Cactus Update - July 2014

I would be difficult to say that I had almost left them with utter neglect.
The truth is - that's how they thrive - being neglected.
Too much water can kill them.
The other factor is that too much neglect also have the reverse effect.
I had for one - found a difficult scale insect infestation on few of these succulent plants which is quite difficult to rid off.

That is something to consider.
Not too much and not too less.
The ideal balance is attending to them weekly.

I have manage to add few more additions to my collection.
Some thrive, some Ok and some well...dormant going dead.
I realised that not all cactus does well in my garden.

Based on my experienced with many trials and error.
I found that Cactus/Succulents can be divided into 3 categories.

The Hot Desert Type.
These are the tall standing erected type.
Those that lives in the hot desert and considered to behave like a true cactus.
Handles strong abuse of neglect - lacking water and loves hot dry setting.

The Tropical Type.
These are mostly the succulent types.
Some still retain their thorns but basically you will find them they are very much like the hanging type.
These hanging / crawling type can thrive well even with daily watering - provided that they have a good draining medium.
They don't do well together with the desert type - that is if you intend to water them once a week.

The Highland Alps Cactus.
These are the difficult ones.
The ones I get here are from Cameron Highlands and often sold to lowland nurseries like Sg.Buloh.
The danger is to identify them before purchasing them as they will not survive nor thrive in the lowland climate in my region.

Regardless the rules..
Cactus can just be cactus..
They can beat the odds and just survive if they have what it takes to pull through in your garden.
Mine are in my balcony where rain water don't get to them.
Therefore watering is controlled as too much water can set root rot
and that is the last of my plant.

Some new additions - in this collection.
Mostly rescued thrown to die and rot..
and some picked up along the streetsides - growing wild.

These I had bought from the Sg.Buloh nursery.
They are slowly adapting to the lowland climate and watering schedule.
Hopefully they pick up and stay with me for years.

The Mother of Thousand had became invasive and started to shade and overtake the rest of the cactus here.
I had found many casualties where I find what was left are the shells of thorns by the last residence.
I had removed all of them (pic. below)
And hopefully they recover and give a nice fuller look.

Finally,
A picture of the wall cactus.
They are still in progress.
Hopefully it would create a lovely setting.

Cactus, Succulents and like.

I had spotted this cactus suddenly sprouted a flower.
Something that never happen in my cactus garden and I was there at the right time to spot this bloom. This was one plant now turned into two. I was concerned that it would start to rot as when I was checking on this plant - I was just able to pick it up
(finding that the bottom section totally rot and dried up)
I had manage to re-set it and hoped it would survive and now it had rewarded me with a lovely bloom.

This Agave looking plant was actually rescued from a cut down tree. I had manage to pick up 3 pieces of it and was not sure whether it would manage to survive. Its somehow few weeks now and my closest guess is that it would have manage to pull through.

This Silver Squill was quite a challenge as I had placed this together with the daily watering plant. It appeared sickly and the leaves snapped and broken. It was suffering and I was not able to tell whether it was under water or over-watered.

Somehow I placed this out of reach and with weekly watering - it was able to pick up the pace and give such an adorable coloured foliage.

I had purposely left few sprouts of ghost plant leaf succulents here & there between many of the succulent pots and they are springing back to life. These are Tiger Jaws - doing very well after a strict weekly watering regime.

These 3 plants (top & bottom) are newly purchased plants bought from Sg.Buloh nursery for RM10.00 offer. They look lovely and I hope the manage to survive for many years to come. I had recently changed the small pots placing the rootball together with a new hardy soil mix (not the cocopeat mix which is usually found)

Top: Dischidia Oiantha

I had manage to get two of this hanging plants.
I find that they are not easy to get them from anywhere. I read that they are indeed slow growers and make take forever if planted using cuttings.
Regardless, I got them reasonably for RM12 from Sg.Buloh nursery.

This is a variegated type (not the common green) I was told that this one is slightly more expensive than the green counter-part. Well, I hope it grows heavy in my garden.

Ant Plant (Dischidia Pectinoides)

This is another from of Dischidia.
Now I'm having a craving to collect different types of these same species. I have another type which I had found growing on tree trunks (Button Orchids) but they are not so showy as these two.

These are recently purchased and awaiting to be divided and transfered to a bigger wood piece. They had finish blooming and I'm pretty sure soon there will be new pups appearing from the mother plant.
The sooner I would able the transfer them - the sooner the damage is lessened.

Other succulents which are randomly taken.
Top: Ice plant - they are in season with blooms. These are appearing for the first time in my garden after some time planting them from a very small cutting.

Below: Donkey's Tail.
Suddenly I notice that they are quite long and the leaves are easily breakable due to strong wind or accidents (a light touch during watering can even break off those leaves)

November Garden Updates - Part 1

Loading these pictures took me forever.
These had been constantly collecting in my database and I have to eventually delete the older ones as they had to be considered obsolete
(Well, most of the duplicates which been taken weeks and months prior to this)

This happens when I have too many pictures in the database - arranging them in sort of a way to tell a story which I end up forgetting or changing or changed due to a different inspiration mood swing.

Regardless,
I really want to push all the pictures by this month end.
(I thought of putting one in a day would suffice - I'm totally in error)
Right now - I'm in denial of having the ability to manage too many pictures in the database.
To delete or to show and the next dilemma of properly arranging them for easy viewing.

Leave aside about the factor of truth:
Living in modern times, one had hardly enough time of anything.

So what's my story here.
I had constantly changing my garden scape for years and finally found a setting that I'm totally happy with.
This setting just suit so well for these years
(hope I'm not wrong - well, it does feel like it)
Yeah.. the year end is coming and so is Christmas..
I may as well - settle all my garden works by this time frame as I can focus on other matters.

Do you know that this whole porch area is fully cemented?
The whole garden area here is all in potted plants.
My point here is all about arrangement with the right type of plants.
Here, I rarely have to prune or trim anything.
All they need is regular watering and routine fertilising.

If you notice - the stacking up of the pots on the bricks gives some body-height for the plant to show a fuller optimum space and visual impact.
Another factor is colours.
I often prefer to have variegated colours.
Pineapples, Pandanus & Agave somehow have those thorny, spiked & grassy effect in making that add difference.

Should I say:
Suddenly something red appeared..
Adds drama to my garden.

The lowest portion of my garden is filled with stones and pebbles and also together with plants. Black Velvet Begonias seemed to love this setting. I often advice most of the gardener's friends to do such a setting for them if they find that planting them on soil don't seemed to work.