Congratulations, Goddess...nice selection!! My H. fitchii hangs down...you could clip the vines to a support to allow it to climb, but it looks great vining downwards, too. Welcome to the "hoya addiction" club!! Fondly, Patrick

Very good hoyas! Lovely.

The only problem with hoyas are our wallets, specially when you live in a country where only carnosas can be bought!!!

Good luck with them

Love the pictures, goddess! Your plants look fantastic. I just adore it when people post pictures of new purchases because I like to live vicariously. >:)

You certainly can clip the fitchii if you want. I grow one loose and one pinned up and if it has a preference it hasn't let me know.

Glad everything showed up so peachy. Joni... she's a good egg. Like a monk on a mountain, that one.

Very clear and beautiful pictures, goddes9.
It's kind of nice to see what I'm missing on, in a weird way... I almost ordered from SRQhoyas two days ago, but due to some usability problems on her site and the difficulty of importing from non-EU countries I decided not to, especially since she was out of one particular plant I wanted.
I see that she ships great product, but unfortunately I can't get my hands on her nicely labeled ready made pots -- importing potted plants in soil is not allowed, and I'd need a phyto too. Maybe I'll decide to refresh my shaky Swedish (Stenåsa) or German (Kakteen-Haage)?
So I guess I'm living throug you too, and it's very nice of you to enable that!

Thanks, everyone!

Kukka, are you by chance Finnish? Anyway, that sucks. :( I feel that way when I see the hoyas in Thailand. I believe I would need a phyto for that.

You can always do cuttings from her?

Lauren

Lauren, yes I am. :)

Thanks for the size reference in the photos, by the way! In the past some Hoya leaves have been smaller than I expected. I guess that's a good thing since I have quite a few already.

I've seen group orders happen here, and that way you could get past that phyto issue and order from Thailand. I researched that option too during the weekend, and found out that additional taxes and customs duties can go up that way, however, since they have a minimum charge and below that you pay nothing.

Anyway, the season is only beginning, and I'm sure us others will also find treasures later on!

What's your take on ordering plants, by the way: are you an optimist and order small or would you rather splurge and make just one big order? Just curious, I'll be prudent of course ;)

Hehe, I knew my love for hockey would help me one day!

ANYWAY.

That does sound like a big hassle, but the reward seems equal to or better than that. As for ordering, this was a *test* order to see what size the Hoyas were and to see if they were healthy. I always do a test run with particular vendors before I make big splurges...I'm just cautious like that. Joni passed the test and I will definitely be giving her my business again. (Besides, I do non-profit work so my wallet cannot handle a 10+ plant order! Phew.)

As you see, the lacunosa is in this teeny pot but there is plenty of plant in there. That's a fair deal to me.

Which Hoyas do you have?

I received an order from Joni yesterday too, it is so much fun to get a package in the mail! I received:
H. wibergia
H. camphorifolia
H. meliflua
H. fitchii
H. diptera
I clipped my fitchii up but haven't decided if I will leave it that way. I am fairly limited in locations to hang plants so have been putting most of mine on a trellis. I prefer the look of the hanging plants.
They were all in great shape, as usual. I haven't decided exactly what I will include in my April order yet. Too many to choose from and so little money to spend!
Tami

Hey I wonder if she ever has any of those space saver specials again (read about them on older posts).

Susan

You really know your hockey, Lauren! That's what we do. But, I am severely sports-challenged myself.

I agree on the size of your lacunosa, definitely better than just a cutting but you'll get to see it grow into a big plant because of your own effort. Good deal!

I did have more hoyas, but at the moment I only have these:

Hoya pubicalyx 'Pink Silver'
H. carnosa Tricolor/krimson princess
H. serpens
H. lacunosa
H. cv 'Mathilde'
H. obscura
H. Pubicalyx Royal Hawaiian Purple
H. obovata
H. wallichii
H. buotii
H. australis ssp. Tenuipes
H. carnosa 'Krinkle-8'
H. gracilis/ memoria
H. Metallica (H. sp. Laos x H. Vitellina)
H. thomsonii

I try to keep the numbers down, but they do make me happy. But so do these online photos. :)

Hanna

Tami, that's too true! Did you post pics?

