After 13 years online, Cubits.org is scheduled to be shut down. Please make sure you have the contact information for all your friends, and that you download whatever content you want from this site.
I posted this 'somewhere else' to get an ID and got one quite quickly. I thought I'd try to get my hoya friends to ID it here to just for fun. No LeeAnn, you can't play this one!
Anyway, here's my story: I bought this plant two years ago when we moved into this house and the following spring it came up so late that I threw the tag away figuring it was a goner. Then it came up and did nothing but grow a little bit. I still had no idea that it was the same plant as I'd forgotten where I planted it. I liked its leaves though. Again this spring it came up quite later than most and grew very slowly, until boom, it's nearly 2 feet in diameter. This is the second time its bloomed this summer, and the flowers were the same each time-all over the place, in clusters (or umbels) and looking very hoya-like - since hoyas are related to milk weed, I'm quite sure these are the same family.
Can you please ID this lovely?
Grrr, this is the third time I've done this, it keeps disappearing on me. This time it won't let me upload a second image so I'll just put it in another post.
I have a relative that's a larval host plant for Monarch and Queen Butterflies: A. curassavica, commonly called "Scarlet Milkweed" that's become a naturalized weed in some areas of Florida:
Doh!! AsclepiAs tuberosa....brain cells are dying off at an alarming rate as I get older and I DON"T like it...pretty soon I'll have to communicate in words of only one syllable...grrrr....
Anyhow, I know butterfly weed has no scent...does that very pretty scarlet milkweed have any fragrance?
kazia: LOL, you got it right, just with a u instead of an a. Well, I just went out to smell the flowers on mine and I don't smell a thing ... but, that doesn't really mean anything. I think with age, my nose cells are dying off at an alarming rate! I have a large Orchid Cactus (Epiphyllum oxypetalum) that bloomed again a few nights ago and the flowers on that plant are extremely fragrant but I can never detect any scent! My husband couldn't believe that I could not smell the fragrance, especially when there were five or six flowers all opened at once.
Thanks for checking for me Linn....they may not have a scent since tuberosa doesn't and they look like they're pretty closely related...but I can hope :-)
And your epiphyllums are just gorgeous!!! Now I'm sure THOSE I could smell....try sniffing them after dark---I think they smell stronger then...
kazia: the Epiphyllum oxypetalum is a night bloomer and the flowers only last for one night! They begin to open late evening and are fully open by midnight. By daybreak the blooms are wilted and spent. We went out around 11:30 p.m. to smell them ... my husband says the fragrance is really, really awesome!
No, but I'll figure something out. They're also covered in bugs...yuck... We're not allowed to use insecticides. Oh well. Again, I'll figure something out.
You might try spraying the plant with a mixture of a little liquid dish soap and water, (put it in a spray bottle and shake to mix.) It's a natural plant insecticide remedy taught to me by an elderly neighbor 40 years ago (I think for aphids and mealies) it smothers them. I've heard some folks say they add a bit of vegetable oil to the bottle too but I never think to do that, I just use soap and water.
Duh, I should have thought of that myself, thanks Lin. My problem I is that I'd been an indoor gardener, living in apartments for so long and have this awful bug phobia. In the past if a houseplant got bugs, it went in the trash because it freaked me out. I've come a long, long way since I now couldn't imagine wanting to throw away a perfectly good hoya that's got a nasty case of mealies. Soap, water and a drop of oil in a spray bottle, first thing tomorrow to give it a good soaking. Oh, and find a few knee highs or something in my "old stuff" basket.
I might not be able to stop at that one plant though...lol...
Name: Carol Noel Hawaii (near Hilo) It's all about choices.
I wouldn't use it on everyone willy nilly... unless you are phobic about it. The mixture acts to suffocate the mealies...and if you have some nice beneficial insects too, you will kill those!!! I always rinse my plants after using it...dunno why...just to not leave oil there.... Remember the old saw about washing the leaves of the indoorplants with oil...rubbing oil on them to 'shine'....well, it also clogs the 'pores' (that isn't the word but it will have to do) of the leaves.
You might try spraying the plant with a mixture of a little liquid dish soap and water, (put it in a spray bottle and shake to mix.) It's a natural plant insecticide remedy taught to me by an elderly neighbor 40 years ago (I think for aphids and mealies) it smothers them. I've heard some folks say they add a bit of vegetable oil to the bottle too but I never think to do that, I just use soap and water.
