They look nice and healthy! Great job! The epiphyllums and pitaya you traded me are getting to be gigantic!

Thanks aurorawa! I'm so excited and I can't wait to see the blooms. I'm so glad both the epiphyllums and pitaya are doing incredibly well for you! My 4 year old epiphyllum oxypetalum bloom for the first time last year. I was so happy to see blooms and it bloomed before my 6 year old epiphyllum strictum lol.

Congrats blackwillow! It has been years since fungii has bloomed for me. However, I put it into a smaller pot to simulate the rootbound conditions that they seem to enjoy and gets them to bloom.

Brad AKA Moonwolf

Thanks Brad! Mine produced a couple of peduncles last year but when I moved the whole plant outside, they fell off. I'm so glad it produced more and I won't move it until after its bloomed. I ended up setting it in another pot that was a little larger.

Great job. I love buotii, I'm sure you will too. Smells like unripe banana to me. I envy that epiphyllum! I just recently got one and it's small. I can't wait for it to get to that size! How did you like the scent?

Thanks Tom! I can't wait to smell the unripe banana scent once the buotii buds develop further. I used to have quite a few epis but I couldn't get rid of an infestation of scale bugs, and ended up throwing away a majority of them. Mine epiphyllum oxypetalum took about a couple of years to finally take off and when it bloomed I stayed up to watch the bloom open during one chilly night. The fragrance wasn't as strong as I had expected but I could smell it a couple of feet away and it almost reminded me of a datura bloom, only a little more exotic and spicier. I brought it indoors after the first bloom so I wouldn't have to wait outside in the chilly weather and the fragrance was a little more noticeable. I think if it had a lot of blooms open at once, the fragrance would be much stronger?

That's too bad, darn scale! I've had to constantly hack my night blooming jasmine bushes down to the ground due to mealies, so I know your pain! The scent may have been weak due to the chilly night, but I am sure more blooms would intensify the fragrance! 2 blooms is better than one ;) I love your scent description! Makes me much more excited to see mine bloom. One flower usually isn't enough to fill an area with scent, even with the most fragrant plants. I have smelt a single gardenia blossom from a good distance, though. The same with one Mr. Lincoln rose from about 5 feet away. But it is rare.

I hate scale and they've killed quite a few of my plants. A couple of years ago, I experienced spider mites on my plumerias. Before then, I never had an issue with mites. Mealies are another nemesis of mine, and I tend to find several on my hoyas every winter. You're probably right about the chilly night affecting the blooms. I'm hoping it will produce more flowers next year, or produce blooms earlier in the season? Hopefully you'll see blooms on yours in no time? :) I love the scent of gardenias and I wish they grew well here. The other day, the floral department at the local grocery store had spring bulbs in bloom and I could smell the hyacinths several feet away. I love fragrant plants and I have a tea jasmine that also bloomed last year.I put the flower in a bottle and even after the flower faded, the scent was still incredibly strong.

Mmm that sounds delightful. I have a few sambac jasmines and I love them. I stuck my nose in a pink hyacinth in publix the other day and it was intoxicating. Rich, spicy, sweet. I wanted to drink it in but I didn't want the other shoppers to think I was nuts haha.

Mealies are my biggest nemesis for sure. They attacked my Rangoon creeper but luckily they faded away with some pruning and squirts from the hose. I occasionally squeeze a couple of mealies off of a hibiscus and Angel trumpet once in a while as well. But they're worst on the night blooming jasmine, they can cover the bush if left unchecked. I did have mites on my angel trumpet but they faded away as the plant got more vigorous, which I'm thankful for.

Thank you! I hope it blooms soon too. I'm thinking at least a year but maybe two. It's pretty small but growing quickly. I think yours will bloom earlier in the season. It does seem to bloom very well in the heat of summer from what I've read. I see you're in 8a and gardenias are hardy there. I have mine against the house here in zone 9 central Florida so it gets a decent amount of much needed shade and it's carefree for me. I dont even need to give it acid fertilizer. I live for fragrant plants! What are some of your favorites? :)

You're lucky to live in a climate where you can grow jasmines in the ground. Every time I see flowers in the floral department, I always have to stop and smell each flower lol. Last month I saw some paperwhites at a local nursery and they had a very strong fragrance. They also had double blooms too.

You can grow so many pretty tropical plants there. Last year I had an issue with white flies on my hardy hibiscus plants. They're so annoying and I never can get rid of all of them. I have three angel trumpets that I may plant in the ground in Spring since they're marginally hardy in my area with lots of mulch, I'll just watch for mites.

