Wow, Patrick! Will be interesting to see if that is actual postage or "postage and handling"!

Hoya burmanica's buds seem to be making progress! There are now buds on 3 peduncles!

These are buds on the new growth posted on the 15th! Since then there is yet a new set of leaves and a new TINY peduncle already forming buds as well! So there are now 4 peduncles - all with buds! Granted I'm getting impatient for flowers, but this is a fabulous little hoya!

I just love all these pictures of new growth. As adorably fuzzy as spring lambs' ears.

Can you tell I just visited my mom and got to help out with the bottle lambs? I just love this time of year!

I'm so jealous, GG! If we lived closer, I'd consider giving you burmanica in exchange for bottle feeding the lambs!

Some new growth is just so fascinating! I keep wanting to post pictures of Hoya chlorantha var tutuilensis, but figure it's probably FAR more intersting to me than anyone else. Got it as a single delicate looking cutting and wrapped it around in the pot and put a layer of hydroton over it, leaving a little bit exposed here ant there. It's turned into a really cute plant with 4 nice growth points! It's just such a happy little plant!

Are you kidding, Kelly? I'm sure all of us would love to see the pictures of your H. chlorantha!! BTW, my Aleya shipment hasn't even reached the US yet, according to the tracking number....day #6. I usually receive them in 5-6 days...now I'm starting to worry!! Please post the pictures of Chlorantha when time permits! Thanks, fondly, Patrick

lol Kelly. I can't wait to quote you to my mom. You'll be her new favorite person.

I second the motion that you should post pictures of Hoya chlorantha var tutuilensis. I received a NOID cutting of what might be this plant in trade, and have just fallen in love with it as it has grown. It's very different. I'd be interested to see yours.

Interesting comments concerning the lambs. Over the weekend we took my nieces and nephews to the dairy sheep farm where my sister works. There were lots of little lambs and the kids got to witness a lamb being born although they were not at all impressed with the sounds that poor ewe was making. LOL

Kelly it's nice seeing the buds progress. I went to check on my pachyclada today and the buds had all dried up. :(

Mike

lol! I'm not the only one hanging out with spring animals!

That's hilarious about the nieces + nephews + birth. Sheepies and birth is intense. Lambs have such a high birth weight relative to their mothers! Even though sows have an average litter size of 12, they have it way better. Especially since piglets can come out any which way, whereas lambs must come out like divers. This year almost all my mom's ewes had triplets, which is A LOT of baby mass to carry. And subsequently a lot of hand feeding of lambs. ^_^!!!!!!!!

Okay, that's enough off-topic farm talk from a chick who grew up in the suburbs.

Off to calculate shipping expenses for a lamb-burmanica trade.

GG, do you have all of the logistics and costs figured out? This will be my coolest trade EVER! I did not know how difficult lamb births are AND triplets at that- WOW! As a knitter and fan of all furry critters this is going to be fabulous! Can they be housed broken?

Buds are progressing nicely on burmanica now! Don't know if it was just their time to start progressing or if it's the recently added mylar curtain to the back of the shelving unit giving them more light.

Mike,
I got so excited about my new trade that I forgot to say sorry to hear about the pachyclada buds... Hopefully it'll bud back up soon!

BTW- you know I'll post progress pictures my little lamb!

lmao! You are too funny Kelly. I love the prospect of lamb progress pictures.

When my mom first got into sheep, we used to always have bottle lambs in the kitchen this time of year, (I know, I know) so I can tell you from experience, they can be indoor lambs, but there is a lot of newspaper involved. Actually, come to think of it, we had an orphan lamb at our duplex in downtown Minneapolis once, and it hung out on the balcony and in the backyard and in the house and I don't... remember... what happened toilet-wise. I think lambs exercise a form of mind control where they block out all their woolly sins. By that logic, I could probably affix a stamp to the top of its head, a note with your address around its neck and the USPS employees would be so hoodwinked by its lamby goodness that they wouldn't question it. You do run the risk, however, of the lamb accidentally becoming the de facto USPS sovereign, and never making it to its destination.

