marginate dracaena

order: asparagales
family: asparagaceae/dracaenaceae
genus: dracaena
species: marginata

First Story

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12 february 2012

Dracaenas have been one of the overly popular houseplants. Still, they have their certain charm which I'm still trying to identify. This particular species, as the name implies, has got long narrow leaves with thin red margins. The 'tricolor' cultivar has extra white stripes along the red margins.

This is an easy plant to grow. So there's not much to tell about its maintenance. Just keep it at a bright corner of the house away from hot sun and dry air, and it will be happy.

As I got this plant, the base of the trunk has been pushed very deeply into the soil, so the roots only took the space in the bottom third of the total soil depth. The top soil remained moist most of the time, while the roots underneath had already dried up. If left this way, it could lead to fungal growth or a breeding site for undesired insects. So I pulled the plant out of its pot, scraped the top soil off it until I could see the trunk base, moved the soil to the bottom of the pot and replanted the plant on top of it. Now the top soil layer dries up a lot quicker between watering, and the plant makes use of the space underneath for its roots. After repotting the main trunk looks as if it has suddenly stretched as much as 100% from its original length.

Update

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15 april 2012

I got this plant a new pot. White glazed pot. It's bigger than the previous pot. Wider, not taller; so that it's more stable and the plant doesn't topple over easily. It should be big enough for a while. Let's see how fast this plant is going to grow.

Update

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25 august 2015

It's time for an update on this plant, since it has grown quite a lot in the past few years. It has become too big for its former pot, so I got it a new one, which got broken only after a short while by I don't remember what and which I am yet to repair. The three leads have grown between some 30 to 40 cm, with one significantly shorter than the other two. The newest leaf at the top is attached to the trunk at 60 cm and its tip pointing at nearly 1 m above soil level. Leaves are now longer than they were at the beginning. Older leaves are persistent on the trunk, hanging lowly and touching the soil. At first I was happy with this look, thinking this is the healthiest it can get with all the nutrients and moisture. But when I looked at the plants in their natural habitats, I realised they don't get all that much nutrients. The natural look is one of which lower leaves are shed much sooner and leaves are a lot shorter and pointier. A tree can have visible trunks and many branches and with each branch ending with a nice rosette forming whorls of leaves. (see example) This natural look is definitely more charming.

Frankly, trunk movement, as minimal as it is, has become boring for me. There's no further branching along the three leads. They grow too closely together, making the canopies optically indistinguishable, let alone forming the handsome rosettes. I am thankful though that they grow at different speed and hopeful that the height of the canopies will become more varied with time. I probably won't cut down on water and fertiliser just yet, because my primary goal presently is for its trunk to thicken in order for it to become a more convincing specimen. Maybe in another year, after shedding its lower leaves, gaining size and maybe also branching out, it will move closer to the natural look.

One thing I have been observing is the way the roots grow. At the beginning, there were many of them growing around the cut end of the stem. I spread them out neatly when I first repotted the plant. With time some roots outgrew the others and the weak ones were gradually suppressed. Some of them fused into one. Buttresses have begun to form around the overcrowded trunk base. At this point, I'm inclined to prune off smaller roots to make room for bigger vigorous ones, so each buttress can become more prominent. Hmmm... I feel like I sounded a lot like a control freak today. Or isn't gardening all about a controlled way of growing plants? (^_^)

false heather // mexican heather

order: myrtales
family: lythraceae
genus: cuphea
species: hyssopifolia

First Story

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10 february 2012

False heather, also called mexican heather, is an evergreen that grows to about 30 cm. I love this plant because of its tiny purple flowers that show up throughout the growing season. Both flowers and leaves are small in size. The plant has very dense branching, which makes it attractive when planted as bed or border. It also looks great in a stone garden when shaped into low cushion. Though it's not a very frost hardy plant. So you might want to dig them out and keep them indoor before the first frost hits. Many treat them as annual, but I hate to recommend this. In winter with low light condition, the growth comes to a halt, and the flowers wear off. Though this plant does not need a cold dormancy to do well, since it is a tropical plant. As soon as the day becomes long enough, fresh green leaves emerge from just about everywhere on the plant. A few weeks later, the flowers start to appear as well. It's a very easy plant to keep. Summer outdoor; winter on a bright window sill. It likes to be misted every now and then, especially when kept indoor. I mist it early in the morning and after sun down to avoid sunburn. The only drawback I see in this plant is its relatively short lifespan of 30 years. I would have liked it to live a little longer than that. By the look of my plant, I think it's between 1 and 2 years old.

From my earlier experience with this plant, it's very easy to propagate by cuttings. You get a lot of those in summer while shaping your bush. Since the plant will push out continuously during the growing seasons, you'll do this several times a year.

Update

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24 august 2015

In this update, you can see that after 3 years, the plant is still growing nicely. The result of overwintering the plant that most people treat as an annual is a small bush measuring 50cm across, which is absolutely rare in our continental clime. Throughout these 3 years, my mexican heather has regrettably dried out numerous times due to delayed waterings, which caused diebacks of many young twigs. It would take 2 to 3 months of summer growth to regrow the lost compactness. Overall, it could be slightly more compact, especially in the lower and inner section. Generally, the sunnier where it stands, the more compact it becomes. But if you decide to put it in full sun, make sure the soil is constantly moist. As for me I haven't been able keep up with the frequent watering, so I keep it at a bright but not too sunny site. As for winter, it's about getting as much light as possible. It tends to loose some inner branches if the light condition is not good enough but that's not tragic. When the days get longer, they will branch out profusely from backbuds. Also to note is that, I had problem with scale insects in one winter. My plant's health deteriorated at a high speed. They're very difficult to notice on its dark brown bark but need to be checked frequently and removed immediately if spotted.

clitoral bush // butterfly pea // blue pea

order: fabales
family: fabaceae
genus: clitoria
species: ternatea

First Story

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20 august 2015

This plant, native to tropical Asia, is known by many different names. My first encounter with the plant is through a video series by Gordon Ramsay on his culinary discovery trip around South East Asia. The article that links to the video says: "Gordon Ramsay touches a Malaysian woman's clitoral bush". Unabashed, the hostess introduced Gordon to her kitchen plant proclaiming prosaically its name only to have Gordon jokingly asked her if her husband ever picks her bush. The two were apparently very amused by it. In the video, she used the flowers of the plant to give a blue hue to her rice. That's striking. I wondered how I didn't know it before, having lived in that part of the world for so long. After watching that video, I immediately took note of the plant.

This year, I intentionally cut down on the amount of new acquisition. Among the few new plants, this is one that I grew from seeds, which are locally available. Growing it from seeds is easy and needs no further explanation. The plant is a short-lived perennial, twining climber. Its growth is not very aggressive. Only 4 months into growing, it started to set flowers after flowers. They are blue and have a shape that is very distinctive of the pea family. Only with the case of clitoral bush, the flower is upside-down, with the protruding tube at the top. People see clitoris in them. The flowers open during the day and close during the night and repeat for 2 consecutive days. If you don't harvest the flowers, they develop into flat bean pods, which are as per my research also edible when young. The leaves are likewise as can be expected. Soft pinnate leaves of mostly 5 leaflets droop at night and become rigid again by day. Its roots are said to also form rhizobial nodules that fix nitrogen in the soil. The plant seems to be a really carefree, something I can recommend to beginners. It does best in full sun but also thrives at any bright location. Water and fertilise as usual. I am most likely going to overwinter my plants. If this is not an option, you should definitely leave some seed pods to mature and save them to start new plants in spring.