One Step at A Time

I did quite a lot for the past few days. I hired gardeners to prune the rambutan tree which hung too low. The grass around the area would benefit a lot too. The plot's quite bald. 

Finding the lowland hydrangea has been quite a challenge. I finally got of 2 from an online seller in Johor. I thought I needed 4 of them but turned out 2 was just nice for the plot under the Kauka Wilder. 

Impatient as usual, I transplanted them during the hottest of the day, so they withered. 

This is 2 days later - they looked happy. 

Odyssey dug herself a little hole and rested herself in while watching me digging holes for the hydrangeas.

A quick look at my heirloom tomatoes. Heavy rain pelted one of my tomato plants and broke the stem so all of them droop to the ground. I noticed the stems are growing nodes which could be aerial roots. 

The tomatoes love it here I must say. I am going to have quite a harvest (compared to my previous attempt). 

A random jasmine-lookalike plant previous tenant hid among bird of paradise bush(?). I got her out and gave her some fertilizer. She seems to have a flower bud.

My plumerias with lemon/mandarin seedlings.

I've transplanted my tuberose and amaryllis to the ground. They don't look too good and occasionally walked upon by Odyssey. 

Our driveway is flanked by ruellia and ruellia isn't really my favourite. Odyssey loves to walk over them since she was young. And she did the same here so they went all over the place and messy which I really hate. So I pruned them to the ground on one side of the sideway and stuck some cuttings into the sparser area (they need to be dense to support each other). I don't hope to work so I can grow sunflowers here. The bigger plumeria is my Kauka Wilder and the shorter one to the left is a dwarf variety that was water-logged and isn't doing too well now. I can't remember the other one. We have the best sun here so I wouldn't have to wait too long to her bloom.

I brought my epiphyte gang out for a water and tanning session. 

But will you look at my Chinese kale! I harvested some yesterday for dinner.

My backyard that has a pergola made out of PVC pipe by previous tenant is intended to be my herb garden. I've acquired most of the herbs I wanted except dill and Thai basil. Actually, I don't really need to Thai Basil but....

A close-up of the neglected hoya. Fertilizer has been given to her, hope she bounces back.

Clockwise from 12 o'clock - rosemary, coriander, thyme, Italian parsley, bird's eye chilli (cili padi), Vietnamese basil (according to the nursery lady) and 2 pots of lavender.

My own basil, gingers, aloe veras and mint which also go into that plot.

Let' not forget kaffir lime, curry plant and chives!

I also scored these - maidenhair fern and Platycerium Superbum.

I pinched this but it doesn't seem to survive when I looked at it this morning.

Here it is! Now I just need to observe how the sun works on this plot to see if I need to put the black netting up for more shade. I'm growing mint in the existing styrofoam box to control its crazy evasive nature.

 I will add that the rosemary I acquired isn't the common rosemary you'd find at the supermarket. The leaves are tinier and denser with purple flower, instead of white. This particular plant also is growing aerial roots that I cut one stem to propagate. Let's see if it works. 

I plan to kokedama this maidenhair and feature her in the dining area.

  

I'm very surprised to find the nursery selling platyceriums and a variety that isn't that common. A platycerium group member confirmed that it's a Superbum.

My dinner last night.

I really can't remember what this is called. I'm thinking if I should remove birds of paradise and just let this be. **It's called Heliconia, False Birds of Paradise**

When your neighbour's plumeria game is strong. This Penang Peach is so pretty. She also has Rangoon Creeper creeps all over her.

My wall! 

My huperzia beside my lounging chair.

Oakleaf fern outside the maindoor.

And more in our dining area.

This Bifurcatum resides in our bedroom.

After dark orchids at the kitchen windowsill.

This is how my magnolia lily is now. 

What the heck is this!?

Almost Midnight Loot

I was busy running errands today but got lucky when I stumbled across a tree full of oakleaf fern and that spured me into hatching a plan - enlisting my fiancé as bodyguard to accompany to harvest it at night. And because the tree was across the road from where I was, I had no clue how high it'd be. Well, turned out it was too high for either one of us to reach them. Disappointed, we walked back to our car lo and behold, they are growing at the base of a group of palm trees. OMG! These babies are left on any pot with soil. I still have no idea what to do with them, or rather how to mount them to display them in full glory! This fern is named Paku Kepala Tupai in Malay that is Squirrel Head Fern in English.

Yesterday I spent some time fixing new frame for Ms Bifurcatum the Younger but I made a couple of mistake. I also noticed that longer frames look better than a square one, so I will have to make a new one for her. I also need to mount her higher on the frame so the hook can hidden. Since I used a slimmer stick, I patched the back using the old frame so the sphagnum moss won't stain the wall, it was a good idea but I nailed them at wrong places. I really need to sit and think about the design again. 

Ms Could-be Wallichii the Older is mounted. This time, I cut the vertical sticks longer to have the elongated look. But then, I tied her the wrong side so it's a little difficult for me to hang it on the wall. Oh Rae... 

One Step at a Time

The Bifurcatums sisters had their twice-weekly bath today and I noticed they really like it here, they are showing some growth! 

Speaking of platyceriums, I'm currently also acquiring 2 more platys from a fellow member of a Platy group but they are of unknown ID, not Bifarcatum for sure though! I'm really hoping the Ridleyi I should be getting tomorrow will be a gorgeous one. Ridleyi is one platy that I MUST have. Take a look at her and you will see why. She's perfection.

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Anyway, I probably killed my basil plants when I was cleaning the balcony, I broke two of the three plants and another I pulled out as I noticed there was white stuff around the root system. The basil plants grew a lot of aerial roots so I figured they would actually survive but the picture will tell you otherwise. Among the basil, nestled a couple of sweet potato slips that I missed out when I was transplanting. By the way, the transplanted slips did not survive.

The heirloom tomato plants however surprised me a lot. They have started to flower despite the lack of size. 

Yesterday's spring cleaning also brought my attention to my lovely Ylang-Ylang who has never failed to flower, she's getting taller than me!

A random shot of the bamboos at our building vicinity. It's interesting/hilarious to see they grow sideways, instead of upwards.