Potting Bench is Built!

Well, my big plans for a time-lapse video of the construction of my potting bench fell apart.  I had the focusing distance on my time-lapse camera set at the wrong setting so everything was blurry.  In lieu of the video I am adding this slider so you can see the potting bench from different angles.  It is completely made of left over material that I had kicking around.  It should be a joy to use, as I have always had to lug a heavy table outside to do my potting on.  The green insert came from Amazon and is meant to use on a table top, but I never really used it until now.  The bench was constructed so that it would drop right in.  I’m pretty pleased with it; I also added the rod so that I can work on hanging baskets.

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Videos Currently in the Hopper

I have many new videos that will be coming to the site over the next few weeks to few months.  I will just name a few for now to tantalize everyone.  There are two new Hoya Tours in the works: Hoya pachylada and Hoya Lobbii.  There are three new Learning How Video Productions in various stages of completion: Making My Hoya Potting Mix, Re-potting the Severely Root-bound Hoya, and Hoya praetorii – The Cutting Experiment.  Finally there are two new Time-lapse videos: One on Hoya pachylada and another on Building a Potting Bench.  In addition to the videos, there will be periodic postings on various topics of interest and some great new photos; so stayed tuned!

SRQ Hoyas

Joni at SRQ Hoyas is a fantastic vendor, and if you have not given her a try, you really should.  I am not in the business of selling plants or cuttings, and I’m periodically asked by different people if I will sell them cuttings, or provide them with starter plants.  I almost always refer them to Joni; she is friendly with great communication and will work with you.  Her plants all come in transparent containers so that you can see the root activity, and she very nicely includes plant ID label stakes.  She also knows how to pack her plants very well and ships fast.  I will soon be setting up a section of the site listing the vendors that I use and trust, and she will go to the very top.  Here is the link to her site, and a photograph of the plants I received from her today.  http://srqhoyas.com/

Hoya pachylada and Other Stuff

Well today, in about four hours I filled my new little greenhouse – pictures to follow. I also took some really nice photos of Hoya pachylada; I am attaching one here.  There will be a fun new time-lapse video to come in the next couple of weeks.  If you get a chance when clicking on the home page, scroll down and you will see a new feature for the site called a “slider.”  I think it is really cool and I will be adding these to various pages in the future as a change up from all static pages.  This is a powerful tool that I am working hard trying to understand and learn how to use.  It is difficult when you have no real web publishing experience, but I hope to figure it out eventually.

Hoya forbesii Sabah Getting Ready to Bloom

Here is a not so great photo taken of Hoya forbesii buds, which shoud be opening soon.  In other news, I am working on a couple of new features for the website that I am quite excited about.  Hope to premiere them in the next couple of weeks.  I am on vacation for several days starting on Sunday and hope to get most of the Hoyas to the greenhouses.

Hoya elliptica From This Morning

Here is Hoya elliptica from this morning taken with a shaky camera.  It does however show the different stages of bud and blooms.  There is a fully open fresh bloom, a bloom that has just gone by, and two stages of buds in the same photograph.

Hoya mindorensis (New Photos)

Here are a couple of new photos of Hoya mindorensis taken with my Canon DSLR with the EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM Macro lens.  This piece of glass is my go to lens for all of my high quality bloom photos.  It does however take considerable time to get these shots so I still use my Panasonic Lumix for quick point and shoot shots.  These photos, of which, there are more in the Best Photos section of this site, were all taken without flash.