gejala pokok | symptomatic trees

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’.

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.

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.

Woke up to an awesome weather! Finally after many many days of unbearable heat, it finally rained. Yahoo!

So took a photo of my gloxinia this morning. Here’s how it looks like after about 6 weeks of being in the water…

Is it time to plant it yet?

And the african violet finally decided to  start rooting…

My jasmine is budding quite a lot.

Oh and remember my bryophyllum that i got from my colleague? Its only been 2 and a half weeks. And here’s how it looks now…

They look like little midget monsters. Weirdly pretty…

And my ajuga, also been doing nothing but bloom bloom and bloom.. Must be all the sun and heat.

Finally, before i forget, we finally got our sundews! Not one, not two, but THREE CPs (and some seeds)!!! All from David, the awesome generous dude behind Pet Pitcher. Visited his place last night and it was truly truly remarkable. Pokok Penyu will write a full commentary on the trip.

But here’s a sneak peak on what we got..

All i can say is that we love love luurrve CPs and Pet Pitcher roxs!!

How it looks last week…

Now it looks like it…woah, its a forest out there!

And i’ve really been bad with this. I haven’t been doing anything. But it grew and grew…

I’m a little unsure when i should properly plant this. Its been 4 weeks and it still looks fragile.  I think i should wait a couple more weeks…i don’t think i’ll be able to take it if it suddenly dies when i transplant it in soil.

suffering from crisis of confidence. after transplanting the statice, they started dying. there was one left that i still had some hope (see below), but i think i have to accept that it’s really a lost case. it’s pretty much all dead by now. i don’t know what i did wrong, whether the hole i dug was too deep, or if they were weakened by the storm attack, or if i didn’t pack the soil around the seedlings enough after transplanting them, or i simply fucked up when i tried to separate the soil from the seedling when digging them out.

whatever it is, it’s dead.

and then the celosia. they germinated around 6th april, and it’s now 16 days later, and there’s no sign of true leaves showing.

i bought some schultz starter plus solution and misted some diluted amount on them a few days ago. i think i made it worse. some of the lower leaves started to yellow, and the stems are wriggly.

this is how it looks today. the pencil is to give a sense of its size (also works as a good dibber!)

this is how it looks like with the flash switched on.

tried thinning one of the pots tonight, by snipping the really tiny and almost dying ones as close to the earth as possible, and then picking them off with tweezers. i really hope it works. i don’t think i can handle another failed batch of seedlings.

Its been more than two weeks since i propagated my mint plant and gloxinia. They were left in a small jar. And here’s the updates…

You see the cling wrap? All the way to the bottom, all of them are new roots. :)  I did this for a friend, and she took it back with her last night. Heh.

Here’s the gloxinia. It works!! Yay!

The roots are about 1cm long. Pretty kool. Not sure when i can plant them, i guess we shall wait and see.

Got this plant two days ago.

Decided to call it ‘whoopi’. Its got curly succulent leaves, tubular, bell shaped deep red flowers. Found out the name of the plant, its aeschynanthus also known as Lipstick Plant.

Very very VERY pretty.

Its been raining and past few days and my gloxinia flowerbed was filled with water. Don’t worry, they survived. Propagated two of them last night / this morning.

This is kramer

This is kramer jr.
Used this right after i cut the stem..

I hope they don’t die.

The flower on my crown of thorns finally bloomed this morning! Yay! It used to be red, but this time its yellow!