A Visit to Grow!

I know it's been a while since I've posted here, life has been long and hard lately. I trust that the Lord will give me some rest soon. Anyway, I have a few posts which I am going to stagger date wise. I will try to get the dates about the right time of the happenings....



You all know if you've read any of my posts how much I love going to Grow in Cambria, CA. It is about my favorite nursery by far. Nick the cactus guy, as my children call him, is a really nice guy and goes out of his way to please his customers.



He is also the President of the local Cactus & Succulent Society. Richard, who works there is also really neat, he makes some of the pottery for the shop. I can't say much about the pottery because my mouth is drooling thinking about some of the beautiful pieces there. hehe Anyway, it is a must stop, if anyone is in the Cambria area.



Our tour begins at the front door. The front garden area is more than one picture can handle, lucky you! This visit, Nick's wife was there to greet me and was kind enough to let me take a few pictures. While my husband sat in the car waiting impatiently.



Usually my husband is forgiving of what I buy, but his eyes glazed once he realized I was coming home with about eight large plants. I think I got an excellent price. He didn't. This visit, I got VIP treatment and got to talk to Nick while he was out of town.




The open sign shows a sense of humor. When closed, it says, "Shut." My usual day for visiting is Mondays, since I can drop DH off at work and do some shopping while in own. I love the feel of the front walkway. It is very inviting, and precludes what wonders are inside perfectly.





To the left of the door, there are all sorts of goodies to be seen. My daughter loves looking at the Lithops. She calls them all "Teds" and "Ted Friends." My eldest son named his first Lithops, "Ted" his baby toes was "Tedville" then there was "Ted City" and "Tedtropolis." When he was younger, he named everything "Rocky." All I could think of was Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa. Imagine a Lion Fish with Stallone's face. Anyway, she took after her big brother in calling them "Teds." Don't get me going on "Grandpa Fish."



A beautiful Euphorb crest and some nice Sansieveria. Sans are about the easiest plants to neglect and thrive on neglect. If you are heavy on the watering Sans, are not for you. One of these days I'm going to buy a few Sans from Nick. One I really want is a club Sans, which I haven't seen for quite a while. Look in the next post for a Sans that is to die for which came from Nick's shop. Nick is also beginning to sell begonias. I know they wouldn't last a wkk in my house. They are pretty, but a complete waste of money. Nick top dresses ever plant which comes in. I really prefer them not to have a dressing, but I guess he sells more that way.




Here is another nice Sans with some of the beautiful pottery as a background. Don't they make you want to drool also? If I ever get into Sans, this would probably be the first plant I'd buy, if it's still there. I'd also buy a nice Richard pot to plant it in. ;) It is a beautiful fan shape. This really appeals to me. some sans I see are just a large mess of leaves with no rhyme or reason to their shape. this one is lovely. I would put it in the shallow pot in the right hand corner of this picture.




Aeonium tabuliforme is huge in it's 10 in pot. I have never seen one so big. It's a lovely plant, which is another thing I'm sure to kill with kindness. The last time I was in he had some smaller plants which were tabling, this one he sold to someone, hopefully it's in a nice shaded spot where it won't burn. My Aeoneums have all sunburned. I'm ashamed to show them to anyone. I finally had to uproot them and I put them in a hanging basket with a few agaves. I hope they do better shaded.




Now for the back area.... I love this area, although I'm not a big pokey fan, I do like to look at all the plants, I'd probably kill within a week of having them. I'll stick to Epiphyllums, Hoyas, and Rhipsalis. That's great, because I could really go bankrupt if I did. This is a really nice Variegated Aeoneum crest. I killed my last one, so I'll leave it for others to grow.





A lovely Aloe which is probably well over 20 years old. This thing is huge, I think it's grown in the ground and holds well during the winter. Nick has an amazing aloe which probably came from this batch, it is in a tree form, which the others like it Nick said are clumping aloes. It sure is a beauty though, one I'd love to have in my collection. No maybe not, I'd probably kill it also.




I love this Pachy crest, it was at the C&SS show and sale. I do hope Nick sold it, I am tempted to take it home with me every time we go to Grow. I love how the waggon wheel accents the Pachy, I think this would make an excellent post card from Grow, hint hint, Nick if you read this!

