Friday, July 3, 2015

Where to download plant import permit applications in the USA ; the number of imports in 5 years is unlimited, and it's free

Plants over 12 units and seeds require import permits in the USA. They are entirely free of charge. A single parcel with an import permit may be processed faster by the customs than 2 parcels of 12 plants each.

On APHIS site permit applications download links
Permit requests can be downloaded here
A permit will allow you to import for a period of 5 years an unlimited number of times. This is totally free.


A plant import permit in the USA

Hoya and other plant collections are for sale on aleyagarden.com. Plant care information is available in various posts of this blog :
http://aleyagarden-blog.blogspot.com/2011/02/aleyagarden-blogs.html
Contact : aleyagarden@hotmail.com

Thursday, July 2, 2015

32 Celsius in July in Europe, is it like being in the tropics ?

That depends on the location in Europe : in Amsterdam where a mild sea climate covers the country, yes 32 Celsius and a humidity higher than 75 % is a tropical climate.  If in Lyon ( France ) in July 32 Celsius will probably be associated with only 50 % of humidity and this would be far too dry for a tropical climate. In Madrid the heat can reach about 40 Celsius with humidity below 20 %. In Las Vegas ( Nevada, USA ) the humidity will be even lower when the thermometer reads 40 Celsius.




This combination of high temperature and low humidity is a real issue for tropical plants that are in the process of acclimatizing or rooting without plastic covers of foggers.


Average relative humidity in Lyon, France

Average min and max temperatures in Lyon, France
 
 
 The sensation of being overheated ( like in the tropics ) will be stronger in Amsterdam - and really tropical - than in Lyon because this subjective effect , called the heat index, results from the higher vapor content of the surrounding air that does not allow the maximum amount of evaporation from the body. The chart below shows that in Amsterdam 32 Celsius and 75 % of humidity result in a perceived heat of 42 Celsius while in Lyon the same real temperature will be perceived as only 34 Celsius since the humidity will be 50% in this French town 
 
 
Hoya and other plant collections are for sale on aleyagarden.com Plant care is available in various posts of this blog. Contact : aleyagarden@hotmail.com Find all Aleyagarden posts on http://aleyagarden-blog.blogspot.com

Monday, June 29, 2015

Certain Hoya leaves display patterns and visible " veins "

Some Hoya have nice leaves with patterns and visible " veins "  :

Hoya erythrina  long leaf  
Hoya finlaysonii 1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9,10

( All aleyagarden finlaysonii 1-10 except # 5 )
Hoya fungii
Hoya glabra 
Hoya glabra  II 
Hoya globulosa 
Hoya golden eye 
Hoya macrophylla 
Hoya macrophylla variegata 
Hoya macrophylla white margins 
Hoya meredithii 
Hoya rigida 
Hoya jennifer cv
Hoya UT223 not rooted
Hoya UT158 not rooted 
Hoya vitellinoides
 

Hoya with red leaves 
Hoya with a stronger scent
Hoya with big leaves
Hoya with big flowers

Hoya and other plant collections are for sale on aleyagarden.com Plant care is available in various posts of this blog. Contact : aleyagarden@hotmail.com Find all Aleyagarden posts on http://aleyagarden-blog.blogspot.com

Certain Hoya get red leaves under more sun exposure


The leaves of some
Hoya caudata
Hoya tend to be red under light exposure, they are :


Hoya caudata
Hoya caudata green leaves
Hoya caudata Sumatra
Hoya collina
Hoya curtisii
Hoya erythrina
Hoya erythrina long leaves
Hoya flagellata aff  II
Hoya flagellata aff
Hoya flagellata
Hoya forbesii
Hoya gps 7 35
Hoya IR26 sp
Hoya manipurensis
Hoya microstemma
Hoya Phu Wua sp 
Hoya pseudolittoralis
Hoya Sabah GPS-7950 sp.
Hoya sigillatis alas river
Hoya sigillatis 
Hoya sipitangensis
Hoya undulata
Hoya UT001
Hoya walliniana
Hoya waymaniae long leaf  ( Borneo )
Hoya waymaniae ( Malay )

More on pigmentation under light as a protection
Hoya with visible veins and patterns on leaves
Hoya with a stronger scent
Hoya with big leaves
Hoya with big flowers

Hoya and other plant collections are for sale on aleyagarden.com Plant care is available in various posts of this blog. Contact : aleyagarden@hotmail.com Find all Aleyagarden posts on http://aleyagarden-blog.blogspot.com

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Hoya seeds wrapped in humid toilet paper 30 days : fungi and survival

Today 26 June we are wrapping these Hoya seeds with humid toilet paper and insert them in plastic bags so they can germinate.  The optimum time for germination and the first steps of growth would be 10 to 15 days in general.
Then they can be extracted with the piece of paper they have attached to and planted under light.