I also knit, and this year will be my first year of the long-promised home-grown wool. I'm so excited! I can't believe it got put off for this long.

I don't have any lamb pictures on this computer /cry. But here's a sheep snapshot of not the best quality, but still full of woolly truth and goodness.

I'm sorry about your pachyclada buds, too, Mike. My pachyclada is actually struggling a bit at the moment, and I'm not sure why. Possibly it's not being allowed to dry out enough. What kind of care/situation does yours get in the winter?

Ok not the best photo but I didn't think to use the flash to try and drown out some of the red light coming from the heat lamps, that and I used my iphone. This was the cutest lamb of all because of it's unique markings. These are standard sheep but my mother breeds miniatures called Calicos and they are very cute multi-coloured sheep.

GG my pachyclada is grown dry all year long but I water about once every 7-9 days. The plant is in a shallow pot in a fast draining mix so it dries out much faster than my other Hoyas. I noticed that other than the bud drop one of the leaves is yellowing so I hope I didn't upset it by watering at the wrong time. This is the third time buds have developed and dropped before they matured.

Mike

I love the digression of this forum: hoyas, sheep, knitting...why not?

GG, it sounds like you could've been living on Nicollet Island, home of the wandering donkey and raucous roosters. Your mom's lambs would've felt right at home.

With the whole debacle of the mailed puppy several weeks ago (What the ???), we might need to rethink part of the plan.... GG, do you spin? Spin wool that is... I've tried it, but thankfully I did not find that addicting at all... Hey, the big Maryland Sheep Wool and Festival is coming up in May - you could fly out and bring a baby...albeit BIG baby by then! Otherwise I'll be figuring out a road trip which includes Ontario! Have never heard of miniature calico sheep!

Mike. I haven't heard of miniature calico sheep either. It sounds like their origin is in your area - is this so? My mother has been wanting to get a small flock of Babydoll Southdowns, though. Apparently they are good to keep in your vineyard because they keep it trim but are too small to reach the vines. That lamb is too cute. We don't get many spotted sheep, just a few a year from the handful of Suffolk that aren't a part of the breeding program. My mom got a pair at one point, but they drove her crazy because they have a 6th sense for finding ways to get through fence. At least they kept aloof from the other sheep so they didn't lead everyone out. There would just always be 2 sheep in the neighboring pasture. Every. day.

Genny. You know, we should have been on Nicollet. Unfortunately we were off Lake Calhoun, and it's just so hard to keep your lamb from hooking up in Uptown.

Kelly. My mom has spun a bit, but I haven't really tried it myself. I think at this point I might be more the sort to send it away to get processed and spun, although it would be nice to learn at some point just so I've done it. Honestly, it takes me so long to finish some knitting projects that I'm afraid to add another step to it! You know how it goes, sometimes I'm done in an afternoon, and sometimes I'm done a year later going: .... What Hoya did you trade for the puppy? ^_~

Yes the Calicos are from Ontario with only a few people really working with them. The nicest looking lambs sell for very high prices and we see the breeder a couple times a year at various sales
GG I nearly spat my cereal out when I read that puppy comment. LMAO :)

Mike

LOL, Mike, me too, except I was eating pecan pie!

Just in case anyone reading this doesn't know the story, it was not me who mailed the puppy or who was to receive the puppy...I had no involvement. And thankfully it's been reported the puppy is just fine! The same cannot be said for the woman who attempted to mail him...

Here are my puppy's alive and well:

Mike, the calico lambs sound adorable!

I repeat,I have never attempted to send or receive a puppy and/or puppies by mail!

I'm still laughing!

BTW- lobbii's buds don't seem to be doing a thing and burmanica's are growing like mad!

