A New Arrangment

These are the update of my garden. I had set the rescued orchid in this pot and positioned it here together with my Chinese Croton and Aluminium plant. I had trimmed off all the burnt and dried leaves (you can note the spiked short leaves)

My Palm Orchid is still surviving - still waiting for the next bloom. I'm contemplating of resetting this pot (replanting the whole plant into few pots) Still wondering if its a good idea. Of course, time is another anticipated issue.

I have manage to plant the spotted begonia here too, I think its known as Angel Wing Begonia. It look very poise with the rest of the plants. Don't you think so?

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This is my collection of Golden Hanni together with the Purple Queen Plant. They seemed to compliment very well with their opposite colours.

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I forgot to mention that I had reset my garden again. I didn't like the earlier setting as its not accessible for easy watering and the snails and slugs were having jolly good time feasting on all my plants. My Dumbcane plants suffered the most - it had literally became a cheese leaved plant with so many holes in the leaves that I have to cut off all of them leaving just the stalk.

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I had placed two pots of my Winter Jasmine Plant which I had planted it by seeds. It had really grown tall - still waiting for the flower to bloom.

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Not much of changes here except for the resetting of the stones and pebbles. The Cane Begonia had grown taller than me this time reaching for the roof. I have decided to plant more Flame Violets to attract more sunbirds - they usually come for their nectar.

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I had minimise all my ferns and just have these hanging at the tip of my roof top. I guess too many green plants are a little boring in my very limited spaced garden.
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This is how it was earlier before the new arrangement. Most of the plants had crawled out from the pots and had become leggy. The Coleus plant had become so matured that it may not survive for another month. I had given away some of my plants to my office mates who were very eager to get them in their garden.

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Right now, there is a strong sense of satisfaction and a feeling of zeal returned to realise that my garden is back to its original sense of worth. Seemed to made some positive effect on me as I find myself very much eager to water and watch the progress.

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I still have a lot of touch up to do, but its really OK now as the major once are already completed.

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Garden Oh Garden....

These are the moment I'm scratching my head and wondering what to say,
"Ahh...Hmm..."(sigh!)

Its ridiculous actually, I just reset the whole thing and its not what intend it to be. Another few weeks & I'm sure the whole thing would turn into a blob of plants, I hardly can see the base of the pot now (making it more difficult for me to water)

Somehow, it look pretty in their own mess but should I make it neat and tidy?
Again, I really don't have the time & energy to do it.

What do you think dear gardeners?
Share with me your thoughts & ideas of what should I do concerning this.

Would consider this beautiful & keep it or prefer otherwise? (neat & tidy)

A Box of Surprises

I wouldn't say that this is a box of chocolates,
not something like what been mentioned by Forrest Gump:
My momma always said,
"Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get."

What I had thought this planter box should be never seemed to take place, together with another collections of events that took place, it would be easy if I just mentioned that I had picked all these abandoned from the roadside - products from where these are been pruned and being dumped to die & dry. Mostly all bundled and tied up for the garbage guy to pick up.

Of course, another way to say it is to make it a little dramatic in stating that one was rescued and the other was salvaged from the scorching heat laid by the roadside. And due that effect, the foliage had face some burns and damage. And some cuttings just don't survive after that shock.

I sometimes wonder whether I had become a sucker for plants that had been thrown away, it seemed that I somehow had braved myself to collect "garbage" something I never consider doing. (Who would do such things - I'm sure all would consider that very dishonouring)

Regardless, I remember a friend who noticed me picking up a dying plant and she had noticed that I had revive it and that the plant was thriving in my garden. She was surprised that I managed to save it and gave an opportunity of survival to it.
I remember that now, as when I do collect them, I see that this piece of plant have a living hope to survive - regardless how slim that chance might be.

Whats more frustrating is that I had forgotten the name of this plant, Google didn't help.
With what am I going to refer this plant for its description? I had tried - a plant with red underside and I get maples and autumn leaves, I had tried few tropical foliage plants but to no avail. Its a mystery to have this one, I guess it must be the variegated type and another thing - its too sensitive and a very slow grower. Since I cannot identify it, I really can't be sure whether I'm taking care this plant properly.

Update:

Thanks Stephanie for helping me to identify this plant:
Tricolor Chinese Croton (Excoecaria cochinchinensis)

The common ones are bicolor where its green at the top with the red at the bottom whereas this one has a splashes of cream , pink & green at the top.

I had found that its poisonous and may cause blindness. (So now, I got a good collection of poisonous plants - probably would do a post on that topic) Another species from this family Buta-buta or Blind-your-eye (Excoecaria agallocha) commonly found on the landward margin of mangroves.

Its milky sap or latex that exudes from broken leaves, bark and twigs is poisonous and can blister skin, hurt eyes and may even cause temporary blindness. 'Buta' means 'blind' in Malay. The latex is also used as a fish poison as well as in dart poison.

