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Although members are restricted to cultivate plants other than bonsai trees in the bonsai workshop, Teacher Wong always keeps some flowering plants in the workshop for ornamental purposes. And now in the early winter, we have some big and beautiful Chrysanthemums with showy blossoms 😀 Continue reading Beautiful Chrysanthemums In early November, I mounted one of my baby Vanda orchid on a piece of draftwood and the other on a rock, before hanging both orchids on my balcony (see post: My Hanging Vandas). A month has passed. I have noticed that the root system of the Vanda orchid that is mounted on the driftwood seems stronger and more vigorous than the one that is mounted on the rock.
This Vanda orchid likes the driftwood so much that its roots keep drilling into every corner and cracks of draftwood 🙂 Last week, Teacher Wong, Gui, and I set up the greenhouse and planted over200 strawberry plants in containers.
In order to reuse the soil that was used for yellow-skin watermelons and cantaloupes in the greenhouse, Teacher Wong has adjusted the soil pH level, mixed in additional organic fertilizer, while leaving the soil heated under the sun in the greenhouse for several weeks.
These are the strawberry plants that we have planted in our greenhouse. I potted these strawberry plants around a month ago. My Episcia Ronnie (aka Flame Violet) is growing very well. It has grown many stolons, with some of them getting pretty long, and starting to tie up with one another. To prevent my Episica Ronnie from growing into a tangled mess of stolons, I knew I better change the container and repot the plant as soon as possible.
A hanging basket would be nice for trailing plants like Episcia, but I couldn’t find a suitable place in my house where I could hang the plant 🙁 While I was puzzling over the new container problem for my Episcia, I saw a cool bike/trolley looking raised planter when I was shopping one day. Yes! This could solve my problem I thought, and so I bought it right away. Continue reading Episcia Ronnie on Bike
As said in an earlier post, my Hoya Kerrii had grown a new leaf. But unlike the other leaves of my Hoya Kerrii, this one was all in green. While I was wondering if the edge of the leaf would somehow turn yellow as the leaf grew bigger, I read an excellent post about Hoya Kerrii in Plants are the Strangest People (thank you Stephanie 😀 ). In the post, Mr Subjunctive, the author, suggests to remove all the stems with all-green leaves. He explains that because a stem with all-green leaves has an advantage over a variegated one, with enough time, the all-green leaves will eventually take over the whole pot ! Continue reading Hoya Kerrii – Should I or Should I Not?
Last night Yik called and told me that there was a program showing on TVB Pearl that might be of my interest. So I turned on the tv and watched the program, and yes, it surely is my cup of tea. This program is called Grow Your Own Drugs, a six-part series presented by James Wong, an ethnobotanist trained in Kew Garden. James shows us how we can make simple, natural remedies to help ease the symptoms of some everyday ailments with plants which can be found in our gardens or flower shops. In the program, James shares some amazing recipes, from Marigold lotion for motorizing skin and clearing acnes, to Viola eczema cream and Elderflower lozenge. Continue reading Grow Your Own Drugs
I bought this Hoya Kerrii (aka Sweetheart Plant) a few months ago in the summer. Although I know that Hoya Kerrii is a slow-growing plant like most other succulents, I observe it closely every once a while, and hope that I will find something new, something different and exciting on this Sweetheart Hoya. And last month, I finally got to see some “action” – my Hoya Kerrii has grown another heart-shaped leaf! Unlike the other leaves of my Hoya Kerrii, this one is all in green. Now I wonder if the edge of the leaf will somehow turn yellow as the leaf grows bigger. Continue reading My Hoya Kerrii Has Grown Another Heart There are several bags of blossoming impatiens hanging in the bonsai workshop. Instead of potting in typical hanging baskets, the impatiens are planted in huge, black rubbish bags. And because the impatiens are blooming so vigorously, the rubbish bags are mostly covered with impatiens flowers and can hardly be seen. These hanging impatiens bags look so pretty and easy to maintain that I really wanted to make one of my own once I spotted them in the bonsai workshop. And here, after getting some instructions and advices from Teacher Wong, I have made my own last week 🙂
First challenge: Finding a thick and strong garbage bag. Once I got the container for my plants, I filled it up with potting mix and tied it up tightly. Then, with a cutter, I made a few openings for my impatiens. Make sure not to make the openings too close to each other, for we want to give the impatiens enough space to grow and flower.
I have got two baby Vendas from an orchid class earlier. Like many other orchids, Vendas can be grown on rocks, stones, wooden rafts, etc. And since I have never tried to grow orchid in any other way besides in pot with perlite, of course, I would love to take this chance and try something that I have never done before 😀
There is one thing we should keep in mind when fertilizing our plants – the more isn’t the better. Even though I knew this rule-of-thumb very well (I thought I did…) and practiced what I preached (for most of the time), recently, I’d over-fertilized my African violet – Frosted Denim – and burnt most of its flower buds 🙁
Real Life Example of Bad Fertilizing PracticeA few weeks ago, my African violet – Frosted Denim – was growing beautifully with many flower buds. Since African violets like to be continually fertilized during their blooming period, I diligently fed mine in a regular basis with diluted fertilizer. Continue reading Plant Fertilizer – When More Isn’t Better |
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