purple allamanda

order: gentianales
family: apocynaceae
genus: allamanda
species: blanchetii

allamanda blanchetii on the last days of 2012.

Another plant in my dogbane (apocynaceae) collection, this allamanda is a non-twining climber, growing to be a shrub taller than human. New stems and leaf veins are hairy. Whorls of mostly 3 or 4 obovate leaves are arranged along the stem, which becomes greyish as it hardens with age. Like its relatives adenium, mandevilla and plumeria, its flowers are trumpet-shaped with 5 petals. The colour of my purple allamanda's flower is actually more burgundy than purple, with the throat having deeper tone.

This plant can be successfully grown indoors in a bright room, where temperature doesn't drop below 10°C. Optimum temperature during winter is around 18°C. In the room where I keep my tropical plants, the temperature stays pretty constantly in the range of 16-18°C throughout the coldest months. After the summer season, my allamanda plant continues to grow and even bear flowers here.

I obtained my allamanda from www.flora-toskana.de for quite a high price. However, considering that the plant came in good condition and with good, airy substrate, I think it's worth it. Its slender stems of barely half a centimetre in diameter in the bottom section will need to put on a lot more mass before they can support the growth above. This means that I will first let the new shoots grow freely with the support of bamboo canes before trimming them back.

chinese elm

order: rosales
family: ulmaceae
genus: ulmus
species: parviflora

small  chinese elm under training. early spring 2012.

Last year during Christmas season, there were many so-called bonsais on sale at a DIY near my house. 3 year-old plants for 3,99 eur. I allowed myself to bring home a potential chinese elm that came with a small green pot and a water retaining saucer. Since I was new to the plant species, I didn't know what to do with it at first. After a long haul research, I learned that it prefers to have a winter rest at lower temperature. I moved it from my room to the stairwell, where it spent 6 weeks of rest before coming back in.

A few weeks after its return to my study, I noticed the buds beginning to swell, from which new strong shoots later developed. But before they did, I repotted it in a new pot, double the size of the original pot, hoping that would give the plant more vigour. The plant's growth proved to be so very vigorous that I had to trim it back almost every week throughout the entire growing season. It's not until October that it first showed sign of slowing down.

In winter its foliage put on a lovely hue and there was a partial abcission as well. This year, I want to completely defoliate it during the dormancy in order to study its branch structures, so hopefully I can work better on the styling and ramification.

small  chinese elm under training. end of summer 2012.

pineapple

order: poales
family: bromeliaceae
genus: ananas
species: comosus

pineapple #1

Many people don't know that pineapples can be grown from the crowns that come together with the fruits. I got to know this from my stepmother when I was still a kid. However knowing it doesn't mean I had any experience growing it myself. It's not until November 2011 that I started my first pineapple plants. There are two of them. Pineapple #1 was planted directly into the soil; pineapple #2 was first allowed to sit on top of a glass of water to set roots and was later transferred to soil. The growing tip of pineapple #2 turned brown as soon as I planted it into regular potting soil. At first I thought there's no hope for it, but then I read an article, which basically explains that it's a common practice for pineapple farmers to remove the growing tips of the crowns in order to encourage them to develop multiple side shoots. I waited at least half a year. During this time, nothing happened, but the crown was still alive. After that strange looking deformations appeared at the base of the plant, which by now have grown into new shoots that are already taller than the original crown. I find that the plants don't use a lot of water. And by the rate that they are growing, they also don't need much fertiliser. I water them once in 10 days and give them diluted fertiliser on every third watering. Pineapple #1, the one that continued to grow on the old shoot, has aready reached 50 cm in height and 70 cm in width (measurement taken on 13.12.2012). If the leaves continue to elongate, I might soon have problem getting the plants through the doors. Bright location with temperature above 15°C.

pineapple #1 at the beginning