lesotho ice plant

order: caryophyllales
family: aizoaceae
genus: delosperma
species: nubigenum

First Story

---

19 june 2016

flower in may 2016.

This is a ground-hugging succulent plant from the southern African continent. It grows into very dense mat of emerald green, with stems usually hidden underneath succulent leaves. Given ample light and water at the onset of the growing season, it jumps out of winter slumber with a showy display of yellow daisy-like flowers, which are clocked to open at noon.

I bought this plant in 2014, when the mat was less than 10 cm across. I decided to plant it in a pot so I can bring it into shelter over the winter and managed to double the size of the mat in 2 years.

It is an undemanding plant, needing almost no care at all. It can withstand drought for a long time, so you can go away for vacations without the hassles. Although, like all succulent plants, you do want to keep it well watered throughout the growing season so it can actually grow fast and well.

Currently the terminals are "brimming" and are beginning to cascade down the pot already. It shall be repotted into a wider pot soon so it can continue to spread horizontally. I can easily describe the experience growing it as rewarding and therefore highly recommend it.

sea thrift // sea pink

order: caryophyllales
family: plumbaginaceae
genus: armeria
species: maritima
cultivar: armada

In german language sea thrift is referred to as 'Grasnelke' which is translated as 'grass carnation'. I wanted to know how much they are really related to carnations (dianthus), therefore I dived into a brief research. The result is somewhat expected. Their relatedness is only down to the order level (caryophyllales). While sea thrift belongs to the family plumbaginaceae (leadwort family or plumbago family), carnation belongs to caryophyllaceae (pink family or carnation family).

Their blade-like leaves are sometimes difficult to distinguish among grass. The best advice I can give is to plant it in a scree bed, making sure that grass doesn't grow close to it. Grass can be a nuisance, as it usually grows taller than sea thrift and messes up your sea thrift carpet. Don't give the grass any chance like I did. Make sure to lay a scree bed correctly once and for all. Otherwise it will be really time consuming in amending.

If done correctly the plant needs little maintenance. The carpet of my plant expanded as much as three times since I planted it 3 years ago in early spring 2012.

seagrape // baygrape

order: caryophyllales
family: polygonaceae
genus: coccoloba
species: uvifera

First Story

---

27 march 2015

Seagrapes are trees you can see almost as often as sea almonds (Terminalia catappa) along coastlines in the tropical part of Americas, mostly on sandy beaches. Seagrape trees look a lot like the non-related sea almond trees, though usually a lot smaller. When I first encountered the tree in Costa Rica, I thought this tree had to be a Terminalia species. The leaves looked to me like rounded version of catappa's leaves, had the same red tint but are definitely thicker and shinier. The sight of the fruits made the identification very simple: "sea" and "grape" were all I needed to enter into the search engine. Their wood appears to be soft and turn soggy in water. Yet their preferred habitat is one that is washed by the high tides and where subterranean zone is constantly saturated with saline water. In the dryer part of the country, we also came across trees that had just newly leaved out after a dry season. Depending on the wetness of the location, leaves size can vary tremendously. In the driest spot, leaves were only about 5 cm across. Whereas under normal condition, given all the water they need, leaves can reach the size of an adult face.

I managed to find a nursery in Germany that supplies young seedlings so I didn't have to start from zero. It was probably 2 years old when it came to me. Adding the 2 years it's been with me, it should be 4 years old now. The plant is actually quite carefree to grow except that when the seedling starts to shed some of its only few leaves in the winter, I become worried about soil wetness, dry air or cold temperatures. With me, it has always retained some leaves throughout the entire winter, with minimum and average growing temperatures of 16°C and 18°C respectively. Growth comes to a full stop by december and won't resume before April. Since it is a salt tolerant plant, I'm not afraid of salt burn and thus feed it with diluted fertiliser weekly during growing season. I would say, watch out for woodboring beetles, if there are some around your area, because the wooden part looks really chewy.

ant tree // hormigo // tabacon

order: caryophyllales
family: polygonaceae
genus: triplaris
species: melaenodendron

This is another plant I grow from collected seed. I nearly forgot how I found out which species of Triplaris it is, because by looking at the seeds alone, it could have also been T. americana and cumingiana. Then I remembered that I took a photo of the listing of all plant species in the plant reserve where the seed has been collected. According to the listing this is the only species that grows there, so I'm confident that this is what it is.

