Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

YTT - Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow or Brunfelsia. I am not sure which species I have as there are many YTT around . What differentiates one species to the other, I am not sure because the flowers behaved the same way.  The flowers started of as  Purple (Yesterday), turns  pastel lilac (Today) and ends up white (Tomorrow) , so the plants will  have these three colors once it blooms.    My YTT seems like a slow grower, it has been a year since I bought it from the nursery, and it is hardly a foot tall !  The flowers exude a light fragrance that is rather pleasing.

 I did not realize this plant does not like too intense heat from the sun, since it was a tropical plant. Unfortunately I had already planted it on the ground and did not want to dig it up. for fear of killing it.  So alternatively I grew some other plants to provide it with some shade. Now after a year, I removed the other plant and the YTT  did not seem too happy being exposed to the direct sunlight. How did  I know? Well, the leaves started to turn an unhealthy yellow  instead of the lush pale green that is so pleasing to the eye.  Then the leaves will start to drop as well, even though I watered it well. So on hot afternoons, I have to provide  it with some sort of shade.  Old car shades are handy for use as cover  for the plants. 

 

 Well I guess I have to be patient with it.  As long as  the plant  stays healthy and blooms occasionally  it is  indeed a  nice plant to have in my garden, despite its slow growth.  In comparison my jasmines grow so fast!      

Adenium (Dessert Rose)

Just to take a break from "Herbs", and back to flowering plants again.  My first encounter (and subsequent) with the Dessert Rose was not good,  now I think I have  make up for it (cross fingers that I have not spoken too soon) .  Until about six months back, I have shy away from this particular plant because of the earlier bad experiences.  Experiences are lessons in life, and hopefully this time I have learnt!   Interested in  a bit of  story telling?  Well.........my mother gave me my first Adenium. It was a beautiful mature plant that I kept admiring so much, until my mother said, "take it home". Those days we lived in Penang, a first floor flat that had a nice balcony facing the morning sun.  I was reluctant to do so,  those days  I was rather busy at work.  My mother could tell that I like the plant very much and kept encouraging me.  So I did, and two months or so  later I had a dead plant on my hands!  Imagine how devastated I was!! I know now it was from over watering.....fortunately  my mother never even scolded me,  but I was eaten up by guilt and remorse.  In fact she even offered me another of her beautiful plants ! Adenium plants were the rage  then (and still is)  and my mother  had a collection of them.   

When I moved to this house,  my sister presented me with a baby adenium. from the nursery...it never lasted a month. I had to go away for a month,  and when I came back  it  had died from neglect.  Currently I have two  adeniums  that survived out of the five that my brother brought over.  A  friend gave them to him, and they were grown from seedlings. I  returned two to my brother after I saw that they were growing well after about 3 months. But one died when I transplant them into a bigger pot, the rots rotted away.

Well the lessons I learn from cultivating adenium...

 

Lesson  1 :  Be careful where water is concerned.  Soil must be well drained,  or the roots rot easily in stagnant water.  Preferable to water in the morning, so that throughout the day, it drains. It is okay to skip watering for a  couple of days.  Just checked that the soil does not get too dry.   If it rains, forget about watering it.   It is vital  never to allow the potted plant to stand in collected water on the saucer -  the roots will rot!

Lesson  2 : Sunshine is good.....lots of sunshine for the plant will induce flowering. This plant loves the sun. 

Lesson  3 : Fertilizer....go  easy  on it.....remember this is a succulent plant. 

Lesson  4 : Trim it to make it branch, otherwise it keeps growing taller and taller......!

Lesson 5 : Check for caterpillar.......! I just picked two of my plants.  They can be rather destructive! 

I am still a bit tender footed where my adeniums are concerned....if they can last a year, then I would say I am successful.  Now they are just 6 months old, and  were given to me when they were hardly 4 inches tall! Well okay  take  a peep at my adenium.... lovely first bloom!  I sure hope they continue to progress well under my "neglect" loving care......!

The Lotus Bloom

 I would like to share my lotus bloom  in this blog. So far my lotus plant has only bloomed once, with three beautiful blooms continuously in the month.  The blooms  were absolutely gorgeous, see for yourself.   The following is the sequence of the lotus bloom (please ignore the dates on the pictures, the camera was incorrectly set).

 

 Let us start off with the bud.

Now only the pod is left ! .  Does this remind you of  the shower head? The lotus seeds are edible, the seeds are crunchy, but I prefer to save the seeds.

 

The flower and the pod...................! 

The lotus flower always faces the sun. For the lotus to bloom it needs fertilizers (special for waterlilies and lotus) and plenty of sunshine.  The lotus will start to close in the evening, and re-opens the next morning when the sun comes out. The bloom will continue to close and open for the next 4 - 5 days. Then the petals will start to drop, eventually leaving only the pod. 

I planted the lotus from seeds.  It took almost a year and more before it bloomed for me. Initially I had problems growing the lotus. The soil medium was not right, and the plant did not seemed to grow well.   So I changed to the medium to a more loamy soil.  The pot I used was also too small  so I bought a bigger pot. It looks like perhaps it is becoming overcrowded again and time for me to replant the  lotus.  This time round I will use the tuber instead of the seeds. They grow faster from the tuber. 

