gejala pokok | symptomatic trees

I haven’t updated about my seedlings for awhile, cause I reckoned they just need to be left alone to grow. But some of them have started to act a little strangely.

They’re all planted at the same time, are generally left to grow in the same place, with the same amount of watering, sun and air. So why is it that some of them are growing like crazy, while others just kinda hang about, looking depressed, stunted or dying?

Here’s the very first plant I grew from seed (minus the statice that didn’t survive transplanting), the celosia:

Look at their difference!! They were both transplanted at the same time, from the same initial pot, and have been left side by side at the windowsill. Haven’t added any fertiliser or sweet words to either of them.

I don’t know why one looks like it’s turning into a proper plant, and the other one is just stuck at first true leaves stage. Either way, it makes me smile lots when I see the happily growing one. Hopefully it’ll serve as some kind of encouragement to the other pot. I have one more flower box worth of celosia, transplanted from a different batch earlier on. It looks even more stunted than this one

Same story with the petunia. Came back after the weekend at Bali, and one of the three tiny pots seem to have grown lots. It looked quite a lot like the one on the left initially, but better in colour (not so bleached). Now it’s looking pretty bushy

My marjorams are the worst! Out of hundreds of teeny tiny seedlings, it looks like only one will survive. I’m going to give up on the one that looks like it’s about to cough itself into a dry death soon. Sigh… But at least the one that is surviving looks pretty damn strong!

Gosh, so embarassing… I am a bad gardener!
Next is my baby nepenthes, which is thankfully doing better.

It was in the studio under fluorescent light and a humidifier for a few weeks, and was generally doing well. Spotted it coming up with new leaves, and decided to take it outside. And yes indeed, a new true leaf has emerged into a pitcher! And I can see two more coming up. Yay!

Soooooo cute it is! Smaller than my thumb

The original bigger nepenthes on the other hand, still stubbornly refuses to pitcher. It keep shaving small tendrils that bulb out, but something is missing. Not sure what. Maybe it’s too much direct sunlight. Found some mushrooms sharing its soil too last week. Took them all out. Maybe the mushroom was just being greedy, sucking up all the nutrients. Hmm…

See. One little tendril struggling hard to be a pitcher. It’s pretty much at the same spot, but the smaller nep is underneath it, which means it doesn’t get direct sunlight for as long. Should try and move it to somewhere else…

And finally, the sunflower seedling that tukang kebun brought over - from the same batch that I killed but she managed to keep them going, even if they germinated belatedly - is very very super ultra happy. And it’s blooming! I could just see the bud today. So excited!! Can’t wait for it to slowly open up.

First plant to flower from seed

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

The weather’s been pretty moody the past two weeks. There’s been a lot of rain and watering the plant’s been less frequent.

Our drosera burmanii that’s flowering is bending itself away from the plant to search for sun. Heh. Looks pretty funny actually…

Here’s the spatulata..

Pretty isn’t it?

Something strange is happening to my hydrangea.

The flower and leaves look sickly and its not suppose to look like this…Bizarro.

Updates on the gloxinia. Here’s how it looks about a month and a half ago.

And now…

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….

…

…

………!

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…

Spent last Saturday making a half day trip to Sg Buloh and back. Only 20 mins away from our place. How very convenient! Sg Buloh, the haven of nurseries.

Printed directions to Hee nursery, apparently, that’s where they sell all the kool CPs. And I am looking for some Sarracenias. Saw them at some of the CP grower’s place and they’re really something else. Tubular leaves sticking out of the pot, how freakin weird.

Got there quite easily. As I was driving there, saw bits and pieces of  the space and land. Remembering how Sg Buloh used to be (20 years ago). Nothing but trees and plants and houses acres away from each other with pretty terraces and porches,  retro artdeco-ish architecture.  Lots of childhood memories with my mom and aunties and grandmother, many weekends spent at the nurseries just looking browsing and window shopping on muddy roadsides.

Now…well. Yea. Well…

Found Hee nursery quite easily. With only 100 bucks in my pocket. I told myself NOT to spend ALL of it. This is the only way to have some sort of self control. To only bring some or very little money to spend. Its good that the atm is at least 30 mins away.

Found some kool sarracenias. Got ummm….3 pots. rm16 per pot.

This is the Purpurea I think

Unsure about these two..
Close up of their mouths…

Check it..! Happily snacking away!

Something weird is happening to this one. The leaves looks like its melted. And their mouths are all glued up.  Hope to revive them back to life.

Pretty arent they? Also got a packet of dried green moss (rm10) and a mini nep for pokok penyu (rm10). Left Sg Buloh with about 30 bucks left. Heh.

I also propagated our first venus fly trap. The pot was getting too crowded. Divided them into 3 pots. Part sphagnum moss and part perlite. The last pot is by leaf cutting propagation. Not sure how it will turn out. Its been 5 days and it looks fine when I checked on it this morning.

We are spreading the love…we are spreading broccoli love…

It started yesterday,

And it’s here to stay,

We are spreading the love… we are spreading broccoli love…

******

OK..OK..it all started a few weeks back when I was in my ‘woo-hoo spring is here!!’ mood…and crying out to the world ‘let’s grow vegetables, so we can have healthy organic vegs’…la..la..la…

So, I sowed an entire packet of Early Purple Sprouting Broccoli seed coz I thought, so what, maybe not all will live…and what do you know - a few weeks later…nearly all of the tiny seeds actually grew into little seedlings! so, now I must have more than 200 baby broccoli plants, looking for nice happy homes to live in!!

So, this is my devious plan. I am going to spread the veg love. I’m planting LOADS in my back garden and I am also giving LOADS away to friends and family, so they too can start to love and care for plants like we do.  It’s broccoli for world peace, baby!