While getting the seeds to strike is easy, keeping them is a real challenge. Whenever you have an exotic seed like this, which is hardly explained on the www, you have to resort to the trial-and-error method. I collected half a dozen of seeds still covered in their propeller-like wings, which is to the best of my memory somewhere between pink and orange. They turned brown almost instantly. Tearing off the wings I found a tetrahedral seed with a hard shell, which I by instinct removed by nibbling off the edges. Inside there is a softer looking seed covered by a thin sheath with purplish veins running through it. It is truely a microscopic art-piece. Soaking it in water for a couple of hours prior to planting made it green and alive. Then comes the tricky part. I learned it the hard way that you should only plant the seed with the pointy side down. Even in lying position it won't work. Given the right condition (moist medium and ample warmth) the seed roots out in just a few days and should be able to raise the embryo cleanly above the soil line. This is very extremely important, because otherwise it gets infected by botrytis easily. Keeping it in a air-tight cell will only ensure wilt. Out of the 6 seeds I had, only 2 that were planted correctly made it past this stage. On a hot sunny day I nearly lost them to the burning sun but managed to save them only for the black bird to end one of them a few days later. Eventually I have one seedling left which is currently pushing off the sheath bit by bit.

At this point I should mention that this species is dioecious. Only female plants will bear those colourful flowers. The good news is, according to some research paper, most trees found in their native habitats are female. The bad news is this is the only plant I have left; I can't even play around with statistic. One thing is for sure, one lone tree won't produce those beautiful seeds. If I can choose its gender, guess what it's going to be?

samaipateño cleistocactus

order: caryophyllales
family: cactaceae
genus: cleistocactus
species: samaipatanus
cultivar: f. cristata

This is a cleistocactus originating from Samaipata in Bolivia in crested form. It came into my possession over the winter 2011/2012. Since there was nothing to do in the garden and the tropical plants in the room were mostly dormant (my plants were still countable back then), I felt the need to go around hunting for some lovely plants. I found it amusing that different plants can develop crested form. I must have had the idea of expanding a collection of crested form plants for some time. Regrettably one cannot have an infinite amount of plants and an infinite amount of time to care for them.

Generally all of my cacti give me the impression that they never grow. With this one, it is especially true. It hasn't grown tall, it hasn't grown long, and it hasn't grown fat since the day it came home with me. So if there's one plant in my nursery that I cannot be proud of, this must be it. This year, the months of March, April and May turned out to be on the cold side. The plant is still being kept in its winter quarter besides on a couple of warm sunny days in April on which I brought it outside for sunning and watered it thoroughly. (It must be very thirsty after a long winter of aridity.)

I'm not really expecting it to give me a bloom this year, though I've seen lovely flowers on cacti, and they are to wish for on your own cacti. This year I'd like to slightly increase the amount of water and fertiliser on the cacti and I hope it helps them grow.

grey ghost thin candle

order: caryophyllales
family: cactaceae
genus: stenocereus
species: pruinosus
cultivar: 'grey ghost'

first published on 23/02/2013:

I've been meaning to keep up with my frequency of posting at every week, but my architectural studies kept me very busy the past two weeks. I've been pondering to write an entry yesterday and today but was hesitating because at this time, I'm being very negative about leaving my plants to the care of my friend over the next 3 weeks, while I'll be visiting my family in Borneo. I don't feel appropriate to write about any plant that may or could die because I'm taking a break. I was beginning to go through the list of my entire plant collection to see if there's any plant which I can be sure will make it till my return even if left alone. I even thought about writing on some seeds that I plan to grow this spring.