And one of the ones which came home with me... Epiphyllum "Andromeda" You can see more of the beautiful pottery behind it.

That Was Quick

I took pictures today of my new Hoya multiflora, which I've had for a week now. It didn't have any buds forming on the penduncles when I bought it. Today I counted over 7 penduncles with buds forming. I'm amazed at how quickly they develop. My other hoya took months to bloom, but this one looks like it might be another couple weeks.

Just a little something to keep me going this winter.

On a side note, I went back and got the hibiscus. It took my son and I two hours to dig it up. We had to go to the hardware store to buy a saw to cut through roots. It has root nematodes, so they will need to be treated. It also had mealies and very few feeder roots. I hope it makes it through the transplant OK. The echies are also covered in mealies, ugh! I did go and get the agave pups, I got enough to cover the whole countryside. :)

Penduncles!

Well, I was going to chop off some of the stems on my Hoya obovata because I was tired of the stems with no leaves drying and falling off. I decided to take the clippers to them, but what did I find as I was going at a screaming fearful plant with hedge trimmers? It had put out penduncles! I'm told if you cut off stems with penduncles it will cause to plant to not produce any more and go into shock, I prefer flowers to aesthetic vines so I'll leave the dead twigs.

It's amazing how when you tell something you'll murderize it it decides to give you something to hang onto which will completely hijack your plans. Not that I'm not happy to see penguncles, I really am, but it could stop drying from the tip up also.

I really like the sony Mavica with the floppy drive, we've had three of them of different models. My camera had died on me about a year ago, so I bought a new to me one which was an older model. The two I have now are the FD-95 and FD-91. I like the newer model better. I was researching to see if I could find a local Sony repair shop so I could get the 95 model fixed. One of the suggestions was to bang the bottom of the camera on the but of your hand. After a few whaps it started working again. I still need to clean the floppy drive, but I've gotten a few more picures out of it. I am still looking for one that will go click,click,click and not wait a few minutes between pictures. In the mean time this one is just fine.

Thanksgiving was eventful, We went to DH's friends house for dinner. On the way home we stalled because we were out of gas. Luckily we had just enough fumes to get around the corner to buy gas at a whopping $3.55! 18 cents more than across the street, however we didn't want to get stuck while crossing traffic so we paid the ransome to get home and through another day of driving.

Today is my husband's birthday all I can offer him is some coffee, I hope that's enough to satisfy him because we really don't have much of anything else. The Lord is faithful though, so it will play out to HIS advantage.

Colors Shown Could Be An Ugly Thing

Well, I'm unemployed again, and I praise the Lord for making it so before we moved. About 6 weeks ago we were contacted by DH's birth uncle, and it turns out that my husband is in fact Jewish, by birth, which once the blood work is done we could move to Israel. What were we going to do about the job we hired on as managers for a 7 year contract? Well The Lord took care of it. The bird lady started getting ugly and showing what she really was, so I started to have second thoughts. First she told me that I wouldn't be able to keep any sort of kosher, we had already decided to nill the pork and shellfish by then, so it was getting easier. Then she started to take parental liberties with my children she had no business butting into, and the last straw was when she lied to her lawyer to try and get her property manager's real estate licence. After that I knew we'd made a mistake by telling her we'd move out with her.

About three weeks or so ago, I prayed that if we were doing the wrong thing by moving with the bird lady, that the Lord stop it immediately. It wasn't half an hour later that my husband, daughter, and I were walking home in the dead of night. It's been three weeks and still she has over $1500 in wages and stuff that belongs to our family. I guess that's a small price to pay for being liberated from bondage. DH has told me to cut all ties with her so she has no reason to complain about us, well theoretically at least.

Anyway, I did get a few things out of the job. I got some doves, but Caesar, even though Cody worked his tail off to earn the bird, is not to be found in our home. The guinea pig had babies, so now we have 4 of them and the rabbits are still healthy, all are living in my plant room for the moment until I can build a coop for the doves and move the other animals to hutches. The cats are enjoying watching them and knocking down my plants in the process. We even have some strange cats hanging around, ugh!

