The picture above is the front room,with the Hoya shelves Mart-my husband- made me, this is a picture of the back room

The Hoya carnosa tricolor is flowering since a few days

Hoya cumingiana, arrived last week from EPRIC with a closed flower, it made it & it's blooming!:-)

One of the windows at the side of the house from the outside

& here 2 other windows at the front.

soooooooooo lovely. ah!

Hello Ingrid!

Your English is lovely and it is such a pleasure to have you participating in our conversation. It is always interesting to hear what it is like to collect Hoyas in different parts of the world... what is more difficult... what is less difficult, etc.

Your home is so beautiful that I am quite envious! I have been hoping for window shelves like that for many years, but I haven't quite lived in the right place for them yet. You must give Mart my compliments! This room feels like a "plant library" which is my favorite combination of nouns/functions ever.

I love your miniature greenhouse, too. I see that IKEA is offering a similar item right now and I am very irritated because I no longer live in a city with an IKEA LOL.

Your Hoya photographs are also quite beautiful - wonderful clarity - thank you for sharing your flowers with us.

Anyway, welcome and I hope you will be chatting with us often. ^_^

Welcome Ingrid! Lovely pictures. Mary

Hi Ingrid! I'm glad you decided to post here on the Hoya forum. H. cumminginana is one I used to grow and finally gave it away because I couldn't get it to bloom, so congrats (and a bit of envy!) on that one! It's really beautiful!

Keep up the good growing!

Denise in Omaha

Welcome Ingrid, thank you for posting your beautiful pictures!
Tami

Welcome Ingrid, like you English is not my mother language, and I make a lot of mistakes, I believe hoya members forgive us for that!!!

You're so luck to have Paul Shirley close to you! I live in Brazil and here we do not have any choice to buy hoyas, we must bring from overseas. The only ones available here are the carnosas and some pubicalyx!

I love your plants and the way you arrange them, the window shelves are great!!!!

When I order hoyas from overseas I'm always praying to receive the cuts alive, most of the time, they arrived in very bad shape, sometimes hoyas take more than a month to arrive, very luck when they arrived in 8-10 days, but it is only possible when the letter is not registered, express, registered, or priority takes more than a month to arrive due to the long line on customs (Brazilians are importing almost everything). Right now I'm waiting for 2 packages, one from Thailand and another one from Europe, the one from Thailand is already more than 20 days waiting at customs, which means that most of the cuts there are already dead!!! This is very sad but I still buying..... sometimes I'm luck to received it fast, but this is not the rule, this is the exception....

Well welcome to the forum and once again congrats on your beautiful collection!

Mitzi from Brazil

Thanks everybody!!

I didn't had the guts to post here earlier, because I thought, what in heavens name can I contribute, you all became a kind of Hoya heroes to me with a big collection and a lot of knowledge. I learned a lot since december last year, I looked at almost any post and most of all I loved it to see pictures of everybody.
I love the atmosphere in this group.

@GG:Mart said Thanks!:-)))I didn't know what DH was till I figured it out, and since than I call him Dear Husband from time to time, esp when it is Hoya-related:-)I am glad to live with him,if I read the troubles some people have with their partners because of the hobby, he likes it as much as I do!:-)I scored the miniature greenhouse in a local gardencenter, and it works fine.I live in the middle of nowhere so no IKEA in the neigborhood, the only Swedish things here are the Hoya's that I ordered at Stenasa:-)

@Denise: Yeahh!! Finally posted here!:-) I think the cumingiana bloom is really beautiful too, but this was not one I grew myself, so I hope I am able to do that in the future. I read that you must prune it a lot, because flowers appear at the end of the branches. When it is done flowering I gonna make cuttings,the more plants the better!:-)

@mitzi: What a bad, bad luck that there aren't Hoya suppliers in Brazil:-( Looks terrible to me when you have to order everything overseas.( But, I have to say, I got Hoya's from Sweden-Stenasa- in perfect shape and when I ordered from a little Hoya seller here in Holland- about 60 km away- the plants arrived like they had a world tour with the Stones, 1 dead already and the other in bad shape,so the next time I order again in Sweden and not from that little seller!)

