Hey Bob, No doubt many of us now have to deal with "Old Eyes" in the final instar of our own metamorphsis, especially when we misplace or loose our galasses (like I recently did). Common species variation hinders instead of helps as well, so alot of what we think we see can be way off base. It doesn't help that we see what we what to see either. Fortunately you take such awesome and clear photographs that you can always go back to scrutinize your firat impressions until it clears up the old eyes. Enhancing with graphics software helps that along too. I sometimes blow things up and clarify them, sometimes change contrast, light angle, saturation, texture, etc so I can better figure out what I am looking at. That second picture is a one in a million IMO with exactly the right camera angle, light and exposure to blend the torn RFW into the LFW, is further spectacular as it just happened to be a species with just the right dorsal and ventral colors/patterns to help hide it AND that it is a very fresh specimen with the damage so fresh it isn't tattered yet. Talk about getting all the ducks in a row! ;) It's obvious after you've seen the third picture and go back to the second how the typical dorsal pattern is not quite complete, and the rest of it shows through. But not at first glance with these Old Eyes it wasn't. Wonderful series of pictures Bob that made a groggy old phart who stayed up all night wake up, pay more attention and get another cup of coffee. Thanks, Larry

Chamaecyparis seems like the most variable to me... compare C. pisifera 'Boulevard' to the golden threadleaf types to the fuzzy types to the green normal foliage Cryptomeria do have that one where the branches are deformed 'Cristata' i think... not sure how many conifers have a similar variation like that Cryptomeria seem very cool and alien to me, maybe because they are not grown where I live. The branches seem to get killed off in the winter, especially facing the sun. I saw a 10 foot Cryptomeria in the open in somebody's yard, and it did appear to be surviving but looked kinda pathetic, very gaunt with dead old interior branches and old cones still on the branches looking messy. What cultivars might actually do okay in a harsher climate, if to try? I got a Black Dragon last year but almost half the branches died during the winter, it was very badly root bound anyway.

Other than DNA testing, the only real way to know your plant is a hybrid or species is if you self it and grow the seeds out. If you selfed it and all the babies come out with different flower shapes and colors, it is most likely a hybrid. Other ways also include. Leaves alone don't make up a species. If you ever selfed Hoya caudata with the speckled reddish leaves, don't be surprised that not a single baby will develop this reddish flecked leaves. All will have mostly a drag olive green leaf and maybe one or two will have a fleck on it. But it is a true species as the flowers will be true. The finlaysonii, callistophylla, meredithii group are all a bunch of hybrids posing as species. None of them will produce true to type babies from seeds when selfed.

It's possible I didn't add enough CRF - I can't quite remember how much I used in each pot. I do fertigate weekly with Foliage Pro, 1tsp/gallon. Recently (last 2 weeks) been experimenting with fertigating 2x/week: Group A showed no change, Group B actually seemed over-fertilized (some browning on edge of a few leaves).