This plant is not a fern and it has no leaves. Fascinating ! Those bright green soft needle-like foliage are actually stems and is referred to as cladodes .. interesting. Although the articles I read mentioned that this plant does flowers, I don't recall ever seeing any flowers. This means I really must observe this plant more often to catch the flowers. I actually have this plant for almost 4 years now. From a small pot that my mother gave me, I have increased its population as I like this plant very much.
This plant is always green and real easy to care for. Recently I transferred one "mould " of these plants (the plants tend to grow as a mould in the container - very compact, see the pictures ) to the ground. I am attempting to see if it makes suitable ground cover.
There was this one time when one container of this plant turned brown on me . I am not sure what happened, I surmised it was either due to lack of water or the plant has grown 'old', I had placed it on top of the shoe cupboard , away from the other plants, and sometimes I forget to water it. Now I always keep the soil moist and leave it where there is some sunlight. Under too much sunlight, the green turns really light and not so nice looking. I let the soil dry out once a while to ensure the roots are kept healthy I noticed that this plant does not like too much watering.
There was this one time when one container of this plant turned brown on me . I am not sure what happened, I surmised it was either due to lack of water or the plant has grown 'old', I had placed it on top of the shoe cupboard , away from the other plants, and sometimes I forget to water it. Now I always keep the soil moist and leave it where there is some sunlight. Under too much sunlight, the green turns really light and not so nice looking. I let the soil dry out once a while to ensure the roots are kept healthy I noticed that this plant does not like too much watering.
Ah yes, when I noticed the plant turning brown and unhealthy looking, I pulled out the whole mould of plants out of the pot, and cut off those brown and dried looking stems. Then I replanted the healthy green ones back to a clean container with fresh soil. The plant grew well and eventually the pot became 'overcrowded' again. When this happened, I pulled it out and then divided it into into clumps to be planted in two different pots. So this was how I multiplied them . Luckily this plant doesn't grow all that fast !
Actually these plants look good in hanging pots and it is better to plant them in shallow pots. Their roots do not go deep.
3 comments:
What a lovely bushy plant this is.
Its truly lovely.
I have been eyeing for this plant so many times but never seen it grown anywhere around my taman area.
Yours is so lavishly beautiful.
Thanks James, yes, I really love this plant too....it is so soothing to the eye. I am sure you will have this plant as part of your collection soon ....!
Hi, I saw this on a book recently, and wanted to try it as my first bonsai. May I know where can I get the seed for this plant in Malaysia? (as it mentioned in the book but written in chinese, which I don't think local people is familiar with that name.)
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