Winter is coming

The end of the year is approaching, it's getting colder, and the days are getting shorter. The grow lights in the greenhouse have now been switched on again. That means working in a yellow world for the next few months. Despite the time of year, the temperatures are still good, so I've still got a lot of orders.

If you contact me, it can sometimes take a few days for me to respond. I notice I'm really tired after a full day of working in the greenhouse. Spending a few hours in the evening on emails, administrative tasks, etc. is simply too much.

Because orders are shipped on Tuesday, and it's quite important for me to know if any changes need to be made, I often respond to messages fastest on Sundays and Mondays. I'm less likely to respond later in the workweek.

I really don't have the time to keep up with social media at the moment. So please send messages by email or through the webshop.

The new stock will be online soon. A few weeks ago, I removed the plastic from the new batch of Hoya propagations. And they look absolutely fantastic. Because I had a lot of cuttings available, the pots have become even fuller. I'm not entirely sure when I'll find the time to restock the webshop. Most likely in a little over a week.

The eternal battle against bugs. Unfortunately, I lost this battle last summer. Due to the warmer temperatures, the bugs gained the upper hand and managed to nest in several large mother plants. When a lot of leaves grow on top of each other, controlling them becomes much more difficult. They then have many places to hide. Because of this, I unfortunately had to throw a lot away. I use predatory bugs, and if the infestation gets too big, they can't keep up with it.

This, combined with the new cutting table I've started for next year, unfortunately means that there aren't many cuttings available at the moment. I throw away the stubs that remain. I want to start again with a new, clean mother plant. However, it does take a considerable time for these to grow back. For some varieties, this can take several years. This will have a significant impact on the available stock for the coming years. The new cutting table holds about 4,000 pots. These will be ready for sale sometime early next year. All cutting material is dipped in a biological pesticidet to combat the pests. This unfortunately makes propagating even more time-consuming.

Because so much plant material is being processed, the chance of a spontaneous mutation is much higher. For example, I've been trying to get Hoya thomsonii silver-flecked for a while now. And it seems to be working quite well. The Hoya burmanica, which I can't find a photo of right now. And a colleague from the greenhouse brought a plant from their collection that they grow on a large scale: the H. pubera, if I'm not mistaken, also known in circulation as picta. One of the plants had an almost complete strand of silver spots. I've never seen them like this before. This will quickly produce a stable form. When it's ready for sale, it will continue to be known as Hoya pubera 'Mii' (named after the colleague who made this discovery).

Hoya polypus has unfortunately let me down quite a few times, and it's happened again. The second plant has started flowering and unfortunately, it turns out not to be polypus either. It's probably a variant of H. padagensis. Fortunately, I only sold it to two people. I'll contact you to resolve this. This is still on my long to-do list. The third plant has also started flowering. This is supposed to be the pink polypus, In the photo I have, I probably found it fully open; the lobes are completely bent back, whereas I mostly find photos online where this isn't the case. So I think this is the correct one, but I need to do some more research.

A fun new project that started is growing larger Hoya plants on an arch. These will probably end up in a garden center somewhere as a special plant. Once the cultivation is finished, I'll have to see if I'll offer them online. Shipping something like that won't be easy.

And finally, for months I've been staring at a green seed pod in my Hoya decipulea.

Probably self-pollinated, but who knows, maybe there's a seedling among them that suffers less from the yellowing in the leaves. Although I'm still hoping for a spectacular cross :)

Almost forgot, there's also a photo of a Hoya 'Anneke Buis' that would rather be a variation on the 'Lida Buis'. It's really fun to witness these kinds of mutations. Have fun growing!, Roy