gejala pokok | symptomatic trees

So i haven’t blogged in a long time.  Bad bad… But here’s some updates on the CPs. Some good news and some bad news.

I sowed some seeds that i got from the drosera burmanii (that couldnt stop flowering) today.

I did the exact same thing that i did when i sowed the byblis liniflora a few months back. I guess we shall wait and see.

On the other hand, the mother burmanii, spread some of her motherly love and released some seeds onto the pot. Woke up two mornings ago and realised, i am a mother!! To many many little baby burmaniis!

Yay! How happy i am!

The spatulata came back to its normal state after being infested with aphids. Although its a little smaller than it was before, its still looking preeetttty fiiine. And continuing shooting up stalks and stalks of flowers.

Repotted my sarracenia into a bigger pot. Looking happy.

My precious liniflora is growing and growing. Looking a little leggy and not so stable. But hey…its looking good.

The drosera intermedia is also growing from when we first got it.

Some sad news. The drosera adalae is not looking so good.

I’ve tried everything and it is still barely alive. Help anyone?

And a new addition to the family!

This is Kamus, which means dictionary in Malay. H’es only 8 weeks old. And a born gardener!!

So we were in Bali the past weekend. Left the balcony garden and an empty apartment to a 21 year old (who’s 21st birthday happen to be on the same weekend!). Pokokpenyu left detailed instructions on 3 pieces of A4 paper on watering schedule. We were nervous, but what the heck! He is afterall pokokpenyu’s brother (we could always ____ him after). The same brother that got me my first carnivorous plant for xmas last year.

Came back late last night. No sign of parties (there’s some suspicions) , clean apartment and blooming healthy plants..

Drosera Burmanii

Drosera spatulata - doesn’t look too good. I saw specs of white tiny stuff on the stalk. I suspect its the mealy bugs.

Sarracenia - look what it caught!

Our first venus fly trap - perking back up after dormancy period.

Byblis liniflora - about 3 weeks old

Haven’t updated my gardening log in a long time. Here goes…

Here’s the Byblis Liniflora that germinated on the 27th May 2007 - this is day 12

The top that was covered with cling wrap is completely off now. They are growing fast and they look pretty healthy.

Next is the Drosera Burmanii that was infested with aphids not to long ago. It was planted in a container full of distilled water for about 24 hours to kill/drown the aphids. In return, the burmanii didnt look too happy. Its been 3 weeks now since the ‘drowning’ incident, and its flowering.

I’ve never collected seeds or know how to do it. Got some advice from Pet Pitchers forum members. But will need to do more research on this.

Our Drosera Spatulata is also flowering.

It has grown so much bigger since when we first got it. Must be all the daytime snacks its been having.

Speaking of snacking…check out what I found this morning in a two of the traps on one of our venus fly traps.

Yucks. Heh.

And here’s the drosera intermedia that was given to us about a month ago..

Yay! Its nice to know that they’re all well. Despite my lack of presence the past few weeks.

Now over to the non-CPs…

My gloxinia in a jar..I still have not gathered any courage to plant it yet. Eeeks. Its been 8 weeks now and here it is…

Woah…it looks so so kool. I don’t even know how to plant it now. Any advice anyone?

Oh and the african violet that was propagated the same time as the gloxinia looks like this

Heh. Well…as our mind gets distracted and focuses on other things. Life goes on…people move on. Nothing waits for you. They just grow and grow…and then ‘boom’.

27 May: Found out that mukaketupat’s b. liniflora germinated. Sulked for at least an hour.

28 May: Convinced that actually I’m a really bad gardener, and all attempts at germinating seeds and cultivating plants thus far has been a mixture of pure luck and failure. Feelings of doom and gloom compounded with helpful link from the garden web forum on how my sage seedlings are supposed to look like, instead of how they look like now

how they are supposed to look like

how they actually look like now

*sigh*

29 May: Sinking into depression. Quietly imagining how it would feel like to uproot and kill all existing cultivating projects.

30 May: Decided to fuck it and try again. Chopped up spanking new high quality sphagnum moss all the way from New Zealand. Soaked it in RO water. Filled clean plastic pot 1 inch to the top with spanking new branded peat moss (Horti). Gently layered top with sphagnum moss. Picked up remainder of seeds that have been soaking for a week and placed them on top. Covered with cling film, and stood it in a slightly bigger container filled halfway through with more RO water. Put the whole thing on the balcony, where mukaketupat’s B. liniflora now stands, reaching ever new heights, growing towards the sun in health and vigour, inciting pangs of bright green envy of the unhealthy kind.

Today: Nothing is happening….

…

…

………!

7 days ago, I came home during lunch and sowed some of our byblis liniflora seeds. 7 seeds to be exact! While pokokpenyu tried some methods found on the internet using glow lights, we also decided to just give it a shot using natural light. So I mixed part sphagnum and part perlite into a small pot. Soaked the soil mix so its slightly swampy and I scattered the 7 seeds on the soil. Covered the pot with cling wrap. I stood the pot on a bowl of distilled water and left it on our balcony railing where it gets 3-6 hours of direct sun daily.