Hi Ingrid, welcome to the forum.
As we all can see your English is great, and hoya people seem do not mind my language struggles... Love your room, need to show pictures to my DH, he likes my hoyas but I grow them outside; nice to have plan B in case of moving to colder climat!

Aggie

Warm Welcome! I side with GG I LOVE your plant room it too reminded of of a plant library! Your mini greenhouse I GREAT! I miss IKEA as well.....lol! Thanks for sharing all of your photos with us!

Thanks again:-)

I also think that GG's plant library is a great name, I'm gonna use that to describe to people,Lol!Mart made me a lot more bookshelves than I have plantshelves- I always loved to be in the surrounding of many books and many plants and many animals( we have 14 cats living here),so I always call it paradise here:-)I can't grow Hoya's outside, maybe on a warm day but we have many salt winds here- we live on an island in the south of Holland and there is nothing around us to protect us,we do have trees but that only helps a bit,I am much to afraid to loose a Hoya..

I wish my boyfriend would let me crowd up the windows like that, haha. He would have a fit!

Very nice plants and welcome!!

Hi, You have a beautiful home and hoya plants.Welcome to the hoya forum.

Cindy

Thanks Cindy & goddess!

About the shelves: I saw a very easy system Doug Chamberlain used, it's a rail for a bookshelve, I can change the shelves any moment I want, because all is loose, here is a closer picture,

I also have more bookshelves than plant shelves, although the plants are catching up! ;) I think it is good to combine the two together in a room.

I can see from your photograph that one of the benefits of these shelves is that you can keep the windowsill free for cats. Very nice! I try to keep a couple of windowsills open for my cat, but he finds some windows very frustrating.

GG, I would love to use more bookshelves for plants, but unfortunately, there is to little light where they hang( all light is absorbed by the Hoya's:-))I been thinking about - I don't know how you call them in English- grow lights for the winter, it's terrible dark for a month or 3 and all the plants are suffering than, I hate winter. But I have no idea how strong such lights have to be, we are not exactly Rockefellers,so I want to spare costs for the energy bill. I also thought about putting mirrors on the windowsills, so the light can reflect better than- that is- if there aren't too many cats with muddy feet walking over them:-)) The cats were used to free windowsills here, but I already annexed 2 of them for the Hoya's, I hope they would leave them in peace!

Welcome Ingrid! so glad that you have decided to join our chats! its always great to have another person join our little family here!

Hi, Ingrid. :) I was a lurker until recently too. It's nice to share the joys of growing hoyas with other like minded people, makes the hobby even more enjoyable.

Really like the look of your windows! It must be a very calm and relaxing place with all those plants (and all the cats!) And congratulations on the cumingiana flowers! I too have one in bloom at the moment. What do the flowers smell like to you? Do you find the scent pleasant? I find it smells kinda spicy... or fishy... Can't really make up my mind. lol

Ingrid...welcome to the hoya forum!! Your home looks so beautiful...very tropical! And your plants all look so healthy and gorgeous. So pleased to have you on the forum...don't be shy!! None of us bite!
Mitzi...best wishes on getting your order quickly...wishing you the best of luck. How's your husband? Fondly, Patrick

Thanks Amber, Klea and Patrick!

Yes, now I am glad I finally decided to introduce myself:-)

Klea: I think the cumingiana smells a lot like dill with a bit of cinnamon, I love the smell of dill, I even use the oil of it on the vacuum cleaner bags,so the whole house smells great when I am done vacuuming:-))) (And we have to vacuum daily with 14 cats living here, esp. in this period, loosing lots of hair, despite that they are almost daily combed) It is indeed a great relaxing place here, we hardly see any people, all we hear are the birds singing and a tractor once in a while. That's double great because with the lyme it's hard to deal with external stimuli.

Patrick: I'm glad that you won't bite!:-)
My biggest wish is to turn the house into a real jungle,lol!
This house had been in the salt water for almost a year and a half, after the flood in 1953, and because the salt is still in the bricks, we have a humidity that's between 60 and 90 most of the time, and the plants love it!