How many seeds will survive 30 days in these closed humid bags ? If fungi and bacteria multiply, will these seeds survive ? The test may help us decide if we will buy Hoya seeds with the cheaper small parcel or envelope method and take the risk of a 3 weeks travel ( the average time to Europe from abroad is 12 days including about 15 % of the arrivals taking 3 weeks in the slowest systems ) ? Or to avoid this risk will we take the expensive express method ( EMS ) ?

seeds of Hoya Ban Bang Pla

seeds of Hoya finlaysonii III

seeds of Hoya finlaysonii V

seeds of Hoya quinquenervia

seeds of Hoya vitellina

Hoya and other plant collections are for sale on aleyagarden.com Plant care is available in various posts of this blog. Contact : aleyagarden@hotmail.com Find all Aleyagarden posts on http://aleyagarden-blog.blogspot.com

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Sweden : a place of choice to acclimatize tropical plants from June to September

Imported tropical plants can be given a bath with hormones or sugar after arrival then have to acclimatize in humid environments provided by plastic tents or tunnels, or foggers in commercial greenhouses. 
Following bath, humidity in the first days must be close to saturation and progressively decrease.

Most tropical plants acclimatize more easily at 18 - 20 Celsius rather than 35 C, and humidity, measured in gm of water vapor per cubic metre of air is better provided at 20 C rather than 35 C in temperate climates.

Too hot and too dry, they are twice disadvantaged.

Humidity in Stockholm, Sweden 

Temperatures in Stockholm, Sweden


From June to September in Sweden the average temperature suffices for the plants and the humidity is high ( not much lower than during the winter months ) so a gap in relative humidity at the start of a 2 weeks acclimatization ( the difference between the actual one and 80 % ) can be filled easily with plastic sheet or foggers.

The situation in Spain is just the opposite : the relative humidity in July falls sharply to 40 % while the heat is over 25 C and can even reach 32 C.
In Madrid on 3 July 2015 the humidity was only 19 % for 38 Celsius.






Las Vegas in the state of Nevada, USA, is even worse than Spain for the relative humidity and temperature relationship when tropical plants are concerned : the humidity goes down to an average 13 % in June !


Humidity in Las Vegas



Temperatures in Las Vegas


     If in Sweden at 18 C we enclose tropical plants in a plastic tent that makes one cubic metre of air around them, at a humidity of 60% the tent needs to hold over 9 gm of water vapour. Increasing to 80 % for a rooting or acclimatization period would require just over 12 gm : only 3 gm more in the tent.
In a situation like in Spain,  at 32 C and a humidity of only 40 %, 1 cubic metre holds 14 gm. The tent will have to hold 27 gm if the humidity has to increase to the higher level of 80%.  The difference is 13 gm, only a fogging system would fast provide enough water vapour to allow the plants to smoothly brace themselves for the dryer environment a few weeks ahead when we open the tent.

In Geneva the relative humidity is high and even more steady than in Sweden.

Humidity in Geneva, Switzerland


Temperature and humidity in Roma ( Italy ) : from March to July the average temperature rises sharply but the humidity is very consistent throughout the year.
Temperature in Roma



Humidity in Roma

The chart below shows the relative humidity in Bangkok, Thailand : it is high and steady over the months of the year, more or less as it is in Geneva ( Switzerland ) in Sweden or in Roma.

Humidity in Bangkok, Thailand
















Hoya and other plant collections are for sale on aleyagarden.com Plant care is available in various posts of this blog. Contact : aleyagarden@hotmail.com Find all Aleyagarden posts on http://aleyagarden-blog.blogspot.com

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

If I order seeds that will stay in the mail one month what will happen to them ?

If I order seeds that will stay in the mail one month in closed zip bag what will happen to them ?

Most seeds start to sprout in the bags after 5 days . It seems that being in humid closed bags triggers sprouting whereas if planted naturally the seeds could stay " dormant ".

After 15 days in the bags they show more or less elongation, depending on species and this does not seem to impact the percentage of successful seedlings after replanting to soil.

Hoya verticillata seeds after 1 month in closed humid bag do not elongate much but parasitica x pachyclada elongate much more.

 





Hoya, Hoya seeds and other plant collections are for sale on aleyagarden.com Plant care is available in various posts of this blog. Contact : aleyagarden@hotmail.com Find all Aleyagarden posts on http://aleyagarden-blog.blogspot.com
Hi! They came the basins. some are dry. others still have some life. I am happy. I put it in warm water with sugar. I hope some survive. Is there a type faster shipping? I have received shipments from Thailand within 15 days. It could be an option for my next purchase. This has taken 45 days, maybe one less day and arrive better. smile emoticon
Aleyagarden comment :
Unfortunately your country has a very slow postal system. The shape of the plants is very good for 45 days. ...If over fertilized ( forced growth ) they would not be like this.
EMS is a more expensive and faster option however if the regulations in your country require a registration from you, or if you import often by the post so your customs decide you are a professional and they do not tolerate anymore small postal imports without permits, then the best option for you remains small parcels or letter. We resend damaged plants at 50% of the price, with new transport cost paid by the buyer.






