Friday, April 29, 2011

Not So Sweet Pomegranates...... !

I spotted some brown sap oozing out from the base of two pomegranates (see posting 5th April 2011). ... so I guess I should pluck the fruits - irregardless of  whether they are ripen or not.  The color of the fruits have turned light cream yellow speckled with brown marks.

Fairly good sized fruit ..
Ripe or not ?

So I cut the fruits open ... and observed that some portions  have actually start to  turn bad, thus the sap oozing out ! The good portions are slightly pinkish and healthy looking - so I took a taste. To my disappointment but as expected, considering the fruits are not really ripe enough,  they  did not taste as sweet or juicy.  
Guess Not !
Not so sweet after all !
Well let's hope the other fruits will ripen properly in time  ...!


State of Stagnancy .... and the Little Bird Flower

Pls make a nest in my garden ?
I have resisted the compulsion to add new plants to my garden ... and am almost successful .....lolz !  So now I am in a state of  Limbo.  Every now and then  this plant or that will bloom and it is nice to see the colorful blooms greeting me each day, more so with  their teasing fragrance that lingers  on especially in the evenings.  So I am contented to weed ,  prune , fertilize , water and check the plants for infestations. Yet, I look forward to seeing blooms from  those plants that have yet to bloom.


One is the Kesidang or Kerak Nasi (posted 23/11/2010). A year had almost gone by .... yet not a single sign that it is ready to bloom (sigh...) !  The plant  has grown a lot  more now, trained along the fence ... well it won't be too long now I suppose ! Keep my fingers crossed.


Angel's Trumpet
Another is the Angel's Trumpet, with the white blooms. We took  some cuttings some 6 months back and was successful with one -  it is a healthy looking plant, but not likely to bloom for at least a year or so, I presume.


The Micky Mouse plants (posted 27/11/2010)  are slow growing plants  indeed, and I doubt they will bloom  for  at least another year at the rate they are growing !



7 Mile Fragrance Plant
The 'Seven Miles Fragrance" (translated literally from chinese) Plant is one type of  jasmine plant that holds a strong appeal for me as the flowers are so white, dainty and fragrant.  The flowers are similiar to the Murraya   Paniculata (see post 23/8/2010) aka Lakeview Jasmine, except that the leaves are more rounded.  The leaves of the Murraya Paniculata are pointed at the tips.  I bought a small plant from a vendor at the market about a couple of months back and it is growing very slowly.

Murraya Paniculata /Lakeview Jasmine Flowers
So this is the state of stagnancy in the garden.  While some plants flourish and bloom happily in the garden,  there are other plants prefering to take their time to adapt to the environment and test the gardener's patience...... :- ( ! 

Now this is something interesting.  I took some cuttings of the 'Xioa Niao Hua"  (Little Bird Flower in chinese) aka Pedilanthus tithymaloides from a neighbor about a couple of weeks back.  According to the blogs I read, this plant apparently propagates easily from cuttings (check this blog out : http://plantsarethestrangestpeople.blogspot.com/2008/03/twenty-something-pedilanthus.html). So I was rather relieved and delighted to see the cuttings doing well after about two weeks, with leaf buds coming out, and no sign of rot.... , touch wood ..... :- ).  So  I look forward to seeing these cuttings grow and  one day to bloom the little red "birds".....  :- ), that will be exciting to see  !


If  I am successful with these plants, perhaps I will get the other species as well .. the Pedilanthus Bracteatus which blooms the green little 'birds'. Then I will have 'birds' that come and stay in my garden, except minus the lively chirpy sounds .... !