Colored leaves for the bathroom – Caladium Bi-color

September 22, 2012 / joanne koo / Leave a comment

After feeding compost/ fertiliser, the colored spots appear

No feeding of compost – lacklustre

One of my favourite plants. We’ve gone through a few cycles with this plant. I nearly destroyed it by leaving it at the stairway facing strong sun. It wilted, and I brought Caladium into the bathroom to heal.

After a while, it recovered but never got its beautiful pink and white streaks back. Until L – the fertiliser man decided to add fertiliser. Voila. At one stage, L was collecting caladiums. According to the Nparks 1001 plants its a shade plant and loves water.

If you love colored leaves, and want something to decorate indoors, caladium is a good alternative, instead of the typical moneyplant.

In its original full splendor bought from JM nursery

Caladium Humboldtii bought from supermarket

Older caladium Humboldii

Still trying to figure out why the Caladium Humboldtii is not doing well in the bathroom although it likes moist shady conditions. But L says it costs only $1.90 from the supermarket, so let’s start afresh. 🙂

My simple pleasure, a water crystal

Calathea Warscewiczii

Calathea Warscewiczii, could be mistaken for a Caladium. I love the purple leaves and white-rose like flower. Loves lots of shade and lots of water. Another plant rescued in the bathroom! I think the calathea is part of the ginger family, but not the caladium.

A lesson on patience: Hoya Ariadna

March 14, 2012 / joanne koo / Leave a comment

I’ve finally come to appreciate Hoyas.

When L went on a buying spree with loads of hoyas 3 Sundays in a row, one month last year, I didnt share his enthusiasm. We have the Hoya Ariadna, Hoya Imperialis, Hoya Carnosa, Hoya Obovata. (The plants came unnamed, so would appreciate if any kind expert could correct me, if I’m mistaken.)

Instructions on the tag from the nursery was bright shady area. Sounds oxymoron?

Frequently diseased, attacked by mites with no flowers, sickly green thick leaves. It didnt take too long for his enthusiasm to wane.

Was it genius or good luck or sheer desperation, he decided to twine them around some make-shift bamboo racks at the balcony, under the shade but with good amount of sun. More plants were added on the bamboo racks to accompany it.

Absent-mindedly, on one occasion, I emptied diluted orchid liquid fertiliser into the root-bound pot, to finish off the bottle.

Then it happened. The Hoyas started blooming. Plastic-looking waxy bursts of stars! Hanging down the vine. It reminds me of the Chinese wedding balls which Chinese grooms wear across their chests in period drama costumes.

Patience, my dear.

New vines started twining themselves around surrounding plants. Like an over-enthusiastic coach, trying to get it to twine properly, I hurt the young shoots, and white milky sap emerge. Blood on my hands.

I did it again. Patience is a long journey. As my political science lecturer used to say, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

Hope to report that that the young vines are fine, despite my rough handling.

10 things I learnt about Hoyas:

1. Bright direct light but sheltered.

2. Patience – they may take a year to flower. Once they do, flowering is quite continuous (every 2 weeks)

3. Diluted Liquid fertiliser (once every 2 weeks), e.g. orchid

4. Waxy star-shaped flowers. Don’t deadhead or remove after bloom. Peduncle (bloom spur) can produce further blooms

5. They attract mealy bugs and other scaly insects

6. Wipe off mealy bugs with cotton swaps and diluted soap powder

7.Epiphytic and they don’t mind being potbound or crowded

8. Give lots of space to twine

9. Beware of white milky sap from tender tips.

10. Propagate with stem cuttings. Remove leaf from node. Cuttings can be as short as 3 nodes.

How to create a Balinese style garden – for apartments Part 2

January 29, 2012 / joanne koo / Leave a comment

C is so proud that moss has begun to grow on her little stone sculpture. All Balinese gardens must have moss, and flowing water – which sounds therapeutic. They have a Bose surround system for added effects. But no waterlily. Good use of the trough which comes with all the new apartments. With a small apartment and a small pond, simply reduce all decorations and plants – including goldfish to size.

Double up the space of the fangipani by hanging orchids, spanish moss and even stuffing pots with bromeliads and other pandus type plants with a lush vegetation look.

Kopi tiam coffee table for C's morning indulgence

Good use of the Bathroom ledge

T & C counted 100 over plants in their apartment. The photos are intentionally kept dim to protect their privacy.

Starting the next phase of their life together.

T’s shopaholic tendencies vindicated by his wife’s creative styling. Putting to good use many of the barang barang he has acquired. T has also ingeniously bought a chinese medicine pot for $3.50 in Chinatown and used it as a flower pot. He’s right! Why buy a generic plastic saucer for $1 when the porcelain ones cost just as much and look more chic?

