Garden Update - Final part

This is the other side of my my garden where the plants are in hanging pots along the fencing area. My friend had passed me this Oxalis and mentioned to me that it was dying, true enough when I unearthed the soil and found that the bulbs where rotting. I managed to safe just one bulb. Recently the leaf didn't look good as it appears to closed all day. Hope its not rotting again as that is the last straw of this species.

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I also managed to reset my joyweed & zebra tradescantia - keeping them trim and proper, the difficult part is that there are too many of it and I have to choose only to use the crowns in replanting. These are the very hardy ones - able to withstand all types of weather (rain, hot sun, washed down soil, draught) I will strongly recommend these for any beginners.

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And finally orchids.

Im still having mixed feelings with them, they seemed not to flower for all these years, I have been be very patient with them.

I got some tips from a gardener/blogger friend.

Will post his comment more in details once I get his follow-up and progress in getting this orchid blooming.

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Garden Update - Part 2

One of my nightmares had occured. It happened when I watered my vertical garden plants - those in the box. The weight of the water had uprooted the whole plant setting and the unsecured side and just flopped out dragging the bird nest fern, tumbling over.
(dragging my heart together with it - skipping few beat along that)

The good thing is none of the hanging plants got damaged. I had to review back and figured that I have to add more "anchors" to hold and support the root mass and keeping the plant mass erected. Somehow I managed to do it yesterday night. I guess its still an experiment & will have to wait and see if the the ferns pick up the pace in their new environment.

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These are the overall collection of my plants - spanning this side of the garden.
Note that the ground trailing plants are only growing on the cemented base with some river pebbles lined against them. The seemed to be thriving in this condition, especially the Black Velvet Begonia. This one had become so much healthier & lushly compared to the hanging ones.
Red Flame Ivy seemed also to adapt well in this condition, they never really survived in hanging pots as they wither immediately when I missed watering. And they don't bounce back compared to begonias. Here, it look more of a silver sheen look because of the shaded area (they would look more red & crisp when grown under sunlight)
Flame Violet & Green Tradescantia also joins the collection - the only setback is that the violets do not bloom here compared to the hanging ones.

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My best favourite plant in this collection:

Ylang- ylang

This one always constantly bloom and the fragrance is just so calm & relaxing.

It is never a regret to have this plant growing in the garden.

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Winter Jasmine - not enough blooms to make an impact in giving out the fragrance compared to Orange Jasmine & Ylang-ylang.

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Creeping Fig.

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Blooming Flame Violets in Hanging pots.

They are always blooming.

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I wonder whether this one is a spider plant - they never gave out any new shoots - hanging suspended pups.

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I had rescued this Fire Cracker Plant.

It had grown so well and defined, the time when I got it - it look like a leaf-less twig growing alongside of a drain. I'm still waiting for this one to bloom.

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Black Velvet Begonia in hanging pot (below)

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Garden Updates - Feb. 2011 - Part 1

My garden is constantly evolving. (whose doesn't?)
Anyway, the interesting part is my stripped leaved collection, I got a good bargain in getting a new addition - Earthstar, a type of bromeliad. I got about RM4.90 and I got 3 baby plants in there which I was very skeptical in separating them. Somehow they survived and had grown bigger.
(if you noticed the lower older leaves are smaller than the new top ones)
(2 pictures from below)

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you would have a wildest guess that these are the pups and crown from a pineapple. I came to know that pineapples are also from a brom's family and wanted to try that out without spending much. These are about a week old.
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Button Orchid in the Spanish Moss - seemed to adapt very well

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My bougainvillea had suffered when this purple queen and a palm tree plant sharing on the same pot. It took a while to separate them and prune this to give that optimum look. I know that not watering the bougainvillea for a week might force blooms on them. Keeping my fingers cross in trying not to water them while watering other plants - though some splashs occurs accidentally.

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Top: Not pruned

Below: Trimmed and the new look.

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Magic Moments in my Garden

It was a magical moment in my garden. I wouldn't say that I found fairies or angels visiting nor would I deny the factor of the presence when I just got mesmerised by the scent of Orange Jasmine blooms. They just cascade blooms over blooms and they trail of petals just littered all over the ground trailing plants. (Flame Violet)

And at the same moment my Ground Orchid bloomed - something that I considered a rare moment too as I had given up on their blooming attitude and opt. it as an alternative for a palm looking like plant.

And so, for the first time, I didn't go sniffing over the bloom as they had flooded the whole porch with their fragrance. For that one time I got double joy:
The first was the alternative week of Ylang-ylang fragrance and
The next was this - Orange Jasmine fragrance.

What more could I ask for my Valentine?
Truly it was a spiritual experience for me,
as if God visited my Garden.

To all my Garden Friends,
Have a heart warming Valentine!
Enjoy the moment with friends or family for they are truly your loved ones.

Tropical Vertical Gardening Experiment

I got inspired by The Rainforest Garden in the idea of setting up a vertical landscape garden. It was a situation when you got lots of plants but lacking display space. (too many plants and too less of a garden space would create a messy, unkempt - jungle look in the garden)

And I was also in a situation where I got everything under the sun theme and I need to focus with working out to bring the impact that I often look for - sort of create an ambiance where you feel good whenever you are in the garden (kind-a-feeling)

Yep, the ferns have to go. Its either throw away or give away situation. They don't fix well in my theme coloured garden. And so, this was a great idea of display. The good thing about ferns is they can really take the abuse. They can be over watered (but not water-logged) and would survive without soil. As you can see - the whole thing is a root-ball mass which easily fit into container spaced compartments.

I had set this up during the Chinese New Year holidays - its about a week now and they are doing fine. My greatest concern is that the whole soil & root mass might just flop & drop when watering. The other challenge is watering - too much water loosen the root support, lack of water dries up the leaves. The Bird Nest Fern are enjoying their new location as they sprout out new leaflets.

I had added Jewel of Opar in the selection to give some colour in the green selection and they simply look pretty good in the collection. The plants that are in this collection:

a) Bird Nest Fern
b) Drawf Petticoat Fern
c) Fluffy Ruffle Fern
d) Basket Plant
e) Jewel of Opar
f) Wandering Jew (Green Tradescantia)
g) Zebra Tradescantia
i) Joyweed

The most challenging moment is hammering the nails to support the wooden frame. It took awhile for me to handle the issue (guess I'm not good in being a carpenter) The wooden frame is actually a fruit crate. I had stapled a layer of plastic sheet to hold the soil and placed small containers to hold the root-ball mass inside them.
Sometimes, it is an issue of trial & error. And I foresee that eventually some species in this collection might overwhelm other species and that others might slowly disappear.

Of course - at the end of the day, it looked nothing like what the Rainforest Gardener proposed.
(lol) Well, I guess - it happens when you work with your own style and ideas. I wanted to use coconut shells and husk but it happened to be during the holiday season and getting them from a sundry shop is going to be a long wait (you can get all the husk & the shell for free as they are thrown away at the end of the day)

I have managed to really reset my garden during the whole Chinese New Year holiday week . It was also the issue of doing & setting a pot at a time, telling myself not to overwhelm and get up set or panic in seeing the whole mess. Amazingly I marvelled that I did manage to do some clearing work - doing little by little and eventually made some visible progress.
(I will upload my overall garden picture later)

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Wishing a Prosperous & a Garden Full of Overwhelming Beauty

to all who celebrate this Chinese New Year!

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