GG,

My gawd in heaven woman, forget Mike's loss of expectorate and cereal, as a 50 year old woman who has given birth, I had serious concerns about my chair cushion, I was laughing so hard. My 17 year old son was looking at me like he might have to call 911.

Lisa

Hoya burmanica buds are coming along! There are now 6 peduncles with buds...this little guy is a fairly fast grower!

Grow! Grow! Grow! Grow! LOL

Kelly...that's great, those buds look like they're really making progress. I received my shipments from Thailand...the 13 from Aleya are in great shape (including burmanica), but the two H. lasiantha's are desiccated...Pascal added two free hoyas to my order. I soaked them all for 7 hours and potted them up and placed in ziplock bags...holding my breathe that they all survive. The ones from Plumerindr were nice, especially pandurata and denisii....campanulata looks like it's close to death...no response from the seller. The Aleya order took 9 days to receive, Plumerindr took 7 days. I'm excited to get them out of the bags...but, I'll wait until the weather warms up...I can't wait to see H. burmanica start growing!! The parasitica Champoon is turning totally yellow, H. denisii is much more succulent than I expected. H. fraterna has humongous leaves...very, very heavy. All in all, I'm quite pleased with most of them...worried about campanulata, lasiantha and the parasitica. I ordered 3 of lasiantha...gotta be certain that at least one survives!! Best wishes on getting blooms soon..and thanks again for directing me to Aleya for burmanica. Fondly, Patrick

Kelly, I'm so excited for you.You seem to be getting a lot of hoyas to grow peduncles.You must be giving them just what they need.

Patrick,I wish you luck with all you new hoyas.I want denisii and burmanica and I hope I can get some one to sell them to me:))
When you say fraterna do you mean meliflua ssp fraterna?

Cindy

I added a mylar curtain behind my plant shelf -wonder if that may be helping as several hoyas that had been doing nothing are now putting on new growth or if they're responding to slowly increasing daylight. Wish I knew!

Burmanica is quickly becoming one of my Top 10!

Patrick, wish you could post pictures! I've only ever ordered cuttings from Thailand. What were your freebies? That's exciting!

Cindy...no, fraterna is different than meliflua ssp. fraterna, and both are different than meliflua...though they all have traits in common. Meliflua ssp. fraterna is suppose to have the longest leaves...but the new H. fraterna has much larger and longer leaves. I now have all 3 of these...all visually different...H. fraterna is suppose to be the easiest to bring into bloom.

Kelly...I wish I could post pictures, too....I now have a camera, but I can't get it to take non-blurry pictures...even with the tripod, the pictures show up on the computer very blurred. Pascal sent me a free H. excavata and a free H. benguetensis. I had also ordered both of these...but, it's always nice to have more than one. I removed the benguetensis from the ziplock bag today...I think I'm going to increase the heat in my sun room and remove H. denisii, H. greenii and H. pandurata from their bags. Sadly, parasitica is totally yellowed and I'm sure campanulata is close to death...still no response from Plumerindr...I won't order from him in the future. Fondly, Patrick

Patrick, Im a bit confused about what your saying about fraterna.I thought the hoya called fraterna was closely related to coriacea or is this what your saying?

Cindy

Cindy...I'll leave it upto Mike to say whether H. fraterna and H. coriacea are related....to my eyes, they are totally different. Coriacea has very thin, oval-ish leaves, quite pale green. H. fraterna has dark green leaves, very lance-shaped, upto 12 inches in length, and about 4-5 inches in width...and VERY succulent...moreso than meliflua or meliflua ssp. fraterna....but, this could be due to growing conditions, as my H. fraterna just arrived from Thailand. I would be somewhat shocked to learn that coriacea and fraterna were related...but, then again, serpens and carnosa are in the same section!!! Fondly, Patrick

This naming mistake is seen very often but Cindy is right Hoya fraterna and Hoya coriacea are closely related species both with thin leaves and fuzzy recurved flowers that are usually an orange to greenish yellow colour. The two species look very similar without flowers but Hoya coriacea has larger and more numerous flowers. I have Hoya fraterna but it seems to be sensitive to watering so my plant is not a picture of health at the moment.