Imagine what the world would be like if …if…if…there’s broccoli everywhere!!! Simply broccolicious baby!!

Broccoli…it’s a revolution. 

*peace*

After spending a few days in Bangkok, all i could do as soon as we landed, was thinking about my plants. Worry worry worry.

Some updates on the gloxinia after being in the water for about 7 weeks. Small leaves can be seen around the bulge.

I’m going to plant this soon. Looks like its ready.

Apart from that, my other gloxinias which I cut, propagated and saved from the mother plant that was killed during a storm one day - are doing very very well. New leaves are coming out…

Sigh….the carnivorous plants on the other hand…the sundew, the leaves at the bottom are bleaching. Maybe its too hot? We moved it, from indoor to outdoor, maybe thats it? Ah well, whatever it is, its back indoors now under the flourescent light where it usually is. And its perking up..is that normal?

And the intermedia are not growing tentacles. I don’t know why…

The venus fly trap that gets full sun everyday is very very happy.

Need to consult the forum, my CP regulars, mutant hybrid or the pet pitchers on the condition of the sundew.

Who would have thought obsession for plants would turn mukaketupat and myself into friendly, bordering on shameless people. After getting our venus fly trap from strange old Eneos that seems to sell every thing under the sky (including a car service centre in a mall), we got a little hooked on carnivorous plants.

Did some web search to find out more about how to care for our new baby, and found this awesome local site, PetPitcher.com.

Did some web search to find out more about how to care for our new baby, and found this awesome local site, PetPitcher.com.

I know we haven’t stopped raving about it, but it’s such a freaking cool place. Everyone’s not only really generous with info — which is a pretty fantastic nature of ‘forum-ers’ — but also with seeds, seedlings and more!

We contacted the site owner, David, to ask where we could get hold of some sundews, and in a true gesture of solidarity obsession, offered us one of his pots of D. spathulata to us. Yay!

So we called him, got directions, drove to his apartment, I saw a part of Klang Valley that I don’t usually go to, took the lift up……

Wasn’t hard to figure out which place was his. There were creepy-crawly plants greeting us immediately at the grill Pushing aside tendrils, we walked in and gasped at the beautiful, gorgeous terrariums in one corner.

picture from petpitcher website

After greedily gobbling up the sight, he showed us his storeroom that also housed another larger (maybe 6 feet?) terrarium. Whoo0 whee! So many many many many different kinds of carnivorous plants basking snugly under the glow of florescent lights. Mukaketupat brought her camera, so she snapped away. Here’s some of his little beauties.

A partial view of the terrarium

Baby venus’ fly traps in a row. The ‘mother’ is the one right at the back, second from right. Halfway through the tour, I realised that CP (carnivorous plants) enthusiasts do not speak in generics. It’s all genus and species, right down to the hybrids. So if I want to understand this world at all, I have to brush up on my Latin or Greek I think. So yes, Dionaea muscipula all in a row

When he saw us practically drooling all over his D. muscipula, he offered us one! Yippee! Now we have TWO pots of D. muscipula - one green and one red (I promise I’ll figure out the actual sub-species names soon).

Ours sitting happily on our balcony now. Though the new one seem to have some kind of bugs on it, not sure from where. Probably our dusty studio. Doesn’t seem to harm the plant though, but to be safe, getting some pesticides today. Did a whole search on aphids and spider mites from a list of stuff that might harm CPs. Not sure if it is either, but live and learn I guess

One of his Drosera brumannii (species of sundew). We said “yes, please!” when he offered a pot of baby D. brumannii to us. I feel like a greedy, out-of-control, mad woman! *blush* Can’t wait for it to grow layers and be as pretty as his. It’s already growing a fair bit since we got it a couple of nights ago. Mmmmm……… so very very cool!

This one I am SUPER excited about. It’s a byblis, also a kind of CP. Look at the sticky secretions coming out from its hairs! And all the bugs caught on their leaves. And best of all, I have seeds! Thanks to David of Petpitcher again I can’t wait to plant them and wait for germination. Have to learn more about how to cultivate these, but found an article that might help. Not sure if it needs cold stratification etc, but will print out and read. Dammit, wish we had the Savage Garden book! Must go Kinokuniya soon…

I don’t remember the name for this CP, though it might be a bladderwort (Utricularia). It lives in water, and you can’t really see it, but there are tiny traps at the end of the leaves that acts like a vacuum to suck small aquatic animals that unwittingly goes by. Sometimes it sends out shoots of pretty flowers over the surface of the water. And it’s also native to Malaysia

Okay, many species and close peering later (including with a magnifying glass), David showed us his Nepenthes collection. And geez, he’s got a LOT. Mostly hanging near the window, but he’s even got some teeny tiny super cute ones in his terrarium. I almost died.

The pictures didn’t turn out, so we can’t show you. But there are just so many different species (I hope I’m using this word correctly). One with pitchers that look like they are wearing viking helmets, some with fangs on the pitchers, and a cuddly pot of Sarracenia outside one window. Nice

We went and got some more sphagnum moss and looked for perlite - the medium that CPs apparently thrive on. Except the packet we got from Eneos (Uncle Sam from Cameron Highlands) says ‘pelite’. It looks ad feels like what perlite is supposed to be. Hope we don’t mess up by accidentally adding rat poison or something!

Anyway, YAY!

Some handy sites found:

• Carnivorous Plant Care Guide — Bugbitingplants.com
• Some info on Venus Fly Traps and other CPs — pitcherplant.com
• Coastal Carnivores
• How to sow carnivorous plants seeds
• A tutorial on Venus Fly Traps with a whole bunch of FAQs
• International Carnivorous Plants Society (!!!)