Dear Chaz,

You gotta love the wise Chase...the voice of reason in the midst of a major CHAD attack.

ROTFL,

Blanca

LOL! I have plants growing on my NEIGHBORS front porch. We planted the alley, the strip next to the building across the street....
Just rotate the plants around, put the hoya in the kitchen for a couple of weeks, then put a blooming hippi in the living room on the coffee table while the hoya gets back into the window, etc.
Tally HO!

Well you just watch out when they go on discount online... I might have to cut the internet cord because I am afraid I will go on another spending spree. And money is really tight here so I even sacrifice money meant for lunch just to have more hippies. XD

Glad you kept your Hoya. Twenty+ years is a long time and I don't think you can ever replace such a plant that has been with you for so long.

A lot of the plants I grow are for fragrance only (Citrus, gardenia, michelia, etc). Really, Hippies are just about the only thing I grow that aren't really fragrant..the flowers are just too beautiful. So right now, when hippie season is full on, I have been so tempted to get rid of so many plants myself which I have spent a lot of money on, these plants just aren't in flower now. I know I too will regret it later.

I won't even look at the sales when they start, I truly am out of room. The hoya does not get moved any more, it's in a 12 inch pot and stands over 3 feet tall on bamboo hoops wrapped around itself, I unraveled it about 4 years ago to repot and clean up a bit, the stems are over 23 feet long. It's bloomed spring-fall for me for years and years, only went one year with out blooms. I really do love the plant but was trying to figure room for more! LOL, I've got plenty of room outdoors for plants but with all the pests up here in New England I really want a green house so I don't have to move things in and out.
A lot of my plants are for fragrance too, I make allowances for the hippis (like this addiction gives me a choice) because I just love big bold stop you in your tracks shots of color! Musa, I'm dying to get a michelia alba, I found no scent on the figo :( .. I also have a hard time smelling heliotrope some scents just escape me. I used to have a very sensitive nose don't know what happened, guess just getting older.

I also have two twenty-year old Hoyas that bloom spring-fall. Listen to Chase! Mine does okay in a west window, and still blooms, so the Hippies get the primo south facing real estate. I am out of room too, but still crowded in two more this year!

Chaz, once that elusive job is found, can you go ahead with the green house/screen house? I hate to think of you suffering plant deprivation!

I am so glad Chase talked you out of getting rid of your Hoya! What were you thinking??!! Chaz, you've lost it!!! Good grief!!! Call me next time you're having issues, and I'll talk you down! My number is right at the bottom of my emails! :-)

I think Tally has a good suggestion... since Hippis spend some time dormant, you could always do the switcharoo, and move pots around! That's what I'm left with at this point... I am so out of room, it's not funny!

We did the shopping thing today... with dogs and horses and peacocks and ducks and barn cats, not to mention 4 adults, we need frequent re-supplying here... so off we went to Champaign. Everywhere we stopped, they had the boxed kits of the main three... although, I noticed that this years' main three consists of Red Lion, Star of Holland, and Apple Blossom. Minerva was absent from Lowe's and a few other stores. Interesting...

Anyway... I totally refrained from buying anything... except a few clay pots... and more reptile bark bedding for my medium mix... and some sale bulbs at Sam's Club to plant outside... mainly tulips, jonquils, and hyacinths. But no Hippeastrums! I'm so proud of myself! :-)

However... we have yet to visit the really nice garden center we usually go to... and I just know they'll have an awesome selection of Hippeastrum bulbs... and probably a few different ones this year. I'm doomed! We plan to go there in a few days... I'm so doomed! :-)

It does sound like they do carry Hippis then. I am on my way to Boston area tomorrow. I guess I just have to check out what are out there after work.

-GM

GM- I've only seen those 3 varieties in my area, all beauties but I've got them already. You may have better luck closer to Boston with different varieties.
Blanca- Yes gotta love that Chase he's the voice of sanity sometimes, sometimes...LOL
Beachplant-I am trying for a low mx garden so I only put Hosta and a few cherry and redbud trees out in the curb strip. The children and dogs in the area are a bit out of control for anything else, and their parents will steal the plants if they are special. Yep, Haverhill is a city with city problems.
Musa- I'm glad he stopped me from getting rid of it. I've got some cuttings that I root every couple of years just in case something happens to the mother plant. I was thinking I could just deal with a smaller pot of Hoya but the frangrance of a few flowers on the cuttings would never compete with a plant with 30 or more umbels on it at once.
Liza- I'm holding off on the greenhouse for at least another year even if that Job comes along now. Trying to decide if an addition to the house sort of a solarium makes more sense due to heating it, and the cost of running water and electric out to a GH. We had our second Freeze last night, not frost but freeze. Ugh, looks like winter is almost here.
Jodi- the problem is I don't have many hippis that go dormant! I just let them grow like you do. Those that do go dormant will in the next month but once the weather/light changes they start to pop and then I'm really stuck for room as the winter bloomers have their leaves when the spring bloomers are starting to grow!

If only these were the worst problems the world faced huh?

Ok... solution number 2! Go up, young man, go up!