In your climate your epiphyllum should definitely bloom soon. Mine always has to to survive in low light when I bring it indoors every winter. Gardenias hate the alkaline, rocky soil here and I don't think they like the dry, intense heat here? I've seen a few large gardenias in this area that are healthy but they're better adapted to the eastern part of Texas.

Some of my favorite fragrant flowers are crinums, paperwhites, hyacinth, jasmine, datura, Easter lilies, and star gazer lilies to name a few. Sorry for the long message lol.

Exciting!

It's definitely exciting Liberated. I'll be sure to post pictures of the flowers once the buds open. :)

I have some paper whites in a bowl on the desk right now. One has a bloom stalk already. I lived in Texas, the north side of San Antonio to be exact and we had a small frost proof gardenia that never took off, so that makes sense. I've never battled whiteflies but I'm pretty sure my gardenia has scale. Nasty. Easter and stargazer are two of my favorites as well. I wish the stargazers would bloom in the ground here. I'll just settle for buying them in bloom at the store. My messages always seem to be long too. I have a hard time keeping them short. Haha

I think next year I'm going to buy one of those paper white kits? I've never been to San Antonio before. I've lived in Texas all my life but I've yet to visit west Texas, the Panhandle, and south Texas. I've only been to east Texas and the Houston area. White flies love the dry conditions here, and they're very difficult to get rid of. Good luck with the scale on your gardenia. I need to check my plants to make sure they're free of scale or mealies. Every year I see stargazers for sale at Lowe's and Home Depot but I never buy them. One of these days I'll get a few and try them in my garden. I have a friend that has some but they always need to be propped up because they grow tall and leggy. I tried to shorten my message but I failed lol.

I've never bought the kit. I buy the bag of 10 bulbs from Lowe's or Home Depot. I bought a stargazer from Lowe's last year. It was awesome in the house for the short time the flower lasted. To get rid of the scale, I'll probably just cut off the affected branches. I try not to use pesticides lol. Well maybe one day you'll venture out! San Antonio is an interesting city. The culture shock of first moving there made me hate it for a long time but I learned to like it. I don't regret moving back to Florida though haha. I've driven through West Texas and Houston but never spent any time there. If I ever went back to Texas, I'd live in Houston. It has a good climate for growing tropical plants. Lol. My messages are never short. At least you tried.

Wow I didn't know Home Depot sold bags of paper whites. I've only seen them as kits here and they're pricy. At least you were able to enjoy the stargazer flower for a little while. So far I haven't found any pests in my houseplants, well just an occasional fungus that lol. I sometimes use neem oil but it stinks up my house when I use it on houseplants lol. Maybe one day I'll visit San Antonio and I definitely want to visit west Texas to see the mountains and deserts. When I was in Houston several years ago, I couldn't believe how humid it was, but it definitely has a nice tropical climate. Most of the time I try to type short messages but I end up typing out paragraphs lol.

Lowe's usually has the paperwhites but I'm pretty sure I've seen them at Home Depot too, but come to think of it I haven't seen any bulbs at my HD lately lol. The west Texas mountains and deserts are a sight to behold. Yea,, Houston sounds like Florida. It's what I'm used to.

I'll look in Lowe's next holiday season for the paperwhites. I remember seeing some amaryllis in bags at Home Depot during the holidays. In Fall I sometimes see iris rhizomes or daffodil bulbs for sell at both Lowe's and Home Depot. I could only imagine the mountains in west Texas. I think this year I saw some gardeners in Houston that had lost a lot of their tropical plants due to a hard freeze. We had a low of 14 last week. :(

Damn, sucks for Houston. 14 is no fun either lol. I remember the teen temperatures in San Antonio. I didn't have tropicals there haha. The lowest it got here this winter was 37 And then another low in the high 30s the next night. A couple of my hoyas leaves burnt up a little bit including coriacea and a few like buotii and imperialis dropped some leaves but I think that was more due to me letting them sit in saucers of water and self watering pots. I took the saucers and the bottoms off the pots lol. They still have active growth so I'm happy. A coryanthes orchid I have has some burnt leaves and kept its new growths as well. They're cold hardier than I thought lol. My Hoyas are definitely my least cold hardy plants for sure

It definitely sucks. Several of my hardier plants got toasted but they should return this Spring? My bananas towered over the house last year but now they're just dead stumps lol. It's amazing 37 was the lowest temperature it got to there, hopefully you won't have anymore 30 degree lows?I'm shocked your coryanthes orchid survived the 30s. I only have a spathoglottis orchid indoors that's struggling and some hardy bletilla orchids outside. I'm going to plant them in the ground this year in my shade garden. I can't seem to keep other orchid varieties alive for long lol. It's amazing that your hoyas still survived low temperatures like that.

