Keep The Aspidistra Flowering

I have been pruning back our Aspidistra plants.  These have always been very popular with our customers.  Known as the ‘cast-iron’ plant due to their indestructibility (they are almost impossible to kill!), this plant was once a very popular houseplant and still are.  However, they will grow very happily outside and as long as they are well shaded they will retain their beautiful deep green foliage colour.  They form a lovely clump with good height and look very sub-tropical. 

They are also very popular with florists and flower arrangers.  Sometimes you will get a lovely white stripe through the leaves which looks great.  Known mainly for their leaves many people are surprised to know that they are flowering at this time of the year.  “My Aspidistra never has never flowered” is a common response.  This is because their flowers are found on the top of the soil and if the leaves are dense then they are very hard to spot.  

This is why I like to cut them back at this time of the year.  The flowers become visible and the new leaves will grow back thick and lush. 

Aspidistra with flowers at base

Close-up of flowers

More Hoya Photographs

Here are two more of our hoyas.  They’ve done so well this year. I really love the Hoya minibelle.  It is a very smart looking plant with long thin leaves, it’s a really good variety for a hanging basket and it gets covered in cute umbels of small flowers.  

Hoya minbelle

We have a large plant of Hoya obovata and this season it was just covered in long lines of flowers.  The leaves on obovata are lovely as well, very rounded, with the grey flecks that a lot of different hoyas have.

Hoya obovata

Obovata Plant

 

Hoya cinnamomifolia

In my opinion this is one of our most beautiful hoyas. The plant itself is nothing really special, it has very large, widely spaced leaves with only one leaf on each of the nodes. But the flower is absolutely stunning.  This hoya flowered in early December and is now having a second wind with dozens of flowers coming on the plants.   Originally this particular hoya originated in Java.

Hoya cinnamomifolia

Sunday, Sunday

Ah, Sunday.  A day for sorting out taxes, mowing the lawn and making chicken curry.  The summer has finally returned with toasty warm air and literally not a cloud in the sky.  Good times. 

I’ve been going through the photographs of the hoyas and resizing them to put in the blog.  They are still flowering away in the greenhouse, with so many varieties there is a long period that something is in flower.  The fungii start first and the season finishes with the australis which haven’t even begun to come out yet. 

Hoya arnottiana

  Following on from yesterdays photo, here a couple more of the Hoya pubicalyx cultivars that we have. 

Hoya pubicalyx c.v. Red Buttons

Hoya pubicalyx c.v. Jungle Gardens

They are all very beautiful.  Hope to add some more photographs and information tomorrow.  It’s not all about hoyas though and usually we are doing lots of jobs in the nursery as well.  Off to the hospital tomorrow in Whangarei so probably won’t get much done then either.