How to create a Balinese style garden

November 24, 2011 / joanne koo / 1 Comment

Frangipani blooms floating on stone pot

Heliconias for a lush look

Balinese style gardens are the rage in Singapore. Possibly because the Tropical weather permits the growth of such plants. You don’t need huge space to create a sanctuary of rest and meditative peace.

Repeated design of Bird's nest fern

: Open air shower

Plant choice

1. Plumeria/ frangipani – there’s a variety of colors to choose from. Either yellow, white, pink, shocking pink or even yellow with pink fringe. I’ve a marcotted one with 3 different colored blooms (although they never bloom at the same time).

2. heliconia – the rostra (lobster claw or firecracker), Nikeriensis, A genus with 100-200 species.

3. Torch ginger

4. Ferns – boston, staghorn, bird’s nest

5. Alocasias

Bird's nest fern

What’s presented here, is of course, DIY types and easy to maintain. (Some of the photos are taken from resorts in Bali, are not for commercial use. Do not use them for your own websites as they are taken for personal amusement.) You don’t need much color or variety for a chic garden.

Accessories

1. Stone lanterns

2. Stones and pebbles

3. Stone carving

4. Volcanic rocks

5. Moss-filled Water feature

6. Strips of wooden flooring

Vertical wall of layering aka padi fields

Costus

Surviving on Love and Fresh Air – Tillandsia (Air plant)

November 17, 2011November 20, 2011 / joanne koo / Leave a comment

T Usneiodes - spanish moss

As the saying goes, you can’t survive on love and fresh air. Most plants need soil to grow. Some don’t. The Air Plant can. To my knowledge, orchids and Tillandsia do not need soil. Orchids, as I’ve found out, need fertilising twice a month. You fill the sprays with diluted liquid feeds and spray them. Orchids and I are not the best of friends. They don’t bloom under my charge. Tillandsia is low maintenance, and loves you back.

Flower pods of T. Cacticola

How to care for Tillandsia

1. If you’re going on a long trip, soak your tillandsia in a pot of water for some time, say 10 hours. (This depends on size of plant and its hardiness.)

Hanging T. Cacticola

2. If your tillandsias are baby ones which only fit in the palm of your hand, just ask your friend to babysit, and mist it every other day. Too much water, i.e. soaking tiny tillys, kill it. (I’ve found this out, when it accidentally fell into a tray of rainwater and I forgot to remove it after 2 days.)

3. Warning: Soaking your tillys or fertilising them – causes them to flower and grow bigger. Some people don’t like their tillys to grow too big. I don’t fertilise my tillys and they do fine.

4. Indirect sun and shade works best, with air circulation. Direct sun will scorch it.

5. If left outdoors, beware of ants which love to hatch eggs and build nests in the crevices of the leaves. I’ve to soak my tillys once a month to rid the ant nest. Don’t tell L, he doesnt see anything wrong with ants.

6. If leaves start to curl too much, time to soak. I like the leaves curly, so am poor at estimating. Just soak it once a month.

7. After soaking your tillandsia cacticola, remember to overturn it, so water flows out of the leaves. You dont want to remove one pest and introduce another. Mosquitos breed in water trapped in the sockets. Also, the leaves may rot with too much water.

How to display tillandsia

T. Tectorum has white snowflakes light sheen

1. Stick it on rocks or logs. Floral arrangements can be formed with small ones with plant glue on logs. You can buy them from enthusiasts who are selling tillys.

Ionata on a clump

2. Hang it on wire to trellis or bamboo racks

3. Sit pretty on glass vases.

T. Cacticola Pretty on a vase

4. Do not cover base as it will rot with too much moisture. So don’t grow on moss.

(Most importantly, ensure air circulation and not under direct sun.)

Singapore expert on Tilly at WOC holding his favourite

But I’m moving into Tillandsia, having discovered them at the last Singapore Garden Festival in 2010. But the photo here is a young expert on Tillandsia in Singapore. He has an uncle who’s currently in Shanghai consulting with the Shanghai Botanical Gardens to put up a Tillandsia Tectorum Ecuador exhibit. So he has a regular supplier. Remember Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hours in his book Outliers. Practice makes perfect. Not your age or natural talent! Passion coupled with natural advantage in being exposed to something -, i.e this guy has a natural network advantage with people who poured into his life, and his own natural passion kicked in to spend hours researching on something. Gladwell cites the Beatles, (and read in this context, I found it applies for Bob Dylan as well – who spent hours playing in bars and memorising good poetry), Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Tiger Woods and even Mozart. Woo.. in an age of specialisation and building expertise, such a relief to know that it doesn’t matter being born on the wrong side of the railway tracks (as the saying goes), but that I can do something about it. Or maybe its not a relief anymore, because I can’t blame my parents. Responsibility is in my hands to redeem the time.

