The Hot, the Loud & the Proud

It was morning,
somehow it was one of the days after a very time where I actually get to sleep a little late. Rarely do I get this kind of opportunity to sleep without rushing myself every morning.
(no sending my wife to work, no marketing, no weekend course to attend - just pure bliss)

Earlier, there was a slight drizzle - sort of a motion where the sun had also snugged between the clouds..

Thought of breakfast..
hmm.. coffee...
(wondered if my wife had already boiled water but yes I got a list of chores to do)

Then, I heard shouting outside my garden...
pretended not hear and I just tossed to the other side of the bed burying my head with a pillow.
Wished I had more time to roll & toss over, its still 8am.

Nope, I still can hear the noise,
"OK, Whats the commotion all about?"

I saw two sisters more like having a LOUD heated arguments, surprised me I blurted,
"Oh! Its you, finally you came -after all these years!!!"
"Cream is your theme I see?"

They seemed to see me in shock - silent.

Adjusting to awkwardness - still rubbing my eyes (Am I dreaming)
"So, you brought some HOT visitors with you?"
"Well, Aren't you going to introduce them?"

"Or you all playing PROUD with me - Eh??"
"OK, Im having my coffee first"


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Thought of something, hot, loud & proud in my garden.
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Thanks to Noel from A Plant Fanatic in Hawaii who invited me to write this meme.
Do check the link here for more of this meme from other gardeners.
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Well of course - the ( last pic.) bougainvillea carried the trophy but because she is too proud, she never actually bloomed in my garden - somehow that one got all 3 very well fitting for the title..
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Perhaps??
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Interior Garden & Figurines

This is actually the top of my book rack, its by the window side. I had an idea of placing plants by it and found that mother in-law tongue plant seemed to be the best candidate for this arrangement.

I wanted something green and alive. Earlier I had tried with the palm orchids & kalanchoe but they have failed. Somehow these have been doing very well, probably it would have been 3 years now. I had placed them in bottles with little soil and only water them like once a month with very little water - just enough to see them disappear (or vapourise) within the walls of the bottled soil.

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This is a project where my son & I had decided to decorate with all the nature stuff. We had collected some seashells and some saga seeds and stick it on our "Staircase of Fame"

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The work is this in progress, there is a lot of ideas and thoughts to work on this but nevertheless its still a progressive, slow and a dedicated work - I really don't think it would be complete anytime soon.

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If its not for those hummingbirds & the glass pebbles, it would be a boring composition.
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Flame Violet in my Garden

Flame violets - What would I plant without you in my garden?
The amazing thing about this plant is they are not easy to plant but once they get the hang of it in the garden - they become the No;1 in the garden.

The older ones had all died - this is the new generation & hopefully they survive to produce another generation as they may not totally disappear during into matured planted and rot away.
That's what happens when one forget to propagate the existing ones.

You can notice my humming bird figurine here - they do look cool with the begonia & flame violets.

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This is a different species - notice: no stripes?

The difficult part about this one is growing very slowly - hopefully it would pick up its pace before dying.

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I had placed the green one on the ground and they seemed to be very happy there by the blue tiles. Hope nothing destroy them.

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This the black/white version - just wanted to see how cool they look in this tone.

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Cactus Flower

This one bloomed just last Thursday early morning. I noticed the flower bud sticking out at the annex of the cactus plant - never realised or ever hoped that this one would flower in my balcony.

By the time I got my camera, the flower had already spend.(last pic) Well, At least I can still be satisfied with some remnant of what it would be called a glorious flower.
Regardless, I manage to snap some pictures from my handphone camera but the quality is not so satisfying.

I could say, this one is almost 7 years old & finally it had decided to bloom after all those years - Amazing.

Cactus Corner - Final Part

Additional Revised Notes:

These are the whole cactus collection which I have in my balcony.
These are Tiger Jaw - they tend to shriveled up when lacking water but they also end up rotting when in contact with too much water - I had 3 pots of these but manage to rescue only one.


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I had rescued this plant & manage to separate it into two potted plants. These are dyckia -easily confused with agaves (from the bromeliad family), they are tightly connected with each other and so it really took a lot of effort to separate them.
I guess the previous gardener gave up and threw away this spiky plant as the roots are no longer able to be in contact with any soil medium.
(The existing roots just hover above this ball of "porcupine")
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I manage to separate one piece after a long tug or war (almost gave up) and they are doing well so far.
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Followed by the Jade Plant given to me as gift from a friend who visited Cameron Highland few months ago. I asked him for a tea plant as Cameron Highland is very famous for it but somehow I guess the lack of time and all he got a substitute for me.

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I have been watchful in watering this Jade plant, I guess too much water might kill this plant.

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Its amazing to note that the Tiger Jaws (1st pic) was given to me by his wife 10 years ago. That time, they were still dating and single. Talking about Garden Chronicles - Its unbelievable to draw time-line with gardening and history, Don't you think?

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I got these 2 pots of cycad plant which I bought long time ago. I had kept it together with the rest of the garden plants below but somehow it was raining too long & too frequent and I fear this plant might just rot with all that stress.

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But I realise they don't do too well without water, there was a time when it was very hot and I have forgotten to water these about 3 weeks and all the leaves dried up. Nevertheless - I watered them back and a new leaf sprouted (I still haven't got the time to trim all the dead leaves yet)

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But the other strange thing is that the other cycad plant had overshot an branch with huge leaves.

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Strange - Didn't know cycad can do that.

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This is Mother of Thousands (Kalanchoe daigremonitana) Also known as Devil's spine & Mexican Hat. I guess this one is considered more of a "pest" than a plant. A lot of gardeners just hate it as they are so invasive just sprouting their plantlet everywhere. Many gardeners wage war with this one & I guess most of them are still fighting the battle.

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I still like this one very much - more to do with the reason of lack of care & I mean literally. This one is going in a small sealed pot. I had placed these babies here and they have grown. I guess the heat had given them the stripes and spots - more like a leopard, don't you think?

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Do place your extra mother of thousands on rooftops where the sun shines and that they only have access to water by the rainfall. You will have the wild side of this mother.

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And finally the Mother of thousand together with the Basket Plant (Callisia fragrans) or Spironema fragrans. I wanted to do an experiment by placing them on my roof.

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Guess what - I got this result and they are doing so great after many months - and these are doing just great without any watering from my part.

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The mother of Thousand had "migrated" from the pot - that's explains why the pot is like that.

I'm still wondering whether to rearrange and repot them but as for now, I will leave it until I got more time to work on it.

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Notice that the Mother of Thousand reset the leaf shape to conserve water, they look like rosettes. Amazing isn't it?

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