Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
greedygh0st

Hoya milestones

greedygh0st
9 years ago

In RPGs your character accumulates so many points and you level up, and I think of life in those terms a lot. Here are the milestones that I have noticed in growing Hoyas so far:

Milestone 1: You have blooms!

In front of your face, on your own plant, that you grow with your own hands, there are honest to gosh real flowers.

Milestone 2: You have rare blooms!

You actually have pictures to post of a plant that everyone-and-their-mother hasn't already seen. Yeah, sure, maybe the hardcore people have been blooming it for years, but it's not carnosa or publicalyx or lacunosa so pour me a beer!

Milestone 3: You have sneaky blooms!

Something smells nice and you don't know where it's coming from! (Is it you?) At this point you are so cool that you don't even know how cool you are. Your plants are just blooming behind your back... all casual-like.

Milestone 4: There are always buds.

You dreamed of a day when "something would always be blooming" but you didn't believe it would really come. But it did, just a handful of years after you collected your first Hoya. Now buds are just like leaves to you. Okay maybe you're not that blase... yet...

Milestone 5: It's a big one.

Yep, the day has come. You are now in the elite club of people who have bloomed big blooms. Bigger than a speeding bullet! Bigger than a locomotive! Able to outgrow tall buildings at a single bound! Look! Up in the sky, it's... archboldiana/onychoides/imperialis/megalaster/etc...

So, what are your milestones?

This post was edited by greedyghost on Sun, May 4, 14 at 17:32

Comments (11)

  • sunnysa
    9 years ago

    GG, What wonderful milestones! Loved your post!

    I'm sad to say that I have no milestones:
    I have no blooms.
    I have no rare blooms.
    I have no sneaky blooms.
    I have no buds.
    Nope, no big ones, either, lol.

    My 'milestone' paths in Hoyas has not yet been determined. But I have moments. Moments such as Hoyas coming to my door, unannounced. Because of that, new things have begun. Dreams! Wonderful dreams as shining as the stars!

    I look forward to my future milestones and we happily celebrate yours!

    Yes, we'll all share a 'cyber beer' with you! You are super cool!

  • vermonthoyas
    9 years ago

    GG, I love your list of milestones and have felt all of them at one time or another.

    I would add a sixth milestone. Killing a Hoya the first-time you tried it; reacquiring it, mastering it, and making it bloom like nobody's business.

    Doug

  • Denise
    9 years ago

    How about when a Hoya starts to thrive after bringing it back from the brink of death. That's one that always feels good!

    And one I revel in a bit: there's a member of my cactus club who used to own a major seller of succulents in AZ, and who now is into growing a lot of Orchids (as well as succulents). He's getting into Hoyas, too, and HE comes to ME for advice! Makes me feel like a "big shot"! LOL!

    Denise in Omaha

  • greentoe357
    9 years ago

    You people...

    My milestones are (and I kid you not, I reflect these in plant logs):

    1. root is visible on the wall of the cup

    2. root is out a drain hole

    3. new leaf! (or is it a stem? or an aerial root nub? or a piece of soil?)

    4. it needs a (longer) chopstick support now!

    OK, somewhat more seriously, I have bloomed two species as of now, and those of course are major milestones, but they happen rarely for me, as most plants are still very small. One of the two has reached another milestone though, which is "it's in bud or bloom ALL the time". But the novelty sort of wears off and I am on to the next challenge.

  • Liberated
    9 years ago

    My first bloom from a cutting opened Tuesday night! It's the smallest hoya I have. When entering the room I smelled it before I saw it. It is also my first bloom in 3 years.

  • greedygh0st
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I love all the milestones!!!

    I definitely agree that both pulling a plant back from the brink of death AND successfully growing a plant that has died on you in the past are huuuuge milestones.

    They just hold this amazing moment of clarity, that you have grown in your ability to hear your plants' voices and protect their lives.

    I also love the one about being asked for advice from someone you respect. I would even say there is a little milestone before that, when ANYONE starts taking you seriously as someone who knows a little something about plants.

    @ Sunny - thanks for the cyberbeer toast :) :)

    @ GT - holy moses are you detail oriented! You are going to have some beautiful logs. I often wish I had kept track of things like when each plant first bloomed for me and exactly how it smelled and exactly how long the blooms lasted. Or measured how much growth it achieved in a year. But it seems like it's all I can do these days just to keep track of what I have and make sure their labels stay legible.

    @ Liberated - yaaay sneaky blooms! Haha. I kind of think "getting flowers on a still-tiny Hoya" should also be a milestone because it's so funny when it happens.

  • Denise
    9 years ago

    Yes, the baby Hoya blooming IS one of the sweetest. Makes you feel like a BIG SHOT! Yay!

    Denise in Omaha

  • amsten09
    9 years ago

    I have no experience with hoya at all. That being said I will share the beautiful specimen I laid eyes on today. I went to a local violin shop in portland to buy strings and in the window was the largest hoya plant I have seen. Vines kris krossing around the whole side of the shop and it had numerous beautiful blooms. I wanted to ask for a start but I thought that would be strange seeings how the shop owner has no clue who I am. Plus I don't know what I would do with it. :P

    This being said I would like to know more about this awesome plant. from what I have read above i am going to take a guess and say they are somewhat hard to grow/bloom?

  • rennfl
    9 years ago

    And another milestone.... You bloom one you started from seed. (I'm still waiting on this, but hoping for this year)

    Renee

  • greedygh0st
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    @ amsten09

    I'm going to move your question to a new thread. I hope you don't think this is rude. :)

    I think it will just help people feel less guilty about going off-topic when they respond to you. And possibly attract more people who enjoy giving advice, to your question.

    You can find the new thread here.

    @ rennfl

    Ooooo that's a GOOD one! I've never even thought about accomplishing that. Although it's not beyond my reach, hopefully, since some of my seedlings are getting big. :)

  • greentoe357
    9 years ago

    > @ GT - holy moses are you detail oriented! You are going to have some beautiful logs. I often wish I had kept track of things like when each plant first bloomed for me and exactly how it smelled and exactly how long the blooms lasted.

    Yeah, I log all that, or at least try to. I log root growth as well in my transparent cups, and then leaf/stem growth after that, at least for the first few leaves. It's interesting to see not just how soon they root, but also how soon and how fast they start growing the above-ground body parts.

    For the plants that have bloomed, I've numbered the peduncles and counted the number of flowers in the umbel at every blooming. If gives me some interesting answers, like how soon new buds appear after old flowers have dropped, or if young peduncles tend to bloom with fewer flowers than older peduncles.

    As the number of plants increases, the level of detail will HAVE to come down, and I'll have to be smarter about what's really interesting to log and what isn't. The reason I do this is because I want to see trendsm rules and to understand "personalities" of different hoyas.

    Oh, and very importantly, I log the dates when I moved the plant somewhere. Then anything that happens after that that was not happening before may possibly be attributed to the move and different conditions there, which obviously one can learn from.

0