Amaryllis ( Hippeastrum ) in Bloom

As far back as I can recall in my childhood days, the small onion sprouting leaves (placed in a basket in the kitchen to be used for cooking) was the earliest fascination I had on plant growth. To actually see the kick start of  a baby plant ! Wow, the sight was something so wonderful it played on my young mind - how did that happened and why did it happened ? 

Now the question that often plays on my mind is why the Amaryllis bulbs refused to bloom when left to themselves ? I have these bulbs plants but they hardly ever blooms, just keep propagating small plants and sprouting healthy foliage. Then maybe, just maybe.. if I get lucky, perhaps one or two blooms in the whole year.  Yet at the highlands like Penang Hill, Cameron Highlands, Fraser Hills, etc  where the temperature is cooler these bulbs bloomed in abundance! The large showy and beautiful blooms are a sight to behold ! Some avid gardeners have recommended putting these bulbs in the refrigerator in order to force the blooms. Interesting. However is it worth going through the tedious process (for 4 months or so) just to enjoy some blooms for a week at most ?  Hmmm....perhaps...

Well the month of April is a lucky month for me, despite the heat getting on my nerves, and no rain in sight since end Jan or so ...! I spotted one flower scape (flower bud) coming  up from one of the bulbs. I had transferred them to the ground after feeling disappointed on their reluctance to bloom. So I decided to dig up this bulb with the scape, potted it, placing it just outside the doorway in anticipation of  enjoying the bloom. Each day I take a photo to check its progress. Since January, we had hardly any rain, and I noticed most of the bulb plants were 'suffering' - losing their healthy green foliage. I decided to dig up some of  those with the big fat bulbs and repot them.  I noticed another bulb sprouted a scape after about a week of repot, what an excitement !  That was so amazing, but my luck apparently ran out with this second bulb. So far none of the other bulbs showed any signs of a flower scape coming up. But for now I am contented and I would like to share the photos I had been taking in the last few days. 

Something I thought worth noting is that despite the heat and excessive dry weather, these bulb were able to produce the flower scape. Is there a lesson here to be learned ?  I suppose I will try to water sparingly these bulbs and see what happens next. 

Gorgeous ... if only they bloom all the time !!

The second scape is about to bloom !

Adenium (grown from cutting)

This post is about sharing my adenium grown from cutting.

As mentioned in my earlier posts I initially find the adenium hard to care for, but now I have grown to love them and realize they are not so fussy after all and a joy in the garden with their beautiful blooms . As they say, somehow plants do grow on one!  

My adeniums tends to grow tall and slender instead of bushy and short. I kind of like those I see in other people's gardens or in nurseries where the adeniums are short and bushy with so many blooms ! These days the popular ones are those with multi-petals blooms as well as different colors in one plant. People tell me I have to cut the stems, so I did whenever the plants seems too tall and fragile to hold their own even with some kind of support.. However each time I cut these healthy stems after the blooms are done,  I felt it is such a waste. So I stick these cuttings into some soil on the ground or in pots.  Sometimes these cuttings grow, sometimes they just rot away, I stopped checking. However I do notice that thosE plants grown from cuttings do bloom pretty fast, within a couple of months or so once established.  I was pretty delighted of course, since I enjoy the blooms as they last a few days! 

Friends tell me that adeniums grown from cuttings will not form the caudex (thicken stem or 'potato' in hokkien) unlike those grown from seeds. These caudex are unique for each plant, some growers make them into interesting shapes ( don't know how they do it ) ! Well their techniques are beyond me, I would be just happy with a healthy blooming plant !  

As the soil depleted in one of the pots where I had this adenium grown from cutting,  I did notice that the stem had thicken  somewhat where once they were covered in soil. It was high time for me to change the soil in one particular pot, so I decided to take some pictures for this posting  to share with readers. This plant is roughly about 4 to 5 years old. This is the first time I decided to change the entire soil for the pot.  On and off I  just topped up the soil material.

Rather nice looking I think. Next step would be to cut off the upper stems once the roots are established again in the new soil.  Notice how they tend to grow long and tall ?  Ahh   hopefully this plant will  soon resemble a little of those interesting bonsai plants !