I did get enough money to buy some beautiful plants from Grow, of which I am going to share with you all. (see below) I got a great deal on these plants, and I thank Nick for giving them to me. The crown jewel of the lot was a 5 ft Hoya obovata which cost me all of $38 with 15% off. I also got some huge epiphyllums and some other hoyas and a dischidia and a xero-something which is related to a cucumber. Maybe we should have saved our money, but it was great being able to buy things I'd not been able to in a long time.

Now to the exciting part, We got to meet my husband's birth father and some of his family. We also went to Magic Mountain and I got to go to the ESA meeting which was fun. I met people like Pat Dobbins of Epies by Pat and Mark Piette, of Epigalleria. I also met MR Beardsley, the curator of the Pentico Collection, the largest collection of Epiphyllum in the nation. I also came home with beau coup cuttings and plants from the meeting. I wish I could have visited some nurseries while in LA and SD, but it didn't work, neither did I get to meet any of my Garden Forums friends which I have been corresponding with for ages. I hope next time it will be less of a rushed trip, and we will be able to go more places while visiting with our newly found family.

Well that's what has been happening around here. We are excited to find out finally that DH is Jewish, and also grateful that the Lord stepped in and intervened in our behalf.

So here goes folks some pictures of my finds at Grow:

And a picture of a lovely I got from the ESA meeting.

Hoya Hoe-Down

This posting is going to be a computation of my Hoyas. They are easy plants to grow if you can get the watering down right, some require more water than others.

This is one of my newest hoyas, it has a lot of potential and hopefully some beautiful blooms coming. I bought this as 5 4 in pots and stuck them in an old 8 in pot I had. I hope it fills out soon. It seems to be a slow grower, but I'm hopeful nonetheless. Hoya carnosa compacta is her name and slow growth is her game. I bought her at Hometown Nursery in Paso Robles.
Hoya shepherdii, my first ever Hoya to bloom, I bought it from Grow Nursery in Cambria as Hoya longifolia. You can tell the difference between the two by the bloom color. Longifolia has pure white blooms shepherdii has a red corona. This is a free blooming variety, which has been in bloom since about 4 months since buying it. I think this is one of my favorites so far.

I sold some plants on Ebay, this week, some epiphyllums and one of them was a cutting of what I bought as Hoya australis. I also got this plant at Grow Nursery in Cambria, I really need to get him a book on Hoyas, he uses an out of date book to ID his plants. I was told it is not an australis as I'd already suspected, but H. verticillata. It is a beautiful plant which is finally giving me new shoots. I see penduncles on all the plants in the pot, so maybe it won't be too long before I get blooms. I love the feel of it's leaves. They are ridged slightly. I hope the person who gets it is as happy with their little rooted plant as I am with my big plant.

This is my oldest Hoya I've had it for a year now. It is a shame to my growing capabilities. It was a rescue from Hometown Nursery. It had mealies and wasn't doing too well. I took it home, killed the mealies and almost killed it again this winter when it was hit by frost. I did lose some hoyas, but this one survived. It was all the Lord's doing, I would have killed it otherwise. It's not bloomed, and was recently under potted to a in pot. Hoya carnosa "Krimson Queen" is her name, aka Hoya carnosa variegata. I got a couple more hoyas from HTN. You'll meet them later.

The next on the list is Hoya kerrii. This is the slowest grower I have. It's put out all of two leaves in the year since I've had it. You can see in the picture it has splashed leaves on one stem and green on the other. I was wondering if I had two different varieties, but never got a response yet. I got this plant at Miner's Hardware in Morro Bay. They are the only hardware store I've seen with Hoyas. They tend to be hard to come by. I had a huge hanging basket of kerriis this winter, but the whole basket died in the frost. This plant I had inside. I just re potted it so it can grow on a trellis. I'm afraid I'll be old and grayer before I see it bloom though.
This is a NOID carnosa I rescued at Oceano Nursery, it also took the frost really bad. When I bought it it was a chocolate brown color from the sun. It was really beautiful. I've since grown it in less light and it's greened out a lot. I potted the green stems from my carnosa Krimson Princess in the same pot as this one, since this is a NOID I hope I can get two different colored blooms. It finally looks like a plant with the two foot stems in the pot. I was surprised to see new growth, so maybe it's recovered enough to bloom sometime next year.

