Delightful surprises in our tropical garden, August 2010
Gardening is food for our body, heart, mind and soul!
We just love surprises! Garden plants simply love throwing surprises and we simply enjoy receiving them! Such cheerful givers they are!
Oxalis triangularis :
Our potted plant was dead! We were pretty sure of that and thus just discarded the pot with its soil still intact at our backyard. But months later, maybe a little over two months, it suddenly sprang to life early last month! How wonderful and it wasn’t even cared for during the whole dormant period! Probably watered by the occasional rain and received sufficient heat/light from the filtered sun.
Name: Oxalis triangularis (Purple/Lucky Shamrock, Dark Leaf Shamrock, Purpleleaf False Shamrock).
A member of the Oxalidaceae family and native of Brazil, it is an ornamental herbaceous perennial (or annual in non-hardy region) grown popularly for its beautiful heart-shaped trifoliate leaves. Yay, we’ll get to enjoy them again!
Check here for more plant info.
Dieffenbachia bowmannii Carriere: a floriferous beauty!
Dieffenbachia bowmannii Carriere (Dumb Cane, Spotted Dumbcane, Leopard Lily )
Dieffenbachias are very much loved as houseplants for homes and offices, simply because of their irresistible foliar beauty and their great tolerance for shade. Their splendid foliage variegation is so extensive that gardeners are now spoilt for choice!
One cultivar worthy of mention is Dieffenbachia bowmannii Cariere that offers something else too. Truly an outstanding bloomer that will flower ever so frequently to cheer you! How about seeking out this floriferous beauty, yes?
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Fittonia albivenis (F. verschaffeltii) in a marvelous mosaic display
Fittonia albivenis (Mosaic Plant, Nerve Plant, Painted Net Leaf)
No wonder this showy Fittonia species is aptly nicknamed Mosaic Plant! Its intricately-designed leaves with contrasting coloured veins will provide a marvelous mosaic display that will attract and captivate all season through!
These beautiful ornamental foliage plants make great houseplants, especially if displayed on bathroom shelves or bookshelves in shallow containers with their branches cascading down! Also wonderful when grown outdoors as plant fillers for garden beds or as groundcovers in tropical and warmer regions!
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Mid-year 2010 in our tropical garden, Malaysia
The last few months from mid-May were spent giving our garden a facelift, trimming off excess fat so to speak. Hmm…still can’t get used to its slim look but what must be done has to be done!
After facelift: a major section of our frontyard garden in July 2010
Clivia miniata (Bush Lily) with catchy flower clusters
Clivia miniata (Bush Lily, Kaffir Lily, St John’s Lily)
An attractive plant with clusters of brightly coloured trumpet-shaped flowers, standing tall above its elegant and symmetrically arranged foliage. It’s considered as the ‘Queen of Houseplants’ for its striking beauty, durability and reliability.
Typical floral colour is a brilliant orange with yellowish throat that contrast fabulously with its dark green foliage. But, of course, other pastel and darker shades are available too and as catchy.
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Propagating the Lipstick Palm (Cyrtostachys renda)
Cyrtostachys renda (Lipstick Palm, Red Sealing Wax Palm)
is one of the most beautiful and striking clumping palm that’s admired by many. A must-have exotic palm specimen if you have the garden space!
Last October, while taking photos of the Lipstick Palm trees that were growing in our church’s compound to include in our article here, John and I noticed that there were numerous suckers just waiting to be adopted.
So we approached James, the gardener, to give us some with the hope to propagate them for sale at our SFA Church’s Sunday Bazaar in aid of an ongoing church-building fund project.
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Propagating Cyperus involucratus (Umbrella Plant/Sedge)
How to propagate Cyperus involucratus (Umbrella Plant/Sedge, Umbrella Grass/Papyrus, Dwarf Papyrus Grass)
These Umbrella Plants are so easily re-propagated! A single plant can provide material to last many many years. A lifetime, so to speak, as it suckers rather rapidly, forming dense clusters effortlessly.
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June 2010: update on our Passiflora vine
James of Garden Chronicles recently enquired on the current status of our Passiflora vines that were propagated from cuttings. He was referring to the cuttings that we propagated successfully last August as pictured on the right.
Thanks for asking, James…that was about 10 months ago and I’m touched that you remembered it at all!
Well, due to space constraint and lack of proper support for the passiflora vines, we decided to maintain only one of the cuttings for our front yard. And, of course we chose the tallest amongst the three seedlings as seen in the left image!
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Kuala Gandah Elephant Conservation Centre, Pahang
Finally got to visit the much talked-about Kuala Gandah Elephant Conservation Centre in Pahang a few month’s ago! Thanks to David, our elder son who kindly volunteered to drive and accompany us, knowing that his parents have never been there before. The casual drive from Kuala Lumpur took a little over 2 hours and we reached our destination around 10.15 am.
The Elephant Conservation Centre at Kuala Gandah, located within the bio-diversified wilds and protected region of Krau Wildlife Reserve, was established in 1989 by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) as a permanent base for the Elephant Capture and Translocation Team that began the elephant translocation programme in 1974.
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Sungkai Wildlife Conservation Centre, Perak
My beloved John and I took the opportunity to visit the Wildlife Conservation Centre in Sungkai when vacationing nearby at Felda Residence Hot Springs last December.
We almost couldn’t locate the place as the receptionist at Felda Residence Hot Springs sent us on a merry-go-round when she directed us to the Convention Centre of Felda Residence Trolak instead! Gosh…how could she had mistook ‘conservation centre’ as ‘convention centre’ which has no relevance to wildlife at all?
Anyway, we did manage to reach our destination almost noon after asking for the correct direction from some locals at Trolak and Sungkai.
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