Rope Hoya Blooms

I don't think I've blogged about this amazing little plant. I found it at Target a few years ago and it was a complete impulse buy. A Rope Hoya with has long pliable branches with these convoluted leaves that are sort of folded and twisted around the stem. It's sort of a slow grower, so it stayed in it's pot for a couple of year.

I transplanted it last year and it took off since it had been a little root bound. One day I walked into the kitchen and I thought some sort of insect colony had moved in. It looked like a tiny hornets nest hanging off of one branch. After a closer look I realized it was a bloom! A hanging cluster of fuzzy little buds.

I was totally excited! It took a few weeks to actually bloom but it changed so much. Each oblong bud flattened out in to a round dish so the cluster when from bell shaped to a round poof ball. The fuzzy hairs disappeared and thick waxy pink buds appeared that looked like milky stars.

When the flowers finally opened the waxy pink was still inside, but the petals were this crazy velour texture. And each little flower was only a half of an inch wide. So little!

It was one of the most exciting blooms I've had. It's a damn fun little plant.

Post Script: because I forgot something! It has a really fragrant aroma to it as well. Almost like lilies. Sweet and floral and sometimes a little spicy. Very intriguing.

You can just see the weird flower on the right side.

The bloom a little closer
And a super close shot of the fuzzy little buds
Half open
More open
So cute!
Amazing and tiny little flowers

Aloe Splitting

I've written about my aloe plant before. Read it here to find out the history if this 13 year old plant. And yes, back in September 2008 when I wrote it I may have said it needed to be repotted. Here it is Fall 2011 and I finally did it!

It feels like killing the plant because you basically take it out of the pot and break it into chunks. Some of the older parts had stalks that were almost 2 feet long and wrapped in a circle amongst the other stalks. Not healthy at all. And yes, I do feel bad now.

So, you can see a small pile of separated plants below. I ended up trimming a ton of dead leaves and chopping off the huge stalks to restart them as new plants. It took 3 medium-large pots to plant all the parts.

Needless to say, I'm set if I burn myself.

Just a few parts.
Two of three pots.

Last of the pots.