Although you need to use Google Translate (German to English) Simones Hoyas often includes the species descriptions, this is a great site and worth exploring. Go to the tab called Hoya Arten to look up species.

http://www.simones-hoyas.de/

Hoya meliflua has a subspecies that has longer strap shaped leaves and it is called Hoya meliflua subsp fraterna. Fraterna really just means brother or brotherly and it is used as a descriptive term to show the similarities between these plants. Often times you see people shortening the names of these Hoyas but all that does is cause more confusion and many vendors seem to sell these plants mislabeled as well.

These two groups of Hoyas are not closely related as Hoya meliflua is grouped with Hoya diversifolia in the Amblyostemma section. All members of this group have fairly thick leaves and when compared to the thin leaves of Hoya coriacea and fraterna there is no real reason for confusion.
If you ever want to try to identify a Hoya the first things to look at if you don't have flowers are the leaves. Check for venation on the leaf surfaces. Check the shape of the leaves and if the leaf surface is smooth and hairless (glaborus) or not. The base of the leaf is also important and it's shape can help differentiate some species. Hoyas like Hoya cardiophylla were named specifically for this reason, a heart shaped leaf. It can be hard to find the official descriptions of many Hoyas but many are out there if you look hard enough although you sometimes need a Botanical Latin dictionary to decipher the descriptions.

A very useful page to help when learning about leaf morphology and if you are trying to identify from a botanical description you need to be able to either know or reference these terms. Flower morphology is also important but oftentimes unless species are closely related you don't need start measuring floral parts etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Leaf_morphology_no_title.png

Mike

Here is a link that might be useful: Ambltostemma section Hoyas on Hoyor.net

Patrick, tell me what kind of camera you have, and maybe I can help you! If it's just a matter of figuring out the right setting, it would be a shame to have a less than useful camera when one could remedy that quickly. And if it's defective, it would probably be better to know sooner rather than later, right? Let me know!

Good thinking, Quinn!

I'm willing to help too, Patrick! You've got some great hoyas and we need pictures! Do you lightly press the shutter button halfway down first to focus prior to totally depressing it?

Hi Quinn and Kelly...I bought a Sony 'Smartpic"...and have spent very little time trying to get it to work...all of the pictures turn out blurred. A friend said the lighting was too low, causing the blurriness. I've got to spend time trying different things...I've only had the camera for a couple of months...and I take a month to rest after each disastrous attempt!! Kelly, thanks for the suggestion...I'll definitely try doing that. Mike: so, my H. fraterna must not be fraterna...as it's leaves are close to a foot long and are extremely heavy, very succulent...nothing at all like my coriacea, which has very thin leaves...I rec'd my fraterna last week from Plumerindr. Please help!!...the leaves look much like meliflua and meliflua ssp. fraterna, but are heavier, more succulent and longer in size. Meliflua ssp. fraterna is said to have the longest leaves..but, this new fraterna has leaves about 3-4 inches longer....only polystachya and tjadasmalgensis have larger/heavier leaves. Thanks!! Thanks to you, too, Quinn and Kelly...I'll need help once I spend more time trying to take pictures...I'm so "technologically challenged" LOL Fondly, Patrick

Patrick,
I sent you an email!

Patrick I can't seem to find your camera, is there any other info associated with the name like a letter and number combination? There are usually a few things that can cause blurry photos and low light is one of them. If your camera is on auto and there is strong light and a flash you should be able to get good photos no problem. One other thing to try is to have the subject of the photo in the viewfinder and then press the shutter down half way to get the subject into focus using auto focus, once it's focused press the shutter down fully and you should have a focused photo. We can help more with settings if we can look up your camera but we do need the specific camera model for that.

