The Cascading Effect

It's just not so noticeable.

I know - no matter how much I try - the camera effect don't seemed to capture the beauty that I want to portray here.

You know what they say - Beauty beholds on Eye of the Beholds..
I guess its the same on my case.

I like small stuff, especially the fine, minute pieces of leaves...

How shall I describe this - Majoring on the details?

I think that is the beauty in this - that's how I see it.

Baby tears (Pilea Depressa)

 The colours are another thing,

The vines red - the leaves silver?

How can I begin to describe this?

The best part - they came small.

Red Stem Tears

Pilea glauca 'Aquamarine'

Indeed, that;s the cascading effect.

You don't see it in the small details - when they make up for the volume:

The unifying factor of mass and volume create the sea of cascading beauty in another song of art.

That is a song waves that sways with the wind of times..

Again, a beauty that I see it - interesting.

Arranging them that they don't die at the top..

And the pieces dangling, almost surviving is one of the challenges faced.

Regardless - there is an art, a living beauty..

The joy to see that they survive still for one more day.

I had totally lost for words for their species names.

I guess - keeping track of their identity is quite a feat.

Basically - its of a Tradescantia species, some are succulents.

Creeping Charlie which often mistaken for mint.

Water Melon Begonia which not a begonia at all

and Turtle Vine plant which does do well by the drainside.

Trailing Watermelon Begonia (Pellonia repens)

Turtle Vine (Callisia repens)

Donkey's Tail - Succulents

It is not impossible to have a rich cascading effect using succulents.
The challenge is taking up the risk in doing the impossible to get it done.

Whenever I buy a succulent - I considered it loss.
That is to say - that they are already dead
(That gives a sense of reality that if in case they do indeed get to survive,
I consider it the next half of the battle won)

In most cases - succulents are so unpredictable.
Sometimes they do so well, sometimes the go dormant
And sometimes, dead.

To avoid such a pain.
I found few matters necessary to change the course of their fate.
That is: I always change the soil medium that suit my lowland climate.
(the ones that come to my place are often planted using cocopeat, not the type of fast draining type of medium you would expect to find for these type of plants)

In due course of changing them.
That's where the stress begins.
Sometimes these plants just don't make it.
But when they do - they do it greatly.

The other thing I find is watering.
These seemed to need more than weekly watering.
Perhaps like 3-4 days once.
Organic fertiliser works best - at least once a month would make a difference.
Not using fertiliser would mean slow growth.
And these ever grow so slowly.

But once they started their growth regime.
They are considered care free plants.
Nothing much is expected from them.

A very small succulent plant came in.
Its known of mother of millions.
Somehow that small plant manage to invade into other pots and choking the rest of the species.
I manage to trim and replant it elsewhere.
This one - somehow manage to outgrow the rest of the succulents.

I do plan to get more different varieties of the donkey's tail.
These sedum species do give me a thrill
especially the cascading effects of  layered levels of leaves,
arranged neatly like beads.

 Do tell me if you have these type of succulents in your garden.
Tell me your story concerning these.
I would like to hear about them.

Succulents Hanging Corner

I had posted before on this succulents sections concerning these Donkey's Tail & Ghost Plant.
Somehow I never seemed to get enough of their beauty in camera. These untouchables are truly thorn-less yet they here are so sensitive many ways.
They are not hardy to begin with and die immediately when watering is more than they can take. Something that I dare not take the risk in changing anything but rather leave them alone and just enjoy the beauty they provide.

 

I still haven't really figure their true name yet.
its either Mezoo Trailing Red Livingstone Daisy (Dorotheanthus)
or  Baby Sunrose, Ice plant (Aptenia Cordifolia)

Its a mixture of succulent and hanging plant and that it had started to bloom for the first time after a year or so. This cutting is passed to be by a friend who no longer wants to keep this plant (He is now totally focusing on orchids and there rest of the species had end up as gifts and give-away's)

They seemed to do well on the pebbles too. I'm experimenting on a broken vine and see if they crawl and take root and grow invasively. That way I would have fast growing plant without taking much of a cutting from the main plant.

Together with this collection you will find Creepy Charles (Pilea nummularifolia) very much appearing to be like a mint plant. (I had written about it on my earlier post)

Below:
This species is known as a Curtain Vine (Cissus Sicyoides)
Its a want not - waste not plant.
I find it hard to place it properly in the way I want it to be. I have to figure out something that gives this plant an optimum position that make do with portray the beauty of those hanging tendrils.

The other two more hanging plants are the ones I had not identified yet had found resident in my garden. Hopefully I manage to find their ID to check their profiles.

Finally,
I had placed the Phalaenopsis Doritis here for best shaded light for their flower spikes to appear. So far they are doing so well without showing any immediate signs of stress. I had seen these ones are left un-taken cared off in most of the gardens around my neighbourhood.

It is indeed considered a hardy plant as they do constantly bloom.

