-catching plant in my collection. I'm not saying it should be, but it is. Even if you bury it in the middle of a flat, it catches your eye every time you walk past, almost like it moved. Which is fitting, because it looks like something that would move on its own. Hoya pandurata I bought this plant 100% because I'm a string musician and this is the Hoya named after string instruments. But I ended up liking it a lot more than I thought. Its leaves mayyyybe look like some kind of a lute, but their appeal is in that flat grey-green color, like dry lizard skin or a piece of sea glass. It grows kind of inconveniently, like lobbii, on long arcing stems, but since it's so little that just makes it adorable, as it's always sticking it's arms out and away from the group, showing off its pretties. Hoya sp. Queson If you asked me what one plant out of this group you should buy, I would hem and haw and never give you a clear answer. But if you quick held me out in front of an oncoming subway and wouldn't let go until I gave you an answer, I'd immediately shout "Queson queson queson" because in my gut, I feel this is the most deeply enjoyable Hoya there is. It grows FAST, like a weed. But it's pretty, like a model. Really pretty. It's like velvet wrapped around elegance. You expect even the leaves to smell like perfume. Hoya teletifolia (EPC 232) Look how pretty this is! It's like retusa's big sister! (And then acicularis is teletifolia's big sister!) The reason these plants are so likeable is that they are way out of proportion, like a daddy-long-legs or a praying mantis. They just end up looking like a jumble of bones or a sea creature. A photo can't capture the way every time you pass them, your hands twitch, wanting to gather all those long leaves up in a neat pile, rap them against the table to even it out, and put them back in place, organized. Hoya surigaoensis Cheater! Cheater! A photo can capture how awesome those leaves are! Yeah, I know. So sue me. Hoya aff. scortechinii (SRQ 3019) Ah, now here's a good candidate for sure. I will collect anything with the name scortechinii on it, ever since getting my hands on this little baby. But this is the best one. This is the real deal. The others are not the same, even the real scortechinii that I bought from CB, which is also cool, and will be on this list later. So what is so great about this plant? You can't see it at all from the picture, can you! No, you can't. Well, the leaves are nice. They are thin and crisp, like those expensive mints you get at symphony fundraisers that snap in half with a little snick. They are a cool mint green color, too, with hard sharp edges and a jagged claw tip and a hollow curving belly. But really what makes this plant beautiful is how they grow tightly together, like the huge scales of ornamental plate mail. This, I think, is what LOTR elves must model their armor off of. Hoya sp. Bogor, Hoya acuta (IML 0079), Hoya pallida Maybe acuta doesn't look too fancy, but everyone should have one. The leaves are so simple and perfect and elegant, like a raindrop. Even when they are massed together, they look fantastic. This is the no-bad-hair-day plant. The J. Crew model of Hoyas. The one that is so classic you forget to put it on lists, but really, it's what every plant wants to look like. The golden mean. I actually think the leaves on sp. Bogor are a little prettier - longer and darker, so the flecking stands out more, but the internodes are spaced further apart, so it's a toss up. Hoya aff. acuta (EPC 759) Speaking of acuta, here is my new love, aff. acuta. Jack calls these leaves "" and even in my conditions you can see an inky spray shimmering over the backs of the leaves. But what really makes these leaves beautiful is the fact they are long smooth spear tips that put all the neighboring leaves to shame with their tame round shapes. This plant is not the warm fuzzy part of the jungle, waiting to be churned up into medicine to cure cancer. Nope, it wants to be on the tip of a poison dart. It's hawkish.

Hi Toe, Someone else could do better on that one. All I know for sure is to keep the potassium level high in the nutrient, having a good bloom/fruit formula. I've been worried about it too since I'm trying heirlooms. You gotta be careful, because some tomatoes just crack because it's in their DNA like Cherokee Purple. But the cracking I'm worried about I think happens when there is a step, or quick change in nutrient, temperature or watering. When it gets ripe the skin gets taught and below soft, so rain or sprinkling water can trigger it (like sweet strawberries), changing nute strength can do it, and from what I can tell most worrying is that we can be in situations where the temperature fluctuates suddently since our babies aren't buried in the heat sinking ground. So if it spikes in temperature variation I think you can forget about heirlooms. Back to DWC, besides the problem of rapid temperture changes if you're outside, because the roots have no heat sink that are in the air, if you're thinking that all the watering will trigger it, I'm gonna guess it's the opposite as long as you run your system with a pretty constant level. But if there is a big change in the water level I'm sure that would split them if they had that tendency. Your probably need a way to automatically siphon or float valve in water to keep the level constant. Get some crack resistent heirlooms like Thessaloniki, Google "crack resistant heirloom tomato"

So how did it turn out? We are building as well and I hated all the plans out there some more then others. They were either lacking, or had qualities that I have in our current home. If you are still trying to figure out the master set up I can sure send you what we chose for our set up. Then bathroom is smaller but doesn't lack in function, also we have our master in that same corner and we have a narrow window above where our bed will be way up high and went with narrow windows on each side of our bed. I also recommend that you go to a lot of open houses that have walls in the foyer when you walk in, look at different designs and layouts, see what you like and don't like. On paper vs visualizing in your head is so much more inadequate then actually looking at a home with super small bedrooms, or obscure walls. Your plan may work for you in your head but if you can actually walk into a home that the foyer is blocked with wall 5' in front of the entrance you may rethink where you put your stairs. I saw a few different options where you could sneak in the stairs with a little bit of tweaking to your floor plans. Also, we took a floor plan apart and it is part of 2 different plans plus my own tweaking. We went to our local small town home building lumber yard and they have ppl there that draw this stuff up for a living, I asked how much my plans were and they didn't charge me as our contract buys his inventory there. and find yourself a craftman contractor, one that is great at what he does, small time not a big company builder that turns out tons of houses in a yr. Ours does one per yr, he delivers quality, integrity and he doesn't bat an eye when you want to change things a bit on the interior. He built my in laws massive addition and I watched the man work, he was awesome! Find someone who will work with you look at your finished plans and tell you that wont work or maybe another way to look at it. Build your house the way you want to but first, go look at some open houses that are similar or have some of the same things you have in your plans. Best of luck! I feel your pain of finding the right plan, late nights, research, consumed by what you need and want. When your house plans feels right and you have come to where you are confident with them you will know it is right.