Susan, that sounds dangerous.

Hanna, how does obscura treat you? I have been eyeing it!

Obscura is one of my smallest and youngest plants. It did take it's sweet time rooting, and now the roots are nice and fat, but it hasn't shown much new growth yet. That is undoubtedly because I moved and didn't provide any supplemental lighting during the Winter. Unlike many of my other Hoyas, it didn't seem to suffer though.

Obscura is now ready to start growing for the first time, and I'll move it into a better position, maybe even outside, as soon as the temperatures allow.

Thanks for reminding me about this one, it'll need more sun in order to develop those red leaves later this Summer.

Lauren, I finally got around to uploading some pictures. Hope you don't mind if I add them to your post. Mine are comparable in size to yours, sorry I didn't put something in the pictures for size comparison.
H. meliflua

Please excuse the jerry rigged trellises, I really have to find some that look better than what I make. I am very pleased with them!
Tami

Ooops, I need to figure out how to re-size pictures!

Hanna, I hope it responds with quick growth!

Tami, what wonderful hoyas! I don't mind one bit about putting pics up here. :)

Those are your hoops? What are they made of? I've been meaning to head to HD or Lowe's to get some materials for the hoops.

Thanks Lauren, I think I figured out how to resize the pictures on photobucket, now I just need to see how small to make them!
The wire is a plastic coated multi-purpose wire, called Anchor Wire. I purchased it at a small chain general hardware store here. I didn't find a gauge for the wire, but it does say it will hold 100 lbs. Hopefully, my hoyas won't get that big! The wire is heavy enough to stay bent without putting pressure on the sides of the pot which can distort the pot- I don't like to have weird shaped square pots. LOL!
Hope this is a better size.
H. camphorifolia

Tami:Thanks for the pics of the trellises. I'm going to see if I can find some of that wire around here.

Susan

/Kukka

What were your usability problems? I used to have this problem where it refused to charge me shipping (LOL) but I'm guessing that wasn't your problem. I had heard the site was undergoing some deep updates so that might have been the culprit.

Although there's always a way to get around it, I actually think it's kind of cool that we all have a different set of vendors that are "easy" for us. Sometimes it makes it more exciting when people show off their plants, because it gives you a taste of a whole set of Hoyas that aren't on your radar yet. Personally, I've always thought Metallica sounded like a cool cultivar. And I could complete my Metallica collection! I think there's one in every plant group. I like to pretend there is ONE cultivator who is creating them all and naming them after his favorite band.

I thought your small order/big order question was really fun. I always tell myself that I am going to "test out a vendor" like goddess and then I get overexcited and buy a whole boxful. I think the only times I've ever bought /Susan

lol I forgot about those 'space saver' ones (link here). I'm not sure it would be much use to me, but it's a fun idea. It makes me smile the way she's always mixing it up. You never know what's going to be going on next. I thought the "plant experiences review" for points was pretty entertaining, but I haven't checked lately to see what new reviews people have posted. That could maybe become a cool resource though.

/Goddess

I don't grow the standard obscura, but I do grow the obscura 'White Form' and one that came labeled as obscura longipedunculata that is really quite different. The longipedunculata was such a PITA for its beginning years. I mean it was never in danger of dying, but it was always dropping leaves whenever I watered it a day late. A bit of a drama queen. You know the type? I had the same issue with 'White Form' but it got over the phase MUCH faster. The good thing is they really aren't hard to grow and I think they are beautiful, especially 'White Form.' There's something about those leaves - lovely and instantly recognizeable. I'm kind of hoping to get the standard obscura now.

/Tami

I really love the leaves on wibergiae, too! I can take or leave the pale speckles but when leaves have that licheny look, it's my fave.

FYI, Obviously you figured it out, but for others the picture size displayed during your "post preview" is indeed the size that will show up. Nice tweaking!

ok, I just ordered for the first time from Joni today. I need to stay off these forums. LOL!!!!