But, well... I think anyone who doesn't do gardening can also easily come to think of cacti or succulent plants of some sort. I looked at my list and found 4 cacti that I've been having for a year, and another one (an opuntia) which I gifted a friend for her birthday and which came back to me at the end of last year, as she moved away to another city. The opuntia has an interesting story, though for this time, I decided I'm going to write on my "grey ghost thin candle". I don't know how people would usually call this, but I'm going to just call it this way. "Thin candle" is derived from its scientific name Stenocereus. Actually, I cannot even be sure about this, because the mini cactus was offered at a... say, very affordable price; so people couldn't be bothered to put a label on it. According to cactiguide.com's "the top 10 most common cacti to identify" list, I most probably have a Pilosocereus pachycladus or a Stenocereus pruinosus, but it's difficult to tell with a juvenile plant. I only came to the conclusion that I'm having a Stenocereus pruinosus after a whole year of research and comparison with hundreds of photos online. As I'm no expert in cacti, don't be too serious with the "grey ghost" label. I know the part about spines, areoles; full stop.

My plant is barely 3 cm tall and was probably even less than 2 cm at the time I brought it home. But I think one day it will even outgrow me. I first imagined that cacti like this will grow to be short, rounded columns or cylindrical. But as I can see on the internet, most Stenocereus tend to grow very thin and long, hence its name. There are five candles growing in the miniature pot, probably linked at the base. I had given it a cooler environment to overwinter. Now, it came into my warm study (about 16°C) 3 days ago because, I think the March days are sufficiently long for it to resume growth. Upon coming back to life, I thought it deserved a soak, so granted him. The next watering will be in 3 weeks when I'm home again. I'll keep my fingers crossed while I'm away; not only for this little one, but also for all of my other plants.


>>Update (27/07/2013):

First of all, I found out that this cactus does have a common name. Most people call them grey ghost organ pipe. But in its native habitat in Mexico, people call them pitayo de octubre, something to do with the month October.

This plant has been weakened as the growing season began. I found some white tiny bugs that fed on its juice. I don't know if they were the main cause of the problem. I've been trying to get rid of those creatures, but so far they still keep on reappearing. Other possible problems might as well be sunburn and injury that was caused by crowding. I used to have 6 columns coming from below but 2 were damaged. I think they could have swollen after receiving water to the extent that they started to puncture into each other with their spines. Currently the remainder isn't looking like the grey ghosts I knew because of the pinkish tan they'd got from the direct sunlight exposure. In order to avoid sunburn, I've moved them to a less sunny spot. Frequent checks on bugs will continue on. Oh yes, I've also repotted them into a bigger pot, so they have more room to grow. Hopefully, they will recover and grow. 

dwarf bougainvillea 'vera deep purple'

order: caryophyllales
family: nyctaginaceae
genus: bougainvillea
species: spectabilis
cultivar: 'Vera Deep Purple'

B. 'vera deep purple' in October 2012.

This is a patented Bougainvillea spectabilis cultivar, named 'Vera Deep Purple' registered under Rpboug 327.  It was discovered as a mutated plant in a group of 'Vera Light Purple' cultivar, showing deeper purple bracts. Both of these are dwarf cultivars of the spectabilis species which is marked by their compact growth habit and 'nearly' thornless stems. Also the cultivars are more floriferous than the species.

I acquired this plant in early spring this year, while it was in bloom. The bracts were so compact that hardly any light could get to the leaves. For two months, the plant didn't grow any new leaf, but consistently threw out bracts. I was worried that the plant was quite stressed but didn't know what to do. In the summer I was away from home for three or four days. The morning before I left I submerged the plant in water until the soil became completely saturated. Then I placed it back to its usual place on a sunny window sill outdoors. As I came home, I was surprised to find that the pot was still soaking wet and skipped watering for the next few days. Then the plant started to shed bracts and leaves while the soil was still soaking wet. At this moment I was certain that the plant was suffering from root rot. So I immediately repotted the plant, adding fresh dry soil around the soggy rootball, and moved it to a shadier place sheltered from wind. It took almost two months for the poor plant to fully recover. Now it's full of lush green foliage and since mid September it is also in bloom. The lesson is, never soak a bougainvillea in water.