I would bet that the other Hoya meliflua that was sold to you as subsp fraterna is just another Hoya meliflua and that the new one you got under the name fraterna is really Hoya meliflua subsp fraterna. I have seen many photos with the wrong name and this subspecies is known for it's long leaves so without that distinction any plant that is labeled as such is misnamed. At one time I had the description of this Hoya and it gave the leaf lengths (shortest to longest at 12") of the subspecies. I will post the description if I can find it again.

Mike

The buds are making more progress! Hoping any day now for the bottom set? Will be neat that this will continue to flower from the different peduncles at each node!

VERY Pretty Kelly...love the blooms. What a really cute hoya!
Can't wait to see it open!

I'm just going to admit it. I like buds best when they're closed. Little packages too pretty to be opened.

Perfect picture, Kelly.

42 days and counting since first noticing these buds.... Still not open as of 6 am.

I, too, love buds! It's amazing to watch the transformation. For dayssssss there appears to be no changes then almost over night there can be a noticable difference!

It FINALLY started to open last week! Took a couple of days before they were all open on the one umbel!

There are 8 more peduncles to bloom!

LOVE this plant!

Kelly

Wow...its Gorgeous!! Definitely worth the long wait! OMG...8 peduncles...Congrats!! Way to go Kelly!

My H. imperialis is budding up again too...will post pictures if and when they open. These took a long time last year from buds to open blooms too.

I love the yellow color of the blooms! I have a carnosa that is loaded with baby peduncles....last count a couple weeks ago was 12. None of them have done anything yet but I'm hoping soon. Beautiful hoya!

Mel

Kelly, I love your hoya.The color is one I love and I sure hope I can get burmanica this year.

Cindy

That's just amazing, Kelly! You're a regular Hoya whisperer.

I still really like the subtle textured look they have to them. I've decided they look like marzipan flowers. I have this strong expectation that if I ate one, it would dissolve into crunchy sugar.

Did you mention whether they have a fragrance?

Thanks! It's really a fun and so far hardy little hoya!

I haven't noticed a scent, will check again tonight.

Pictures of white coronaria flowers remind me of marzipan!

Beautiful Kelly just beautiful. I think you have single handedly convinced us all that we need Hoya burmanica.

I love that last photo, congratulations on a amazing job blooming that Hoya.

Mike

This truly may be the EASIEST non-common hoya I have! Heck, for me some of the common ones have not been this easy! All credit goes to burmanica!

I just love the little guy!

Congratulations, Kelly...simply awesome!! My H. burmanica is struggling...I placed it back into a ziplock bag and placed the bag on heat...I'm praying that it'll respond...and someday bloom!! Please post pictures of every bloom, as we'll never get tired of looking at those beauties. Fondly, Patrick

Patrick,
You're too kind! I will continue to post pictures of it!

Hoping yours bounces back! Mine's in hydroton if that helps!

Kelly

I almost bought this one yesterday but saw all of Cindy's neutral feedback for the seller and decided against it at the time. It is a small world after all.

-David

David,On another site people have also had some problems with this seller and have said they would not buy from him again.My cuttings were a nice size but arrived in very bad shape.I was able to save 2 of the 8 cuttings.I would say if you wanted to try them,maybe wait until it gets a bit cooler in bangkok, sometime after June it starts to get cooler.I really think some of the problem is how hot it is when they take the cutting and how long it is till they get taken to the post office.I was given a tracking number and I saw that my cuttings sat at the Bangkok post office for 3 days before being dispatched.It only took 8 days to get to my house and still they arrived dead.

Cindy

/Cindy Thanks for sharing your advice. Of course I'm always thinking about the conditions here and not the conditions in Bangkok! We're so lucky to be able to benefit from each others' hindsight. Sorry you had to win it the hard way though.

Thanks for the info Cindy. The seller that I am really curious about is greenthumb. Those plants are priced really high but look amazing. Maybe some Holiday I will splurge and get one. Anyone else purchase from the greenthumb seller?

-David