Hi Karen, thanks for the answers! I potted in a mix of Black Gold All Purpose Organic Potting Soil, a little more perlite and a little orchid bark mix. I copied the ingredients below for you- is this a mix that you would recommend? The black gold says it’s a combo of: Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss, Composted or Aged Bark, Compost, Earthworm Castings, RESiLIENCE®, Horticultural Grade Perlite, Pumice, or Cinders, Organic Grade Fertilizer The better gro orchid bark mix says its a combo of: Dynamic combination of western fir bark, hardwood charcoal and sponge rock specifically formulated by a team of highly trained orchid growers I’m glad the pink is most likely nothing! I googled so long and nothing came up. I was looking at propagating in Case things went south, but Since it looks healthy I can definitely hold off. The Aerial roots make sense then! There are so many, and it’s hard to see them on others’ pictures so I wasn’t sure it was normal For general care I’ve read so many websites about Hoyas... So I’ve been watering around every 1.5 weeks when the soil feels dry and the pot feels light. It’s in a south window with cellular shades but hanging so high it’s not in direct sun yet. And I’ve sprayed it twice so far with diluted neem oil so it doesn’t get bugs. I’m in north NJ (I see you’re in ny- hope you’re ready for the nor’easter as well!) so when the spring and summer seasons come do you water your Hoya more often? Or do you still let it dry out fully between? Oh and the cat was not amused it was his feeding time and I was taking pictures of the plant thank you!!

@ Celery. Visualization, rendering images, did you use Kestrel white on the painted image of my house you posted ? I have been experimenting with natural choice lately. What color would you recommend for trim? Ironwork?

I'm so good! That's what I tell my family when I figure something out. Right after I did this topic I ordered a 3 pack of white vinyl erasers before reading the replies. :) Z, I saw those and thought how cool they are! It may be a gift for next Christmas. Cyn, when drawing you have to be specific on what type of pencil is needed. There are charcoal pencils, colored pencils, even liquid graphite pencils. Also there are different strengths of graphite for different projects. My dad (along with DS) was a civil engineer and I'd find green drafting pencils (wood) on his desk and swipe one. Wish I'd kept just one pencil. I'm good on pencil recommendations via all the money we paid for DS's tuition. 😊

Bengz - I have been pruning my shrubs for at least 20 yaars. I enjoy doing it. I do an adequate job most of the time. I did hire someone once to do general gardening and they weren't very good at a number of jobs I asked them to do, but I kept trying them on different tasks. When I asked them to prune, I was so surprised how instinctively good they were, that I focused all the work they did for me in the pruning department. I still have two very large Taxus, that they pruned that I have barely touched in years because I loved the outcome and they continue growing the way I want them to. They were entirely inexperienced and therefore inexpensive. They aren't available any more, unfortunately. I had hired a professional once specifically to do pruning and I had to stop them after a couple of attempts they were so bad. Some people just seem to have a natural gift. I have a small lot with a lot of mature trees around it and I'm trying to grow a lot of plants, so inevitably I have some areas where it's difficult to grow anything well. Between the shade and the tree roots, it's pretty noticeable that the conditions are not great. If you look at the internet photos I posted, that is what I was expecting to end up with when I bought these shrubs. And then compare those to the photos of my actual shrubs and I'm sure you can see that I would be disappointed with that outcome. So I may not ever end up with the ideal result, but I am hoping to try to improve them as much as I can. My usual, basic pruning skills seem to need an upgrade to figure out how to produce that improvement. But now that I think about it, I've only pruned the Holly that doesn't grow at all, once since I planted it and the other one I more or less left it on it's own to grow as well. So, maybe my usual efforts will give me better results than I thought. I did find a couple of YouTube videos that show moving and pruning a holly at the same time. So the Holly that has been barely growing, I am going to move in the spring and just use my basic pruning and see what I end up with. It'll be a good experiment. Thanks