John&Jacq~s Garden

December 2011 – our tropical garden update

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.

For a start, I’m going to snip the affected leaves, fertilize the plants and keep fingers crossed that over time, they will regain their health and vigour.

Just behind the clump of Costus woodsonii at the inner plot, we have planted a cluster of Hymenocallis caribaea (Caribbean Spiderlily) and thrust a bottomless pot of Wrightia antidysenterica (Snowflake, Arctic Snow) beside it. Hopefully, these new additions that will bear beautiful white flowers will add a lovely contrast to the Red Button Ginger in front.

Artemisia stelleriana ‘Silver Brocade’ was another newly acquired plant.

It was instant attraction for us as its bright silver-white deeply toothed foliage reminded us of a snowy white Christmas. Moreover, we thought that this plant, though tiny, will be a good replacement for our yearly decorated Christmas tree that we’ve decided not to put up last Christmas. Nevertheless, the sad chain of events that followed had resulted in its current sorry state due to neglect and probably overwatering in our urgent desire to redeem it. Very likely it’ll breath its last soon. Should that happen, we’re sure to get another pot again. Simply irresistible! :-)

Melampodium divaricatum (Butter Daisy) rejoined our garden finally. We’ve given up planting this bright and cheerful beauty more than 5 years ago when heavily infested with white flies. But time is a healer and when we came across them recently and saw their pretty faces beckoning, we became soft somehow!
Our 2 plants are still housed in the black plastic nursery bags. Hope to plant them when I have the time to overhaul the outer garden border.

Aglaonema cv. Legacy decided to present us with 4 lovely flowers (a pair on each plant) for the first time. How rewarding!

These were the clump of plants replanted in a larger container in mid-October 2011.

Cool… they must be loving their new house, huh!

Last edit: June 10, 2016

Tags: annuals, flowering plants, foliage plants, our garden, outdoor plants, perennials