Hoya carnosa "Krimson Princess" is also easy, but it keeps wanting to revert to green. I took out all the green stems and put them in with a NOID carnosa I have. I have had this plant for a few months now and with this heat it's really taking off. I feed my Hoyas Eleanor's VF-11 with each watering. I've cut back on the watering because I've found with the SW pots they really don't dry out all that much. I hope to see this one bloom within the next year or so. i cut it back a bit to compensate for the loss of the green stems, I hope this makes the pot fuller eventually. With as quickly as it's losing it's variegation I need to do something quick.

This is my newest Hoya, Hoya pubicalyx "Red Buttons." I got this one at Grow Nursery also. I have been eyeing this plant for a long time before I finally bought it. You can see where it was grown in darker conditions by the stretched stems. I'm hoping these stop elongating and new stems cover the elongated areas. I know this one is correctly ID'd because it had two tags, one hidden which said "Red Buttons" the other said Hoya species. This one is supposed to have chocolate brown maroon blooms, I can't wait. I haven' seen any penduncles, but that doesn't mean they're not there.

Well there you have it kids, my happy Hoyas. They like it outside. I'll have a mess when it's time to bring them in. This year I won't be leaving any of them outside to get frost damage. I lost two hoyas and a lot of cuttings last year, I hope to not repeat that experience again this year. I hope soon I'll have blooms on some other Hoyas, but for now the shepherdii will have to do.

Monday was my son's 15th birthday, it was fun, even though my husband was laid off and no transportation in sight, we managed to have cake and presents. He and his brother went camping in Yosemite with my mom and brother and will be back on Friday. I hope he has a good time, Monday is my anniversary, it will be 13 years. It is also the anniversary of the Highway 41 fire next week, where we lost everything to arson. People have adjusted their lives to the loss, I'm not sure 13 years is enough time to cope though. Without the Lord, I couldn't do it.

Sometimes God Whaps You in the Face..

For a couple years now it seems just before we have to pay smog on a car, it breaks down, or if I buy a large plant, our car breaks down. So I've been resorting to buying things online and on Ebay. There is one vendor of epiphyllums on ebay which I've ordered from about 20 times in the last few months. It seems when I'd get one order, it was time to send in a money order for another. This time we've been without a car for about 6 weeks. A friend of ours gave us a car, but then asked for it back. We had it for about a week before having to return it, just long enough to buy a huge hoya at Grow Nursery. I hope we get a car soon, because he called me last week and has an order of epiphyllums waiting for me to pick up. Maybe one day I'll learn.

On Saturday I was lamenting the loss of our car, and not being able to go to town, we live 30 miles from the nearest grocery store, my husband calls me outside in a frantic tizzy. I run, waddle more like it, outside to see what he's all fired up about, then he points to the wall. Right below the porch light was a cross. It was beautiful. I knew God was in control, and even if I didn't like it, he'd make sure we got food. I hope we get a car soon because our washer broke last week and we've been washing by hand. My uncle offered the use of his washer, but although he's sweet and kind, he's really weird.

My uncle has been working on a car my grandfather is giving us. He has been for the last few weeks. Apparently the only thing it needs is a new steering column. I don't know enough about cars to know for sure, but I'd assume it should take about a week max to finish. He's been working on it for a week now. I'm supposed to pick up my 9 year old daughter at the train station today. So I asked him how much longer, he said that my grandfather told him not to worry about it, I don't know what that means, but ok. Last night I went outside to check my plants one last time for the night and I smelled something akin to roses with baby powder. I looked very carefully and my Hoya shepherdii was hiding a few blooms in the recesses of it's pot. Sometimes when things are going rough, God makes sure you find little things that are enjoyable.

I just got a call from my friend's niece, apparently her grandmother died last night and my friend hasn't been told yet. She asked me to call her after she found out. What an ugly affair. I hope my friend's sisters tell her where the funeral will be. This could be her breaking point. I hope not, she loved her grandmother. I pray that God gives her the strength and need to go on.