John&Jacq~s Garden

Posted by Jacqueline on January 22nd, 2012 in Random Thoughts/Topics

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Posted by Jacqueline on January 16th, 2012 in Plants database

Euphorbia bracteata (Little Bird Flower, Slipper Plant, Candelilla)

An attractively beautiful shrub, Euphorbia bracteata is home to numerous quaint-looking birds when it blooms. Figuratively speaking, of course! They’re not our feathered friends, the chirpy and lively birds in the real sense but flowers that appear so similar to birds that make them as desirable to have in the garden.

Our special thanks to a generous Church friend, Connie, who first introduced us to this lovely plant by presenting us a couple of seedpods and a stem cutting last May. In addition she gave us 2 potted seedlings several months later when propagation failed. We’re glad her persistence paid off and we now have them growing well, though a tad too slow, in our garden. Looking forward impatiently to enjoy the green birds on our plants, probably a year from now.
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Posted by Jacqueline on January 4th, 2012 in Our Garden

Some new plants were added to our little garden paradise in December. Not perfectly timed though as we purchased them three days too early, just before our dearly beloved mother’s (John’s mom, my mother-in-law) unexpected sudden demise on December 12th. She’s much loved and missed by us all but God loves her more.

Inadvertently, the garden was neglected during our recent bereavement and needless to say, there were some casualties during the couple of weeks surrender to nature’s harsh heat.

Fortunately, a pot of Costus woodsonii (Red Button Ginger) that were newly planted at our inner border survived the ordeal and even managed to produce some suckers.

However, some leaves were scorched and appear unsightly while others have yellow spots on them. Hoping that the yellow leaf spots were caused by water on the leaves with exposure to direct sunlight or nutrient deficiency and not some pest infestation.
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Posted by Jacqueline on December 24th, 2011 in Random Thoughts/Topics

WISHING ALL DEAR FRIENDS AND READERS :

HAPPY HOLIDAYS,
MERRY CHRISTMAS,
AND A VERY BLESSED NEW YEAR 2012

May your hearts be filled with God’s pure joy
and perfect peace,
Your gathering with laughter….
May your home be warmed with His enduring love
at Christmas and long after.

Have a wonderful celebration of God’s gift of Jesus,
our Savior and Redeemer!

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all visitors and friends to our garden website. We truly appreciate very much your visits, kind comments, and your continuing support and encouragement through the years. God bless!!

Posted by Jacqueline on December 23rd, 2011 in Plants database

Chrysanthemum hybrids (Mums, Chrysanths)

In the blink of an eye, it’ll be Christmastime and will be followed closely by the Chinese Lunar Year in January 2012! Hence, Florist’s Chrysanthemum and the brilliant red Poinsetta (Euphorbia pulcherrima), besides other popular holiday plants, are being displayed on a grand scale at garden centers and stores. Festive seasons are the best time of the year for them to cash in big-time on lovers of decorative plants and flowers.

Nonetheless, because of Chrysanths apparent popularity as garden favourites and cut flowers, one can see them on sale all year round.

Blooming non-stop through the growing season, they’ll make perfect specimens to brighten any garden spot. In the United States, Mums (short for chrysanthemums) is known as Queen of the Falls where fall-blooming hybrids signal that Autumn has arrived and flowers are seen in all lovely colours except blue.
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Posted by Jacqueline on December 4th, 2011 in Our Garden

Somehow there are always some surprises in our tropical garden every month and November 2011 is no different! That’s the beauty of gardening and enjoying its rewards.

Abelmoschus esculentus (Okra, Lady’s Fingers)

It took about 4.5 months for this beautiful soft yellow Okra flower to emerge for the first time since seeds were sown in late June. Even though the flower smiled for only a day, it was sheer joy to be able to scrutinize its beauty and capture its loveliness on camera and to observe that it took just 3 days to produce the fruit that could have been harvested 3 days later.

Since one little finger is definitely insufficient to tickle our palate, we allowed the fruit to mature further on the plant and use the seedpod to grow more plants.

Hope to experiment further with the Lady’s Finger since our first crop of 4 plants, appeared not as healthy as desired. Rather disappointing as plants are skinny, stunted and leaves tainted with leaf spots… wonder why?
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Posted by Jacqueline on November 17th, 2011 in Our Garden

Aglaonema or popularly known as Chinese Evergreen, being first cultivated in China, is one of the most decorative indoor plant with attractive variegated foliage for homes and offices. With much hybridizing over the many decades, especially in Thailand and Indonesia in Southeast Asia, the newer cultivars are now available in explosive colours with many variations in shades, forms and sizes. One such new hybrid from Thailand is Aglaonema ‘Valentine’ with lovely pink and green random blotches as pictured above.

Aglaonema’s popularity is further enhanced because of its ease of growth, care and propagation. It can be easily propagated by seed, tip or stem cuttings or division.

Our potted Aglaonema ‘Miss Thailand’, another beautiful Thai hybrid, that was purchased in June with four young shoots had become somewhat large for the small 6-inch diameter pot. We could either repot them altogether into a single larger pot or divide and grow them individually to get more plants. We opted for the former choice but took the opportunity to separate one plant from the rest for our propagation project. This is to help beginners who may be clueless on how to go about it.
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Posted by Jacqueline on November 8th, 2011 in Plants database

Clitoria ternatea (Butterfly Pea, Blue Pea Vine, Asian Pigeonwings)

Clitoria ternatea is another of the many captivating twining climbers that are popularly used for covering the fence or train on a trellis, arbor or archway.

A perennial vine that is free flowering all year round, with an abundance of attractive deep blue blossoms dotting its lovely spread of green foliage. They are such a delight to behold!

We can still recall our fascination of its stunning royal blue flowers when we first saw it draped over the fence at one of the nearby residential homes almost a decade ago and how I sweet-talked my better-half into getting some seed pods from the house owner who was unknown to us. I’m truly a sucker for blue-flowered plants.
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