Cultivating Citrus Fruits

My foray into growing the citrus fruit started when my 6th sister gave me this plant, supposedly a Taiwanese hybrid.  She gave this plant as a house-warming gift.  Apparently she was persuaded by the sweet talking people at the nursery to buy this plant.  Initially the plant came in the form of just two stalks, and some leaves, typical of grafted citrus plant, about a foot plus tall.  I really do not know what to do this plant except to dig a big hole in my then rather bare garden (then),  planted it  using the mixed soil bought from nursery, and watered it well, having no previous experience with such plants.  I  feed it with the fertilizer that the nursery people recommended, the small round black pellets that smelled like coffee.  For a long time the plant just stood there sulking, taking  stock of its new environment (and me, the frustrated gardener, lol, who keeps checking on it daily). It did not produce  new leaves nor new stems. Then about a month or two later, it bloomed and as a result of the blooms, 6 small round green fruits appeared. Coincident or  not ?  I asked my 6th Sister. But the plant continued to express its disapproval of me and my efforts....it just stood there with its 6 tiny green fruits, no new leaves, no new stalks....., it was as if time stood still for it!  

I sought to to read about citrus growing in the internet,  as well as looked for such books in the local library and bookstore, but unfortunately did not come across any useful article.  Then feeling a bit lost, I decided to dig around the plant, cleared the grass that was crowding around it, then miracles of miracles,  for my effort the plant suddenly produced  some new leaves !!  That was about 4 months back, and now the plant seemed to return to its state of  dormancy again, but at least it has many leaves and new stems, but it is growing slowly.  No new flowers. As long as it stays healthy, I guess I am thankful.

A good friend of mine, Tracy,  told me that  when  a plant first bear fruits, we should not pluck them but let them dropped naturally when they ripen.  So with nothing to lose and everything to gain, I  decided to follow this advice. The first fruit dropped before it can even mature, still green in color . Then one  fruit burst open , and  another one dropped. I decided out of curiosity to find out  what the fruit should taste  like, and plucked one.  Still not too mature, it tasted  a bit sweet, no sourness but not much juice. The skin was thin  and easy to peel. I decided to let the last two fruits be.  Well it was in February  when I first took their pictures  (small  green fruit) and now it is October, yet the last two fruits  have turned yellow but have not fallen (see the picture where I am holding the fruit),  hopefully patience will win the day!  

                                                                                                         

A man selling fertilizer and plants said it was not advisable to add fertilizer when the plant is flowering. The fertilizer will cause the  flowers / new fruits to drop.  After the fruits are harvested, feed fertilizer to strengthen the plant. After  about a month or two when the plant is rested,  add the flowering fertilizer for it to bloom.  Well, I have yet to try it out, as I am waiting for these two yellow beauties to drop.

The lime kasturi (calamansi) is a common feature  in most malaysian  gardens. It is so convenient to pluck a fruit or two for juice to be added to the sambal belachan (prawn paste chilli sauce) or chopped chilli / garlic  with white soya sauce served on the dinner table. On a hot day, a glass of ice cold  lime kasturi  juice drink is just heavenly.  I bought two plants as I just love the smell of the lime.  The flowers smell rather nice too actually.

 

It takes approximately 3 to 4 months from flowering  to harvesting the fruits. I have harvested all these fruits now to make sambal belachan.  A friend told me to add the skin of the lime to the chilli  when making the sambal belachan.  Since I do not use chemicals on my plants, I have no worries on using the skin as it gives a  nice flavour to the sauce.  

Herbs - Plantago Major

This is my favorite herb. Why ?  Simple -  this is one herb that my mother used to boil for us to drink, and I have no fear of recommending to readers to try it.   In truth I am a bit skeptical about the use of Herbs, unless there is strong scientific merit or from personal experience.  Readers can read more of this herb in this link :  http://www.altnature.com/gallery/plantain.htm , so I do not need to cut and paste here.  Believe it, or not this herb does sound like a miracle herb with its various  medical usage, supported by scientific research and studies .  My mother used to pick the whole plant, including roots and everything. After washing thoroughly , esp the roots; she boiled this herb with the sugar cane that she had in her garden. The sugar cane was the reddish type, not the yellow type. Sometimes one can see both this plant (in bunches) and sugar canes  (cut into short blocks) being sold in the wet market.  Lately  my mother would boil the herbs with barley too.  She said the  herbal drink was cooling and good for cleansing the bladder. 

This herb grows easily and does not need any special care. It propagates by wind pollination, the seeds can be found at the tips of the flower spike. I just allow this plant to grow wild in my garden, and gather them whenever I want to use them. Despite its leafy appearance this plant is quite tough with strong root system. It is not fussy about the soil it grows on ; sandy or compact does not matter, this plant just thrives. In drought season, this plant might disappears, but when conditions are good, it reappears.  So I hardly bother about this plant,. Just take care not to weed the babies when I do weeding. If I do pull them out  by accident, I just stick them back.....