zebra plant // haworthia

order: aparagales
family: xanthorrhoeaceae
genus: haworthia
species: fasciata

First Story

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24 april 2012

This zebra plant (Do people really call it this way? I still prefer haworthia.) is a gift from my friend. It's probably the very first plant I have here in Germany, if we don't count the carrot that sprouted on its own in the cabinet and the sunflower seedling that I managed to keep alive for about 2 weeks. With this plant, it marked the beginning of my plants exploration journey.

I had a hard time trying to find out which species of haworthia this is. There were two very similar species, fasciata and attenuata. You can discern between the two fairly easily if you know the trick. The latin word 'fasciata' means banded. Hence if the white dots on the underside of the leaves form bands, then you know it's a haworthia fasciata. If they are just scattered around, then it's an attenuata.

In the beginning (early 2011) this plant was a tiny haworthia. After moving it outdoor in partial shade in summer, it grew bigger and bigger. Out in the garden, it received frequent rainfall and it seemed to like it. The plant looked at its best of health with green leaves and all. By autumn it has got two babies next to it. Around mid-autumn I brought it back inside and placed it on a warm bright south-facing windowsill so that it or they could continue to grow a bit more before winter came.

I decorated a landscape saucer with them, three small-sized sempervivums and some moss i collected from the garden. I later realised that sempervivums are frost-hardy plants and need lower temperature to overwinter, so I transferred them into the garden. As for the haworthias, I cut down on watering in winter in fear of overwatering it, which, I learned, is a common mistake. I sprayed water around it's base every other day. Perhaps I should have sprayed everyday and also around its foliage to increase humidity, because the tips of the leaves have dried up over the winter. Although I actually don't mind the dried up tips. In fact I think they give the plants characters. Like wild plants in their natural habitats in contrast to those super healthy plants you find in nurseries. I also learned that some succulent gardeners sometimes like to stress their plants to make them look different. For example, keeping sunny, either warmer or colder and less water would change their colours. My zebras have put on reddish brown on the underside of the leaves close to the stems.

Since the onset of April I've been giving the plants more water. Now there are two more new babies. So that makes 5 haworthias. I might want to get a more proper pot soon and make room for them to multiply. Just in case I don't sound that way, I'm very excited. Gimme more babies!! :)

I had absolutely no idea that a haworthia has got such attractive bloom to show. Tubular flower buds on the long peduncle open up with their petals curling backwards. Now the more I love this plant.

In order to remove the raceme after flowering wait til it dries out completely. Tug on it gently and it should come off easily. If it doesn't, leave it to dry out a bit more. Don't exert too much force.

Update

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06 june 2016

Last year saw a profusion of inflorescence (without any single picture taken lamentably). This year is a vegetative year. With the number of new-comers, the family has grown to 10 members now. Hooray! I believe I'll have to redo the landscape in a bigger saucer at the latest next year.

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? (^_^)

taiwan pleione // windowsill orchid

order: asparagales
family: orchidaceae
genus: pleione
species: formosana

First Story

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14 april 2014

pleione flowering at last, march 2014.

Staying together with another hobby gardener at home, I had to oblige to enter into an agreement which dictates that I can keep any plant I want except orchids and bromeliads, which are exclusively the fields of the other gardener. This agreement has been violated many times. When I started a pineapple plant, the agreement hadn't yet been drafted. When we purchased this outdoor orchid bulb in late spring 2 years ago, I was the only one who took care of it, which is why it gradually became an exception to the rule. The plant didn't flower in the year it was planted. Soon the winter frost hit us and we've forgotten to bring this poor thing in. We were left with 2 mashy bulbs. Having given up all hopes, we left the bulbs outside over the entire winter. What happened in spring struck us with joy: the plant came back to life. Each bulb sends out its one and only leaf with corrugated surface. Again we didn't get to see its flower that year.

This year, our pleione has finally made itself worthy of a post. When green tips appeared, you could almost see that there's also a flower bud on one of them. It took less than 2 weeks for it to develop into this purplish flower, right before I went away for holidays. By the time I came home 2 weeks later, the flower has already been spent. Now, the next thing to hope for for next spring is multiple flowers and/or the multiplying of bulbs.

Update

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15 march 2015

feb 2015.

This year I woke my pleione from its winter sleep earlier than previously by bringing it into my room by January where it's warm enough for it to resume growth. There are at least 8 leaves this year, each singly attached to a bulb or a new bulb that is yet to develop. It also gave me 5 beautiful flowers. I managed to take photos of the first few before going on vacation this time. When I came back 3 weeks later, the last 2 were at their best while the first three had been spent. I'm really happy with the progress the plant is making, considering that I started with just 2 bulbs two years ago.

I learned that the plants can actually be grown with some wetness in the soil which other common orchids usually resent. You can just go ahead and water it regularly without having to worry about over-wetness. (Don't drown it though!) Because of its ease of growing I became more and more enthusiastic about it.

silver squill // wood hyacinth

order: asparagales
family: asparagaceae
genus: ledebouria
species: socialis

first published on 01.07.2012:

Looking a lot like a mini orchid, silver squill belongs to the asparagus family. This plant is a succulent perennial evergreen. It uses its pseudobulbs to store up water and nutrients. Their skin peels off like an onion. Each bulb has leaves at the end with greyish green and green spots on the topside and reddish purple on the underside. I especially love its tiny lantern-like flowers that hang down from the stems, which in turn emerge from between the leaves at the terminal of each bulb. The petals are actually not so colourful. When the flowers open pale green petals, or rather perianths, curl backwards and reveal its purple-coloured filamens and yellow anthers.

It seems to be quite an easy plant to keep. Because of its small size it also doesn't require much space. According to some sources it needs quite a lot of water. Although you should let the soil dry out before watering again. Fertilise once a month from April till September. In winter ideal temperature would be around 15 °C.

raceme with bell-shaped flowers

flower turned into fruit

>>Update:

in flower spring 2014.

flower close-up.

dwarf mondo grass

order: asparagales
family: convallariaceae/ruscaceae
genus: ophiopogon
species: japonicus
cultivar: 'Minor'

As I was beginning my research on this dwarf mondo grass, I was surprised to learn that it belongs to the asparagus family (asparagaceae). Not that I'd be surprised by its attributes, but I just didn't give it a thought. Later I found more suggestions. Its family seems to be unclear, with possible classifications being convallariaceae, liliaceae, asparagaceae, ruscaceae, etc, etc. Someone ought to make a final decision. For the sake of this blog, I'm going to put it under convallariaceae. This grass has always been used in japanese gardens in warmer regions. One thing I still need to find out is its natural habitat. Seriously, some suggest that it should not be exposed to temperature below 10 °C and yet other claim its winterhardiness down to -18 °C.

My ophiopogon was a good bargain. A ceramic saucer full for 5 eur, whereas garden centres ask for 3 eur for one single plant in a small plastic planter.

This plant is easy to propagate by division. I may need to do this soon to make room for new growth.


>>Update:

mondo grass bearing flower buds in the spring 2013.

from the umbel of flowers of yesteryear, there is one blue berry remaining.