Although bougainvillea has been said to withstand short term of coldspell down to near freezing temperature, I noticed that the bracts began to hang lowly as the temperature dropped below 7°C. So I would rather recommend to set 7°C as the minimum. If day temperature is permanently below 12°C in autumn, there's no point leaving the plant outdoors any longer. Bring it indoors; provide maximum natural light. Keep cool in winter (15°C is ideal).

march 2013.  plant leafing out on some branches.

elephant bush

order: caryophyllales
family: didiereaceae
genus: portulacaria
species: afra

Elephant bush is a succulent shrub from the southern part of the African continent. It is very often mistaken for a jade (Crassula ovata), which is not even remotely related. I've got this plant in November 2011, as they were selling it at 3.50 euro -- a really good bargain I thought. It comes with a blue ceramic pot and a water retaining saucer. Elephant bush uses its glossy green leaves and dark brown-barked stems to store water. During water shortage, wrinkles appear on leaves. Bark is tender and is subject to peel, especially when wet, which can be quite harmful to plant. So care has to be taken not to injure any part of the trunk.

The plant grows very fast in the summer. In order to keep it in shape, new growth needs to be pinched regularly. With the stem cuttings you can create new plants. I've created many of them this year. I had so many that I had to give them away to friends. The cuttings root readily when inserted into moist soil. They will need some water only after new growth appears.

At any time keep the elephant bush above 10°C. In a heated room with bright light, it grows all year round. Let the soil dry out between watering. Fertilise with a cactus fertiliser, half-strength, as the higher content of potassium (kalium) encourages the formation of wooden bark, which makes the stem sturdier. It is important to dilute the recommended concentration by half because this plant cannot handle the concentration of salt that is meant for a cactus. Concentrated salt will draw water from the plant and cause its thick leaves to shrivel. If this happens, water the plant plentifully and let the water drip out from the bottom hole.

moss rose

order: caryophyllales
family: portulacaceae
genus: portulaca
species: grandiflora

Moss-rose is one of my childhood plants. At that time I didn't know what it was called, or more accurately, not until recently. As kid, probably like many other kids, I had a chance to do some gardening with my family. For some years, I was fully in charge of all the garden work, which I had to get done before I got to school. For many years I've forgotten about my passion in gardening until I finally picked it up again last year after moving into a house with garden. I happened to come across a plant that I had so much to do with in a garden centre. It's known as "mexican heather", the name of which, I also didn't know. Now I've been trying to rediscover and gather a list of all these plants that I had a lot of dealing with back at home in Borneo. It wasn't easy for me to "rediscover" the plant of topic -- "moss-rose" aka "10 o'clock flower", because the flower is usually in full bloom at this hour in tropical Asia. I searched online giving all keywords I could think of although I had not a clue what it was called. Or I did. I thought the name had something to do with the flower carnation. Or the flower that showed up on the cans of condensed milk that mom used to buy. No, all my efforts were to no avail. But because I was determined to find it, I browsed through the entire volumes "DK encyclopedia of plants". My efforts weren't in vain, not only did I find out what this plant is called, there're also a dozen other plants that I used to know.

Coming back to moss-rose. These plants can have flowers in different colours. They can be both single coloured or multicoloured. There are varieties with single, semi-double and double flowers. My elder sister and I used to collect different varieties. We didn't buy; we got them from her school friends, from neighbours or we simply plucked some from the streetside, as they were widely planted as groundcover in curb areas in our city. (At some point, I also want to cover other plants that were used here.) Once back home, we simply pressed the plucked succulent stems into the soil. In a matter of a few days, the plant has already established itself and kept spreading like nobody's business. Because the city changes the plants every now and then, they were slowly forgotten.

I have already got a packet of portulaca grandiflora seeds. Can't wait for summer to come! :)

>>Update:

I've finally sown the seeds in March. I provided them the conditions mentioned on the package including moist soil and the minimum of 18 °C soil temperature. It only took them two days to sprout. I must say it was pretty impressive and unexpected. Now they are so tiny that they still don't look anything like the moss-rose I knew. That gets me wondering if these are really the plants I was looking for. Now I can only sit back and wait to see what they are going to turn into.

Seedlings are so tender, you always have to take extra care handling them. Despite the fine spray I used to water them, the shower flushed them all down against the soil. I think I might have to use a pipette the next time.