Saturday, June 13, 2015

How do you pack Hoya plants for 5 - 7 days travels ?

We are packing 458 Hoya for Europe today Sunday 14 June. The plane will depart from Bangkok tomorrow with the documents done on Monday in Bangkok. ( In the past it was possible to process some of the documents in advance of the arrival at the airport, this is not possible anymore because of stricter regulations. So the cargo has to be at 8 : 00 am at Bangkok airport for the documents to be done. )

Since about 10 days the roots and the leaves have been checked : particularly roots must be healthy and well developed, if not the plants are replaced. The leaves must be cleared of insects or traces of
them if found.

Yesterday the roots were inserted in plastic bags with moisture, taking in account that the 10 day weather forecast temperature after arrival will be around 25 Celsius.

Today is the last control for insects, roots and leaves : we are 6 workers on it !  A less constrained work means less pressure, more focus. Close-ups on the roots show that the humidity is ok, the plants are healthy ( we don't force the plants, which can be seen even on pictures by a well informed eye ) none has signs of overfeeding or of stress, if some are damaged by insects they are put aside and replaced : we grow many Hoya plants to avoid being out of stock. We started our business in 1999 so we have been packing plants almost every week for years, and have got some expertise with the quantity of moisture in bags and plant cultivation for international travels and plant collectors' markets. Humidity and temperature management is an important point both on the exporting and importing ends. The quantity of water vapour needed to acclimatize or root tropical plants can be calculated. Some locations allow a better control during the hot months, for others where higher heat combines with lower humidity, attention is required.

With only 28 degrees Celsius ( 82.4 f ) today our temperature is lower than in Bangkok or Chiang Mai. It is also lower on a yearly average :  3 degrees less than Bangkok, 2 degrees less than Chiang Mai. The proximity of the sea and also the humidity of the air lower the temperature to average levels throughout the year below those of Bangkok and Chiang Mai by 3 and 2 Celsius.

Phuket is also more cloudy on average, like today. The chart in picture below shows the temperatures today in the 3 locations.

 
 
The box sizes have been adjusted, at around 13 : 00 we will put the plants in, close and upload the boxes in our air
conditioning minivan for a 30 minutes course to Phuket airport and from there they will take a direct plane to Bangkok airport, the flight will take about 1 hour.  This is less time than by a daily truck from Bangkok or the vicinity for a similar cost ( planes are not empty half the way ). The cargo holds of the planes are also better equipped than trucks that do not operate at night to keep temperature at about 20 Celsius and planes must control pressurization ! ( our postal parcels take either direct flights to Bangkok airport or night trucks only )

After arrival the cartons are put in a perishable section of Bangkok airport and depart on a night plane. The flight will be direct, at a very competitive price per kg of cargo,  Suvarnabhumi Airport is Southeast Asia's regional cargo hub.
 










 



Hoya, Hoya seeds and other plant collections are for sale on aleyagarden.com Plant care is available in various posts of this blog. Contact : aleyagarden@hotmail.com Find all Aleyagarden posts on http://aleyagarden-blog.blogspot.com




 

Sunday, May 24, 2015

Chance seedlings result from open pollination in nature or gardens


 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chance_seedling
A chance seedling is a plant that is the product of unintentional breeding. It may be a genetically unique individual with desirable characteristics that is then intentionally bred. Plants that come from the artificial union of gametes from a maternal and paternal source are not chance seedlings.
Identifying the parent plants of a chance seedling may be difficult. It may be necessary to genetically analyse the seedling and surrounding plants to be sure.
The Kindred Spirit Hybrid Oak, Granny Smith Apple, Lady Alice, Red Delicious and Braeburn apples are chance seedlings that were selected and assigned cultivar status owing to their desirable properties.

Hoya, Hoya seeds and other plant collections are for sale on aleyagarden.com Plant care is available in various posts of this blog. Contact : aleyagarden@hotmail.com Find all Aleyagarden posts on http://aleyagarden-blog.blogspot.com

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Hoya monetteae , Hoya diversifolia : leaves and flowers

  The leaves of monetteae are larger
Left  Hoya monetteae leaves,  right Hoya diversifolia leaves

 
 
 
Hoya monetteae above has large white umbels.
 
 
Hoya diversifolia leaves and flowers