The other is Dracaena reflexa 'Song of India'
I have been eye-ing this for a very long time. Finally I got it - request from a gardener who tends in my wife's working place.
Yes, I know - gardeners tend to connect to each other just like that. It must be the plants that I have been "rescuing" along the roadside and he must have noticed that too.
Right now, we exchange plants - and now, I can easier pass all my overgrown coleus, wormwood and what nots. Don't have the feel the pain in seeing a plant going to waste.

Ok - Back to Song of India.
Another slow growing plant. They do root in water but you must watch out for the leaves as they tend to cause the water to stink and the roots may just rot. After placing few cuttings only one of each had managed to survive and had put out new shoots. This one has a white stripes on it.

The other greener one has the opposite colour contrast.
(How cool is that)
Known as Malaysian Dracaena, Song of Jamaica, Small-leaved Dragon Tree. (Dracaena reflexa 'Song of Jamaica')

I had managed to add my left over Aluminium Plants together in this planter box. These are those few ones that had been growing in the corners of several pots. I had decided to put all of them here.
Hope they all live in harmony.

Minority Repot

Have you seen Steven Spielberg movie (2002 sci-fi) - Minority Report starred by Tom Cruise & Collin Farrell? Its a futuristic movie about a psychic where her thoughts can be observed and their images manipulated - Tom Cruise and his crew arrest killers before they've had a chance to commit murder.
The twist begins when he is framed as a murderer but wait.. a crime which he didn't commit yet?

Ok..Ok.. where does gardening got to with this?
There was a scene where Tom goes to a gardeners house where the gardener tends all the carnivorous plants in her greenhouse- and that seemed to be interesting to note when it comes to hybrid plants, plants that guard at your gate, plants that cues and plays with your hand...

This is a short script a scene in the greenhouse:

Dr. Iris Henimen:
"It's funny how all living organisms are alike... "
[she starts crushing a mutated plant]

"when the chips are down,
when the pressure is on,
every creature on the face of the Earth
is interested in one thing and one thing only."

[as she continue to crush harder, the plant scars her palm]
"Its own survival. "

You can click here to see the portion of the movie:
Minority Report Part 7

That reminds me of this Creeping Fig (Ficus Repens).
When I purchased it - it was all so docile and tame, and you can see it showing its colour - no, not the variegated white and green - the part where it shed its innocent whites and starts crawling on the walls.
This is how it looked like earlier when I first bought it: Click Here

I'm not saying that's bad, it just what nature would do when its left alone, creating its own environment when left alone.

And the moral of the story: Its all about Survival.






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Does any of your plants wants to tell you: Leave me alone!
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Well this one does, I dare not transfer this, the last time I did that - the whole plant dried up and dead. So this happened to be surviving in the pockets of other main plants. Somehow, it does serve as a good ground cover.
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Click below for more information about this plant:
Red Flame Ivy (Hemigraphis Alternata)
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This is one of my rescued plants,

Aluminium Plant. (Pilea Cadierei) Also known as Watermelon Plant.

I consider this as one of the difficult plants to cultivate. The whole this is just one plant and you tell me how on earth am I going to propagate this more?

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Basic factor:

1) Requires light shade to full shade. (Does not tolerate direct sun without burning of the leaves)

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2) Requires a sandy well-drained soil with regular watering.

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3) Propagated by cuttings or division.

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4) Considered as a poisonous plant. (all parts of the plant)
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Colours in the Garden

These are my additional updates about colours.
This one is known as Aluminium Plant.

I had it before but it really didn't do well. This collection came from the rescued plants. The stem was badly damaged, I had trimmed it and replant them, it took awhile for it to grow and when it did - it gave some nice 4 leaved sprouts.

Something to consider that little thing matters.




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This Basket Plant do not have primary roots, they just sit here in this make shift pot, the soil is nothing but a mixture of compost & sand. (Most of the compost came from all the pruned drying leaves.) I had collected the rest and placed of them here and placed it on my roof. They are still doing fine. Its amazing hardy plant with a nice cream stripes.
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I still haven't identified the name for this begonia, as far as for me to identify it, I call it Curled-leaf Begonia. If anyone can identify the name, I would really appreciate it. Like any begonias - this one have 2 shades of colour.
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The top pic notes the leaf colour in red as it had been well exposed in sunlight & the bottom 2 are placed in shade.
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Finally, These are many varieties of colours arranged closely that makes my garden alive & vibrant. All the small plants put together and they really give the colourful impact that I often stop & admire. Most of the time I would be picking snails and slugs and dry leafs.

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The Purple Queen didn't do well this time, I'm afraid that it might die slowly as too much water (rain) and lack of sunlight may kill the plant. I had removed it from this collection and may have to place it by the sun or what is left of that limited light that comes during this time of the year.

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I would dearly miss these just as I miss my Zebra Tradescantia. Both of them have a lovely colours combo on their leaves. For the matter, purple & yellow go very well as they are great opposite colours. When these colours are placed together, they make a small garden look big.

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