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

G’day…g’day…introducing……*drum roll*….MAGNOLIA!!!

Oh what can I say about my Magnolia… well, according to the Royal Horticultural Society - Encyclopedia of Plants and Flowers ‘magnolias in full bloom makes a spectacular sight in spring…most magnolias are elegant in habit through slow-growing…valuable focal point…’ and you know what?? It’s ALL so TRUE!

I can’t take the credit of actually planting the tree, as it was already here when we moved to this house, but I’m more than glad that it’s here.

It just has a certain ‘presence’ in the garden, as if …as if…it is the garden’s guardian. The branches flow with such grace, it’s not arrogant so as to overshadow everything else, but it complements.

At the first sign of spring, it would be the first to flower, as if to wake the rest of the sleepy garden from their winter slumber.  

Then, at the end of spring when all the rest of the garden members are well awake and in full bloom, Magnolia then humbly bows and take a step back – its flowers fade…and leaves then start multiply.

That’s my Magnolia … it’s wise, it’s fair, it’s kind and it’s enchanting.

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’.

So, our burmanii and ‘red dragon’ venus fly trap were infested by crawling aphids. One of the safest way to deal with it, is to immerse the plant in container overfill with water for at least 24 hours.  So we filled a big pot with distilled water and immersed both the CPs. It was painful…watching them drown. :( 

Almost immediately you see the aphids floated up onto the surface. Loads and loads of them. Quite terrifying, knowing these bugs were in your precious plant. There were small ones, tiny ones and big ones. Sigh…

Here they are again….after 24 hours.

Its true what petiolaris of gardenweb said - they will look like ‘drowned rats’ for a week or so. They look so different now, from when david first gave it to us. He must be so disappointed

Here’s how it looks when we first got it two weeks ago..

Ok enough of that.

Got a pesticide to treat lipstick plant that is infested with mealybugs.

Sprayed it as soon as i got home two nights ago.

And they all bloomed today.

The past two weeks, i’ve been noticing this white waxy web on my lipstick plant. At first it was on one flower, then i started seeing more and more of it. Especially around the bell shape stem. Now it has spread and slowly killing my plant..

I think its mealybugs. It looks a lot like it…

(picture taken from wikipedia)

Yucks! Going to go shopping for pesticides today. May it survive another day.

Some advice from mutant hybrid  of gardenweb on how to get rid of the pests thats been swimming in the sphagnum moss of the venus fly trap that we got.

Posted by mutant_hybrid on Thu, May 10, 07 at 23:34

Hi mukaketupat,Yeah they could be aphids if they are tiny green fat bodied insects that hang out in the center of the plant. If they are tiny white worm like creatures with legs, they are possibly thrips. Gnat larvae also like to live in peat moss. If you are worried about them, use only pesticides that are water based, never soap based. Something with pyrethrines or neem oil extract with pyrethrines would be great. Avoid anything that says potassium salts and acids or natural oils and fats (basically fertilizer). Also never use copper based fungicide on your carnivorous plants, it will harm them. Only use neem oil or sulphur based fungicide.

The red Venus Flytrap is the Red Dragon cultivar. It is exactly the same as a regular Venus Flytrap, just one that is bred to have all red, like a dog is bred to look short and long like a weenie dog. There are many types of cultivars of Venus Flytrap. One called Big Mouth, another called Dente that is all green, and another called Piranha that has short shark like teeth. Mine shows all of the variations at once on different leaves. One trap might show a double tooth, another gets red pigment all over the outside, and another gets short shark teeth. If I wanted to, I could make my own cultivars by continually breeding the qualities I see in my plant with qualities I see in another plant until I get one that is all red or all saw toothed double teeth.

Anyway, good luck with your plants.

Sigh..I’m printing his advice and taking it with me to the hardware store today. Its a lot to remember and better to be safe than sorry.