Plants & Creepers among Pebbles

Have you ever had a sense of abandonment
when it comes to plants?
More often when I find that I'm pressed for time and I truly lack the zeal to garden, and often times its faithfully rains every time I keep aside the time I want to garden.
(it just feel so desperately hopeless)

And in these moments I find that
10 minutes gardening a day seemed to work.
Stash, Poke, Press and Plant Quickly on a Temporary basis
until a plant pick up seemed to work for me.

I wouldn't say temporary abandonment seemed like a true word for gardening. Another person might just that I'm just being plain lazy. (Ouch!)
I wonder if I'm the only one who is going through this ordeal.

Hundred things will be on my mind and when I just enter into my house but it would be the first thing that I would say that I want to water my garden of which I end up doing the very last thing before I go to bed.

Priority shift when I'm rushing to work fighting for seconds in the morning rush while my wife locking down the gate and I will be furiously spraying my plants,
"Just a second dear.. this is the last one"
And yes - I'm running late to send her to work too.

I wonder anyone goes through my ordeal.
I must be a terrible gardener but my plants still forgive me.

I got 2 pots of Fittonia.
Mosiac Plant

The pink one a year back when my son brought a plant for parents day. He was insisting that it was his plant and that I should take care of it. I doubt whether he still remembers it.
(Again -there is another host of other things in my mind now that I need to settle and sort within the family)

The red were bought during Mother's Day this year when I took my mum to the nursery when I manage to get an air plant with it.

(Its Tillandsia Medusa Caput -very much a trunk and bare burned leaves due to the very hot season - I got it for a slash price...Lucky me. I bought roses and another flowering plant for my mom that its name seemed to escape my mind - well - both died in her garden)

So - yeah.. I'm still figuring out why it didn't work for her when she got lots of time to caress her garden compared to me.
Gardening is indeed so unfair.

And these Fittonias didn't have a nice pot yet.
They are indeed poked and pressed in nook,
and corners of few potted plants.
Sharing here with a miniature pineapple.
I had Dyckia years back here before but it died due to mealy bug infestation underneath its roots system.
It got rotten from inside out - by the time if was found - it was too late to safe anything.
(Ohh.. those darn farming ants)

Well for consolation sake - I think it had lived a happy life in my garden - the dyckia was rescued from a dump burning site.

Actually I wanted to write about how you can garden on mere pebbles. That by putting the plant there - it would just thrive without much care.
I wanted to start writing with that note.

But being me - I want to make it sound more human and realistic that all is not so often follow the chain of command - that each and every gardeners do have good times and bad times.
In my case - well.. Coping with hard times and so the result of survival is indeed satisfactory.

A clump of baby tears (Pilea Depressa)

It was sort of rescued from my friend who was giving away his flowerpots and this one was barely clinging unto the dry patched soil that came together with the pot. I was not sure whether this one would survive.
So its in ICU now and I think - well.
Its survived for sometime now.

I would totally admire the resilience of this plant.
Wandering Jew (Zebra Tradescantia)

Totally recommend it to any new gardener who literally have no time gardening. This type has a violet glow when they receive a good sunlight. I have been neglecting this one too seriously and now I have to take some measure to make sure it survives.

Sometimes the problem with this one is that it doesn't stay put in the garden - always crawling and creeping off from their hope planted pot. The other part of its unpredictability is they are quite leggy and messy to begin with.

I haven't found this creeping plant name yet.
It does however share the same survivors instinct.
I once thought I totally lost this plant as it really didn't make it no matter how much care was given to it.
A small sprig was placed here for insurance of having this species in my garden.
And so here it is - still doing well.

The other one is in the hanging pot.
(picture below)

I finally manage to find this one's ID though.
Creeping Charlie (Pilea Nummulariifoia)

I often get friends thinking that it is such a wonderful mint plant only to be fooled that it is not. I was disappointed too when the smile fade from my friends face when they thought they know something and end-up wrong..
Some wanted to proof me wrong - pinch the leave to smell the fragrance - well..
(they are still wrong - no fragrance)

So yeah...
Pilea can be such a deceiver..
it should be renamed as False Mint Plant
but I guess they are better known as Creeping Charlie.

Another deceiver I would recommend are Flame Violets
(Episcia sp.)
They don't do permanently on hanging pots.
Eventually they succumb to maturity and death.
That's why - this one need constant attention of propagation - miss a season and that's the end of this species.

But they do so well as ground covers.
And here is the trick.
They are so happy sitting between pebbles.

This one (pic below)
Is tucked between the gate and the pillar.

Trailing Water Melon Begonia (Pellonia Repens)

Another trickster - they are often sold in nursery where those hanging leafy vines are cascading gloriously layers after layers only to find after few months - those layers tend to wilt or burn or turn soggy with rottenness.

These are conditioned now to withstand that situation.
And just like melons, they live up for the name given to them.
Its all discovering the gardening secrets.

And yes,
Its tough but unlocking them during these time of abandonment and ordeals of tonnes of chores needs attention.
It makes gardening worthwhile.