PrettyTiny Film Company Pic-A-Week **2021**! (The End)

[Loona]

One can never have enough 'Dolls with flowers' photos - do not be ashamed for a second if the next pic you share will also be one! Lovely photo, by the way, I love the colour coordination and the proud smile on Becky's face as she poses with the plant and the flowers - but I wouldn't be able to choose whether I like the cactus or Becky more (massive cacti lover here)  

Over a hundred!  That sounds majestic! And here I was, thinking how some of my plants that belonged to my mother (who has sadly passed away over 10 years ago - but I remember her getting one of them as a present at her workplace in the late 1980s, or very early 1990s) are old. Nah, they are like teenagers comapred to one of your cacti! Isn't there any clue that you could use? The pot, old pictures, anything? I can totally see myself losing track of which is which if there were two that looked similar but were *so* different otherwise, but I also know I'd feel totally devastated if I didn't know which is the old lady

Joining in to the Hoya discussion - we always had plants, and my grandmother always had plants too, but strangely, I don't remember us, her, or anyone in the family ever having had a Hoya. I've seen and come to love them elsewhere, and have wanted one for a long time, but I don't really like just buying plants, I need a story, a connection. About 2 years ago, through a friend and co-worker, I've become aware of a local community that organises plant swaps, where you can take any plants you have and no longer need (because e.g. you don't know what to do with the plethora of offsprings they sprout, or your are moving apartments, etc.), and find new plant moms or dads for them - and in return, you can also take plants you like. They usually get together on a monthly basis, though it has become considerably less frequent during the pandemic. I have hoped to find a Hoya cutting there, and have also told the organiser that I'd love one - and she spread it to others. In summer, on one occasion she was waiting for me at the entrance with a grin, and handed over a Hoya carnosa "krinkle' cutting to me that someone who couldn't stay has left there for me. She (I consider all plants to be female for their ability to give birth to new life. I am fully aware that concept isn't totally correct) is adorable, and I'm happy to have her - but she didn't stop my wish to one day find a "good old" simple, old-school Hoya. And I did, in, September? October? It was probably the last occasion the community could organise before the weather got cold outside and indoor gatherings were no longer an option due to the virus. There she was, not even a cutting, but a full plant, with about... 15-20 leaves? The girl who brought her told me she's had her for about 2 years, and while the plant didn't die, she also hasn't grown a single new leaf, clearly not feeling at home with her. I told her I have all the conditions Hoyas are said to like, brought the plant home, repotted her and gave her a nice spare IKEA Skurar hanging pot I had lying around, uninhabited, for years, and--- waited. She, at first, lazily started to grow a new leaf, then another - and just last week, I could, for the first time in my life, ex-perience that phenomenon of  "a vine creeping around". My mornings now start with a visit to the window in which she lives, to see the progress she made while I was asleep, and I am still amazed to see that the vine keeps getting longer and longer, it's probably about a metre long now, and while in the beginning it clearly grew upward, it is now bowing down under the weight of the 3.5 leaves (.5 because the 4th one is still tiny ^^) that have now also appeared on it. She's super cute, and helps make me feel better on a bad day (and on a good one alike). It's funny how plant activity can still amaze me so, even after having owned plants all my life, and sharing an apartment with about 50 pots of plants currently.