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!!

no pictures for this post ’cause i left my camera somewhere else. but thought i should jot down what’s been happening anyway, garden log style

1. sunflower seedlings
tried to revive them by taking them away from the scorching sun on the balcony into the studio under florescent lights. then made chamomile tea as an natural fungicide and poured them on all 4 pots.

also had a brain fart idea that they might be under-nourished so tried putting a diluted transplanting fertilizer solution on one of the pots (schultz starter plus — which i am sure is actually not meant for seedlings and i am an idiot). all i did was accelerated the dying process (DO NOT DO IT!).

took a couple back out to a shady spot on the balcony. nothing worked. they all just died. at different rates. the cotyledons yellowed, shrank and dried up, followed by the first pair of true leaves.

the only one that’s still kinda surviving is the one i placed under a florescent lamp, 24 hours a day. and i think all i’m doing is just slowing down its impending death. so i am letting it out to the balcony today, to enjoy some real sun, and finally letting go. *sob* *sob*

on a brighter note, i now know a little more about natural fungicides and pesticides. going to try a new batch soon. and going to take some of heathrjoy’s and ecrane3’s good advice, and hope, hope, hope for the best!

2. transplanting the petunia
decided to transplant the petunias on sunday cause they were flopping over one by one. not having good garden vibes last week. not sure what the problem was, but think it is probably a mixture of over-crowding and lack of proper soil (used a horti ’soil-less’ seed starting mix). don’t think it’s damping off, because the stems look alright, but i might be wrong.

they’re the tiniest little things and a real bugger to transplant. not possible to dig underneath with a fork, ’cause the fork is just waaaaay to big. so i resorted to using my fingers and pinching them as lightly as possible near the leaves to tease them out of the soil.

wish i had a picture to show you, but maybe another day. it’s a real nightmare, and i think i killed as many as i managed to transplant. they’re now in small metal pots, with more space between them. just had a check on them, and a majority of them seem to be fine. going to keep fingers, toes and knees crossed!

3. sundew is on the way!
turned out i was having a dyslexic moment, and took down the wrong number despite checking 3 times. david from petpitcher rang back, and we’re going to collect the little plant and byblis seeds today. yay! can’t wait

meanwhile, i have a tray of wheat grass on the go for my mom. a little late for mother’s day, but hope it turns out fine. don’t think i did the pre-sprouting preparation for enough times, but the tray has been a seedling charm. wish me luck!

i’ve been reluctant to transplant the celosia since i read in various places that they don’t handle transplanting very well. but since it was my second attempt at growing from seeds, i messed up quite a fair bit.

instead of mixing the peat moss with the soil, i put about 2 inches of peat moss on top of the soil. which means that the seedlings are probably not getting enough nutrients after germination. it took forever to grow true leaves — more than 3 weeks after germination. germination also took quite long (well, longer than the statice, which took only one day — celosia took about 3 days or so).

i bought some transplant starter-fertilizer thing, and misted some on after the leaves started to look a little yellow. BIG MISTAKE. made is worse, and after some advice from naturemitch in garden web forum, i left it alone and thinned one pot. it was alright for a bit, but now it’s getting overcrowded again.

since naturemitch said he’s transplanted celosias without having them die suddenly, i thought, why the hell not, just give it a go. by this point, i’ve transplanted the sage, phlox and balsam okay (even though not all of them are surviving, but a majority are fine), so feeling a little less clunky.

mixed the usual soil with a little bit of peat moss and a little bit of vermiculite, put them in a flower box because i haven’t got the small cell things, and i am hoping that they’d just be happy in the flower box until they all grow up and make weird blooms. watered from top — flower box doesn’t allow for bottom watering — as gently as i could with a ‘rose’ spout watering can. plonked them under florescent light, near a fan for 2 days.

they looked okay as of last night (day 2):

a couple didn’t survive… and i think i saw a spider hanging out near it. hope it’s the good kind, and not the kind that’ll just eat them all up.

geez, with the slowly dying sunflowers and dead statice, i’m starting to think i’m not cut out for this. maybe i should give myself some timelines to quit, so i won’t be responsible for bringing more things into life just to die. *gleep*

but on a brighter note, finally saw some full-grown cockscomb of the ‘coral floral’ variety at a nursery on tuesday. it looks pretty damn strange! can’t wait for my little babies to grow and start blooming

pulled these off the internet. it’s fluffier than the one i saw, but still wicked. like a cross between brains and corals and something entirely wonderful