It's amazing the amount of rain California is getting. I hope your hoyas will be alright mairzy. :(

Blackwillow, I like to test the hardiness limits. I hate moving plants so if they can't survive outside I'll just let them die lol. I once had to move orchids and Hoyas into the garage just in case we got severe weather from a passing hurricane and I never want to do that again. Not to mention it was pointless because the weather wasnt severe. I was shocked about the coryanthes too. I have other orchids outside that I consider very sensitive like peristeria and gongora outside that were untouched and I was really happy about that. I have some spathoglottis in the ground that have dried up to all but a few very small leaves. They're kinda Semi dormant because it's dry. They should bounce back in spring. Your bananas will come back too right? They don't freeze here but I know they send up babies lol. Your other plants should come back. In my experience orchids need a decent amount of water, shade, and fertilizer. They immediately seem to decline if I bring them indoors, like my peristeria. I'm not good at getting indoor plants to thrive lol.

Mairzy, I quickly realized this winter that water and cold is very bad! Too bad I realized it when some of my Hoyas dropped their leaves and started to decline. They're all fine now that I stopped watering and took the saucers off. I also made my pakalana vine drop all its leaves with too much water. Good luck with your Hoyas! I hope they survive

I'm sort of the same way with my in ground plants. I'm starting to grow more native plants and my philosophy is every plant is on its own. I water sometimes twice a week and if a plant is drought stressed, then it's in its own lol. I don't want to pamper plants because watering more than twice a week is too expensive. I couldn't imagine having to move lots of orchids and hoyas indoors every time severe weather is forecasted. Mine kept getting knocked over by the wind, flooded, and damaged by a hail storm but they've recovered nicely.

My bananas should definitely return but they probably won't be as large as last year. I wish I had better luck with orchids because there are so many beautiful varieties. I can't even keep phals alive lol.

Haha I agree with the watering schedule. I definitely like to save as much water as possible. My orchids and hoyas have been pretty lucky so far. I have had one knocked out of the pot by wind but not much damage on any. Most damage has been caused by me lol. You can have good luck with orchids! I never thought I would but I even got Dendrobium spectabile to start a spike which is supposed to be difficult. Just give them a good amount of shade, some dappled sun. Intermittent fertilizer really helps, mine always seem to send up a spike, new bulbs, or new roots after a fertilizing. I don't do it often. I've never grown a phal. I threw one out after it stopped blooming that was a gift from the grocery store. I've gotten really tired of seeing them everywhere honestly haha.

Last year my hoyas went through a lot of abuse from nature. Thankfully they didn't seem bothered by it lol. I'd like to grow different orchids but I rarely see other varieties. I get tired of seeing phals too especially the dyed ones lol.

Well I hope they continue to thrive haha. Do they get better gro orchids at Lowe's or Home Depot where you're at? They have them here. They have some pretty good varieties time to time

Every once in a while Lowe's has the Better Gro cattleyas but they're expensive for their size lol.

Here the ones in the bags are are a pretty good price like 13.98. The ones in pots like terra cotta are pretty pricey.

I think I may have seen a couple for that price? I also saw one recently that was $19.98 and it was in a plastic pot.

the 20 dollar ones here have nice pots lol. I've got a lot of cool species and hybrids in 4" pots for 13.98 at HD and Lowe's like dendrobium spectabile and speciosum, Cattleya walkeriana semi Alba Carmela, mossiae semi Alba, pot. Burana beauty, maxillaria tenuifolia, Brassavola little stars, blc waianae leopard ching hua, a zygo hybrid, encyclia alata and tampensis, oncidium sharry baby 'sweet fragrance' and a Vanda tessalata x luzonica cross among others lol.

Wow your Lowe's has a lot of different orchids. I think I saw dendrobiums a few years ago. Last year I saw some Cymbidiums at Kroger's for 16 dollars.

I bought 5 vanda @ Lowes for $1 each( better-gro). I don't know anything how to care for them since I never own one. I would want to trade this for Hoyas if anyone is interested.

Here's an update on the buds. They finally opened and Tom you're right, they really do smell like unripe bananas. :)

Blackwillow, glad my scent description checked out! :) The scent can change and smell smoky, a lot like a brassavola.

I think I'll smell the blooms again to see if the scent changes? The flowers remind me of fuzzy starfish lol. :)

Do it. Yes, they really do look like fuzzy starfish lol. I couldn't resist touching them to feel the texture haha

I was so tempted to touch the blooms but I was afraid they would fall off with my luck lol.

I thought the same thing, but I went for it anyway haha.

I may muster some courage and touch the blooms lol? I'm so glad the peduncle has more buds because at first there were only three. :)