I got a picture of the time the house was in the water, Marts aunt- who lived here untill she died in 1992, made this picture.

and this is how the outside looks now, we both also like to garden with a lot of flowers that attracks insects.

Dutchplant,

It is amazing the transformation you made! The flood seems to be terrible at that time! Plants are great isn't? They have the magic power to transform any room into a better place!!!!!

@ Patrick,

Thank you very much for asking about my husband, finally he is getting better after 8 months. He was very close to death, but now he is recovering.

And a good news...... today customs released my cuts, so it is going to be home today, I hope alive!!!!

@Ingrid

That description of the cumingiana is just brilliant. I am really looking forward to smelling it now. I also love the idea of using dill oil in your vacuum bags. I have been experimenting with different scents, but it did not occur to me to use something so bold. I can't wait to try it.

That is so interesting about the salt and the humidity. I never would have thought about it. Thank you so much for sharing the pictures of your submerged house. I was actually very interested in this salty windy island you live on - so different! I was only in Holland once, as a child, and all I remember is a pretty playground surrounded by a hedge, a huge field of poppies, and my mother insisting I look at the windmill.

I also keep forgetting to tell you that I love that you took photos of your plants from the outside, looking in. Whenever I am outside, and glance up at windows full of my plants, it gives me such a laugh. They look so different from other people's windows, but so charming (to me).

@Mitzi

Patrick is much better mannered than me, and I am so glad he requested an update. I am glad to hear your husband's health is finally starting to look good. And that your cuttings are arriving today. Keep us posted on how they look!

GG,

I still working, I'm not at home yet, but my husband told me that the cuts arrived in bad conditions, as almost always, they lost all their leaves, but the stem still green, according to him, this is a possibility for a recover... I hope so!!!!!!! But he is always much more optimistic than me, when he says that the plants are in good shape, they are very bad, if he is saying they are in bad shape I presume they are all dead!!!! I must be patient and wait till I get home to see how they look like!!!! LOL

Mitzi

Welcome to the forum. I love the photos of your plants and how you have them in your home.
What a contrast from the photo taken during the flood to what you have now. The climbing rose on your house is a lovely touch.

Mike

Hi Mitzi

PG here, is there a Botanic Garden in Sao Paulo w/ whom you can check about growing Hoyas, or about importing them more easily?

I remember from childhood the Jardim Botanico in Rio, we went there a lot when I was small. I even got lost there once.

Have also read there's a Orchidarium in Rio, since Orchids & Hoyas are sometimes found together in nature, maybe ask them for help.

Hi Dutchplant,

Welcome & pls. excuse me for digressing your thread. Your home is lovely your Hoya shelves are wonderful. I suspect we all want to come visit & play amongst your wonderful & healthy looking Hoyas, a terrific looking collection. Welcome indeed.

Thanks!

@Mitzi: I'm glad that you're husband is recovering,I hope he'll recover soon! To bad you're cuttings arrived in such a bad state, I really hope that they gonna grow! And about plants, I can't image a life whitout them!!! When I look at the houses here in Holland nowadays, they are all white and empty inside, only 2 the same vases with dying plants in it in the frontwindow, and thats it, really sad. I don't know why most people aren't interested in plants, in the 70's ,when I was a kid, it was totally different.

@GG: Most of the time I make a mixture with dill, rosemary, thyme and cedar, it's not my biggest hobby to vacuum, so I've made it a bit of an odor-therapy:-)
When you want to see more pictures of this island, I have a link on my homepage to my blog I started recently, and there you can find "Schouwen-Duiveland, a trip in pictures",so if you are interested, you are welcome!:-)( I believe I can't put a link here,so thats why I mentioned it on my homepage).It's by far not anything this island has, but I'm making pictures from time to time to make a new post.
You're laugh about you're windows from the outside is sooo recognisable to me!!:-) I like to go outside at dark or rain and than have a look at the plants inside.Most of my family and friends think that I'm really crazy:-))))

@Mike: Thanks a lot!! I learned a lot from you during the last months,you have an amazing knowledge!