I'm out of conventional space, myself, as in windowsills and shelves and tables... but there is always room for a hook! I'm in the market for some wire baskets, so I can grow a few bulbs in a more orchid bark type of medium... as hanging plants!

I already planted a community pot of seedlings in a plastic hanging basket, in Al's Mix, and they're hanging above the windowsill. I've got the hook stuck into the window frame for stability, and I'll be adding a few more as time goes by.

Where there's a will, there's a way!

If you have a basement, you can force a dormancy... scheduling a bulb for whatever time of year you'd prefer... so, there's always that...

Personally, I think a sunroom/solarium addition would be easier to heat and cool... but what about humidity? How much humidity you'd need would depend on the plant type you most want to grow... orchids, of course, would probably appreciate a greenhouse... but many types would grow equally well in just a solarium.

A solarium addition would be nice for both you and Chase to enjoy... I can imagine the whole perimeter filled with plants, and plants hanging everywhere... and 2 wicker chairs and a side table, set with iced tea and dessert, so you both can sit and enjoy it all! What a lovely visual! I love solariums!

I'm working on something Jodi, Hanging space is gone with the epi and zygo cacti. I'm thinking forced dormancy may be the thing for me. I hate to do it though I feel like letting the plant go to sleep when it's ready is the thing to do. I'll figure something out. Chase asked me the other day, "why haven't the shipments started arriving?" LOL, after all these years he knows the shipping schedules!

Jodi, that solarium you described sounds perfect! I think we all need one.

Chaz, I do the forced dormancy thing because of space too - it sounds so mean but if you think of it like it's putting kids down for a nap on schedule it sounds much better. :-) Though I am thinking about doing the light shelf this winter. Slippery slope!

Alana

The plants don't have to be dormant to rotate them around. Think about offices, most lease their plants. The company comes in, takes out the old plants and puts in new ones. The old ones go back to their greenhouses, get spiffed up and then changed out. So what you do is put the plant that looks great in the middle of the coffee table, put one in the bathroom, another on your bedside table, in the fireplace in summer, etc. Then when it starts to look unhappy or every couple of weeks move it and put another plant in it's place.

Or move to Galveston, buy the house down the street with the big empty yard and start filling it up! Then you can hang plants from the trees you plant (Ike killed most of them here so bring your own), the fence, shepherds hooks, you can plant your hippis out in the garden-snails biggest problem here and buy more plants! And when the hippis start blooming in the spring we'll go drool driving around Alvin/Algoa.
Tally HO!

I actually saw a set of hanging shelves once... I think they were homemade. They were made of lucite, or some plexiglass product, and they were strung together with rope, knotted under each shelf... and the whole thing hung from hooks like a set of blinds! It was quite ingenious! The clear shelves allowed more sun to come through, and the unit, itself, took up very little space. It allowed for more plants to be near the window.

With lights, you can grow a plant anywhere! Just make certain to choose the bulb type with the proper spectrum... and I'm not quite sure which is the best... I use shop light fixtures with one cool and one warm tube per unit, but I know there are many different grow light types.

Gosh, would I love to move south! I'm thinking a zone 7 garden would do wonders for me! Imagine all the tea roses I could have! And the long growing season for summering potted plants outdoors! Zone 8 or 9 would be nice... as long as the humidity weren't too bad...

But... I'm stuck here, in the north! I just make the best of my climate, and of my limited space... I'm going to have to get creative, here, really quick, though!

Well, don't move here, if our humidity gets below 80% we think we've moved to Phoenix or something. And when I go north I'm fascinated with static electricity.

Womans Day or Better Homes & Garden had a set of shelves like you describe in one article back in the 80's. You drill holes in all 4 corners of plexiglass sheets you get at the glass store. Then knot the rope under each shelf to hold it in place. I think it was hung from plant hooks. You can also just put up glass or plexiglass shelves using brakets/shelf holders on either side of the window.
Tally HO!

Yes, Tally! That's exactly what I'm talking about! It helps with space issues, to a certain extent. I've been thinking about doing something like that, though... I really need more room for pots!

We have humid summers... but it seems like the winter air is really dry. I think we get a little bit of everything, weather-wise!

Uh oh, static electricity. Not fun..

I remember going to a Super Walmart like at 1 in the morning shopping for groceries, so it was pretty quiet. Nearly everything I touched shocked me pretty hard...I was yelling each time like OW! And the employees were wondering what the heck was up with me. LOL.

Chaz, M. alba is totally worth it. There is no set season for it to bloom, you give it the right conditions and it can bloom almost constantly. For me it blooms at least 6 months throughout the year. Fragrance is to die for.
As for M. figo, I think you would have to live in a humid climate for its fragrance to carry well. Here in inland So Cal, I have to go up close and sniff the flowers and its not always fragrant. It smells like apple/banana liqueur though.

Hi Guys!

I was strolling my local Sam's club after buying gas there and they had Hippeastrums! I bought BLOSSOM PEACOCK, CHRISTMAS GIFT, DANCING QUEEN, DOUBLE DRAGON, PASADENA,and ELVAS. Best selection ever!

Suggest you start a new thread with 2011 topic...so as not to get lost in the pile!
K