Susan

Nice pictures luvidaho_2010! I wouldn't mind owning that wibergiae myself. It has been on my shopping list for a while.

greedyghost, since you asked: I had problems with the site logging me out, and after that logging in again was either successful or not. This happened several times and the reasons stated varied. I used Firefox, and Joni seems to believe that this browser doesn't suffer from these problems. Mine did :(

Then there's the standard webstore stuff of products starting with letters 'G-M', for example, not displaying as a single page, which makes searching more time consuming and harder on my poor mouse hand. Often on similar sites I don't even notice there's more at first!

Also, I'm uncomfortable giving my personal details such as name, address and e-mail just to see the prices. Usually I'd just walk away from sites that necessitate that, but these are HOYAs afterall and SRQhoyas comes highly recommended.

Since Joni seems to be well-liked and her Hoyas are competitive in size, health and price, it would be nice if she didn't loose sales because of these too common issues. Maybe she still moves everything she's got, I don't know.

I totally hear you, kukka. I'm not a huge fan of sites that require you to navigate through multiple sub-sections either. I know it's so you can show the picture next to each plant and still accommodate people with slow connections, but I had the same experience as you my first visit (where I thought I'd reached the end and I hadn't).

On the other extreme, TG does put his catalogue on one page, so you can browse through everything really easily. But if I don't let it finish loading all the pictures before I start looking around, (and it takes a while) my browser totally flips out. So, that's kind of annoying too lol. I've never tried navigating it on my phone, but I bet my 3G connection would just flip me the bird. So, even though most people's internet connections have sped up, web designers still have to consider the needs of mobile users.

Maybe there's no pleasing us, but I've always thought it would be fun to design a website for one of these plant vendors since I spend so much time on their sites LOL. I used to fantasize about running some kind of plant for code trade past the people at Violet Barn before they (thankfully!) did a massive rehaul. Maybe I'll work the kinks out of my ideas in the form of a personal site one day. What I'd really like to see is a site that tags all the entries according to many different sets of characteristics (e.g. variegation, cultivars, Eriostemmas) and allows you to jump right to that subset. And maybe that has multiple view preferences, so you could see all the plants with images, or just the straight list. And lets you sort things. I'm big on sorting. Wow, you really got me going, kukka. ^_~

Joni didn't always require you to log in. It's a recent solution to some bandwidth problems she was having. I agree that I wouldn't provide my personal information to just anyone, but I long ago just gave up and developed a disposable email for such situations. At least Joni explained her need, so now I understand a bit more why some sites might innocently require it. You could always just provide fake data if you were uncomfortable - they're just trying to sort the machines from the live bodies.

The log out issue is weird! I never encountered anything like that and I use firefox too. But I do notice that I have to log in quite a bit. Like, if I navigate away or leave it idle for too long. Unlike some sites that creepily still have my basket full a month later. I'm not sure which I prefer... but it's definitely too often if you can't even keep your basket full lol.

I totally agree that web issues like this should be solved. On one hand we should be sensitive to the fact that no business can address their whole to-do list at once. On the other hand, you can tell by the fact that she's always making changes and explaining them on her homepage, that Joni's one of those folk who are very interested in knowing what's problematic so they can fix it. So I'm glad you spoke to her directly about your problems. I don't know what your experiences are, but I have to say, with all its faults, the SRQ site is still one of the better plant vendor websites I've been to. I mean, we're talking about a hobby where many of the major vendors still require you to send a check and wish list through the mail.

Lol well maybe not in Finland. But out here in the wild west we're still clinging to the Pony Express. :P

Greedyghost, you are totally right about SRQhoyas being one of the better sites, worldwide.
If compromised need to be made, it is at least nice to know what the reasons are.

I wouldn't b*tch about it if I wasn't worried about good vendors getting out of Hoya business eventually, before I actually get around to sending my order...:O

Of course I would help you design a site with a dedicated mobile version, and you could code it with those great tagging/sorting functionalities, and maybe Mike could use some of his time re-tagging when all the Hoya names and sections change ;)

And yes, h. Metallica is a pleasant one -- it has dark splotches as well as light ones and an oddly bumpy leaf texture. I have wondered about the name as well.

lol! Kukka, I totally understand. Sometimes it feels like we're such a small market, we can hardly expect them to keep serving us. But we neeeeeeeed our Hoyas! XD

I love your Hoya web dream team, btw. We'll give those orchid sites a run for their money.