@PG: Thanks! I hope the Hoya's stay as healthy as they are now, I am a bit afraid for the winter- dark period- to come, I hope they survive..

I had to check out your blog Ingrid, I enjoyed reading and looking at your pictures. Your home is so different from mine! It is always interesting to see where other people live. Thank you for sharing with us.
Tami

Thanks Tami!

I have the same feeling when I look at everybody's pictures here,the houses are also different from what we have here in Holland, there are really beautiful houses in America, I esp. love the old wooden houses with verandas,I wish we had houses like that here!:-)

PG, sorry for confusion your nick!!! LOL

Unfortunately even for those who legally import plants in Brazil is very difficult to bring them alive! It is a big bureaucracy. I went to Agriculture Dept. and got all info, it is too much to do, no chance!

@Dutchplant, thanks for wishing a nice recover to my husband! He almost died the past months, it was really a difficult time we had but now he is getting better!

Regarding the plants, I know that a lot of people considers that plants gives a lot of work so they don't want to grow, for me they give me mainly distraction and pleasure, although we know there is some work to do with them!!!! But the reward is just wonderful.

Mitzi

I am amused to hear there is house envy extended both ways. :P It reminds me of when Mitzi joined us. We were all jealous of all the native flora of Brazil and she said she wished she could grow Tulips.

@ Ingrid

I am enjoying looking through your blog very much. How fun that you got your cuttings of Mathilde from Emilio Begine himself! I love your photographs, too, especially the ones of the swing flower garden and the shaggy pony by the shore. I think you live in a wonderful place!

I am looking forward to reading more - but must work now. :P

@ Mitzi

I agree with you. I tell people to think of my plants like having another pet. There is a lot of work involved, but it gives you a peaceful feeling to care for them and interact with them.

Ingrid,

I love your pictures! Very nice, but I didn't see any picture of you! I love to see pictures of the people I talk to, just to have a face in my mind!!!!

Just curious... what happen to the trailer????

Mitzi

Thanks GG & Mitzi!

GG, there is a Dutch expression that says: the grass is always greener at the neighbors, so that must be the explanation, I think:-))

Mitzi, the trailer was put on fire so it's gone, to bad, I loved the sight of it!
No, I didn't post any pictures of me, I thought looking at my back must do the job,hahaha! I love to take pictures myself, but I hate it when someone makes one of me, I am not photogenic at all. But: Mart made a secretly picture of me a couple of days ago, in the frontyard, so I will load it up..

In English the proverb is "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence." I always thought the saying analogized grazing animals, which didn't make sense because usually only a few sheep out of a herd (always the same ones) like to jump the fence and eat the grass on the other side. Now, hearing the Dutch version, it is clear it refers to a neighbor boundary fence. Much more logical!

And you look like a spirit of the garden in that photo. :) I prefer being behind the camera, too. Hence, my profile photos almost never gets changed.

Ingrid,

Very nice picture!!! I prefer being behind the camera, too, like GG!!! I'm not photogenic either!

When I asked about the trailer I meant that picture that shows it in a gulley, it seems it is there accidentally!!!!

Sometimes it is very difficult to express myself in English! LOL! The proper words don't come to my mind!

Mitzi

GG, I had such a laugh, spirit of the garden!:-)Lets hope a good spirit!
The saying in English is almost the same as here!

Mitzi, I think I understand you well- you did mean the caravan don't you? It was put there by a farmer that also ownes a camping, as a kind of joke people told me, it was probably a very old trailer. Farmers put them on the fields, and also old cars, because they believe it frightens the birds, no idea if that's true, but most of the time I think it spoils the view.

Greetings!!Ingrid

Ingrid,

I see I understood! Yes the Caravan... interesting, here in Brazil we say "espantalho" scarecrow...

Ingrid,

Your home is soooo inviting and I love all your large windows-perfect for hoya growing.

Welcome!

Susan

Thanks Susan!

Yeah, the windows, I think I am just like everybody else, I would love to have more and more windows, but that's not going to happen I'm afraid, or we have to win a lottery ( and take part of one first:-)) Greetings! Ingrid