Since I did a lot of research on this, it is expected to germinate in 3-4 weeks. So I only checked it once every 2-3 days. I always make sure the water on the bowl is always half full.

Yesterday morning, as I was changing the water, I checked the pot. And…WHOOPEE! Two seeds germinated!!!

I was totally blown away and you could already see the dews on the leaves.

They’re so so so tiny. I can’t wait for this to grow. We plan to give back some seeds to David. What an awesome awesome Sunday!

The pot is still covered with cling wrap to keep the humidity level consistent. I poked some holes for some air circulation. I think I will remove the cling crap totally when it gets slightly bigger.

5 May: Received a packet of Byblis liniflora seeds from David of Petpitcher.com

6 May: Put it in the fridge, as how David was keeping it

7 - 16 May: Research like crazy on how to germinate B. liniflora. Still no closer to truth. Wild exaggerations about the ease of germination and how hardy this plant is (some even likened it to *gasp* weeds!). Equally wild accounts of how it takes weeks and months (!) for germination to happen, at very low success rates. Stalling time because deep inside, just know that will mess up and waste all the precious seeds that is given.

17 May: Finally got The Savage Garden book from another petpitcher.com forum member (bless the generosity of CP lovers and gardeners in general). Got a boost of irrational confidence.

17 to 18 May: Brought The Savage Garden everywhere and read up all that is to know about byblis and its cultivation. Discovered that the best place to absorb complicated information is while having a poo in the toilet.

19 May: Decided to face fears. Drank coffee. Smoked 3 cigarettes.  Cleaned plastic take-away container. Cut a hole underneath the size of a 50sen coin. Chopped up dried sphagnum moss, mixed them up with perlite, then soaked mixture in distilled water. Put planting medium in container. Took out packet of seeds from fridge. Smoked another cigarette. Carefully tipped about 7 teeny tiny seeds onto palm. Scattered them onto planting medium. Put them under florescent light in tray of distilled water. Peered at them closely and muttered a quick prayer to the Swamp Thing.

20 May: Nothing is happening.

21 May: Nothing is still happening. Starting to lose hope.

22 May: Mukaketupat found multiple posts on germinating b. liniflora in terraforums. Optimism is suddenly returning.

23 May: Decided to try Pinguiculaman’s method. Printed out the forum post. Read carefully with blue highlighter. Boiled water. Waited for water to cool down. Smoked 1 cigarette and swept floor. Cleaned a clear glass bowl. Filled it with warm water (not too hot to touch). Took out packet of seeds from fridge. Carefully tapped out another 7 seeds.  Sprinkled on water. Panicked when they floated instead of being submerged under 1″ of water! Re-read highlighted notes. Realised seed must go in first before water. Stupid stupid. C-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y drained water over a piece of paper kitchen towel. Made sure did not lose a single seed. Pushed seeds onto bottom of (now dry) glass bowl. Poured hot water on another clean bowl — too hot. Mixed with cool tap water to the approximate temperature. Poured slowly into bowl. Seeds not floating. Hooray! Covered with clingwrap and put it next to the other (still nothing happening) pot of seeds.

24 May: Patiently waiting for 24 hours. C5 came, distracted by mushroom, one blissful day of non-worry.

25 May: Checked on soaking seeds. One appears to have something white-ish coming out of it! Does this mean it’s going to germinate? Should I try the bleach? I’m a little freaked out, but happy to experiment on a couple of seeds. Mmm…. risky risky….

The bowl of seeds where I’m starting to imagine germinating things happening.

The pot of seeds where imagination is almost futile. But you never know…

It’s bad enough that I live 10 mins away from my office. It’s bad enough that I blog during office hours and now this!

That’s right folks….I drove home, had some lunch and did some GARDENING and drove back to the office in the span of one hour!! I really couldn’t help it. It was so sunny and the seeds were calling out for me (from the fridge!).Who’s the lucky little ones? Well, its the byblis liniflora (courtesy of David of Petpitcher.com). The sun was too sunny to resist and to be honest, I think this is the first plant I’ve ever ever planted. Pokok Penyu sowed some last week and she is using glow lights and I’m going to leave these buggers outside and see if it works out.

More later.

what can i say, gardeners rock! not only are people who love plants generally generous with advice and help, but sharing is a wonderful culture as well

we’ve been trying to get our hands on a sundew for ages, but haven’t had any luck. no nurseries seem to stock them, and it looked like we were going to be super disappointed. came across this awesome website and forum on nepenthes and other carnivorous plants based in Malaysia, called pet pitcher (our blogroll isn’t working right now, though the designer of this template is also very generously trying to figure it out — a gardener maybe? ).

emailed the website owner to ask for tips on where to get one, and he has crazily and most amazingly offered to share his sundew with us! apparently he’s got several on the go, and has an extra pot of D. Spathulata to spare. not only that, he’s going to pass us some byblis seeds from his plant.

woohoo!!!

getting our new baby(ies) tomorrow. can’t wait. so, since we can’t offer pet pitcher anything in return….please please please visit the site. its freakin awesome and the forum is rockin with amazing people with a passion for carnivorous plants.

more tomorrow

pix of byblis from wikipedia

picture of leaf and tentacle of a kind of sundew, also from wikipedia