Late bloomer: epiphyllum oxypetalum/ kheng huay

October 6, 2011October 6, 2011 / joanne koo / 2 Comments

: New leaves look like long green sticks

: Buds forming on leaf nodes -Taken on 12 Sep 2011

: Taken on 26 Sep 3am

: Taken on 25 Sep 2011 9pm

: Epiphyllum taken on 26 Sep 2011 8am

Every cloud has a silver lining.

It was a dark stormy night. We were woken rudely by the heavy rain, lightning and thunderstorm. L dashed upstairs to check the drain opening, lest it be choked with dead leaves. 3am. Everything’s fine.

And the silver lining? The kheng huay has bloomed. All 3 buds.

Such a blessing. One night later and L would have missed the sight as he would be away for one week. And I would have missed the sight too, as the kheng huay only bloomed at night and last 1-2 days.

L brought back the cactus looking plant – kheng huay (also known as white orchid cactus or Queen of the Night), one afternoon from the market. Hot sun and water constantly were the instructions from the seller. Google it, L instructed. I procrastinated. Months later, and several charred leaves, I googled kheng huay and realised an entire community on the internet grows this plant. All the way to Siberia.

Turns out, the kheng huay or epiphyllum oxypetalum takes in filtered light and little water. L took some convincing because the nurseries in Singapore apparently grew them under hot sun. Not long after he took them under the trellis, 3 buds formed.

Hurray for the late bloomer. What a timing and lesson for me. A late bloomer is defined in wiki as a person whose talents or capabilities are not visible to others until late in life. In a society where youth is celebrated, some bloom later than others.

“A painting done by Picasso in his mid-twenties was worth, an average of four times as much as a painting done in his sixties. For Cézanne, the opposite was true. The paintings he created in his mid-sixties were valued fifteen times as highly as the paintings he created as a young man. The freshness, exuberance, and energy of youth did little for Cézanne. He was a late bloomer—and for some reason in our accounting of genius and creativity we have forgotten to make sense of the Cézannes of the world. Sometimes genius is anything but rarefied; sometimes it’s just the thing that emerges after twenty years of working at your kitchen table.” (Gladwell)

Read more about late bloomers in life from Malcolm Gladwell: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/10/20/081020fa_fact_gladwell

Other amazing late bloomers: http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/galleries/2010/11/15/successes-that-were-late-bloomers.slide13.html

http://www.secondjourney.org/newsltr/Archives/Blanchard1_0508.htm

Jade Vine

June 15, 2011July 3, 2011 / joanne koo / Leave a comment

Spotted at Maya Ubud in Bali, the jade vine. Draped over a tree as tall as 3 stories high, and mild, cool crisp temperature, this jade vine is flourishing with at least sightings of 8 bouquets. The claw like flowers are a translucent turqoise green and does remind one of the precious jade ear-rings our grand-ma used to wear.

I was especially thrilled, not having seen one close up before, although I’ve bought a mini plant from hortpark, not expecting to see it flower. Jade vines, I’m told, are heavy climbers. Last year at WorldFarm, I was told that it would be featured at the Garden Festival. Someone had bought all the jade vine specimens at Worldfarm. To my great disappointment, it was nowhere to be seen, no one knows what happened, and the same Worldfam salesman forgot about his comment. I must have heard wrongly. I presume you can still get it there this year, since the Garden Festival is not until 2012. But it may not thrive as well in Singapore weather, as it needs a cool temperature of about 20 degrees celcius and a huge structure to do well.

I am now rewarded with something I can touch and feel, the tree which this vine has conveniently twined itself around, is beside a flight of stairs, and there were blooms even at the bottom of the stairs. There’s a photo of me beside the flowers on my facebook.

Blanc Wall

April 1, 2011July 3, 2011 / joanne koo / Leave a comment

If you’ve $800,000 to spend, how about beautifying your blank wall with a Patrick Blanc? Christened “Rainforest Rhapsody”, it certainly is a masterpiece on 6 Battery Road. The composition of the work, and plants chosen, is appropriately accessible, no different from the landscape types you see on the streets in Singapore.

I’ve always enjoyed Blanc’s work, namely the wall outside Quai Bramly in Paris, beside the Museum of African Asian Arts. I’m surprised that even though its so accessible to the name on the streets, you can touch the plants on the vertical wall, and pull the plants off, if you care. Yet, the few times I’ve been there, the plants on the vertical wall look intact.

Try doing this in Singapore. You’ll have a bare wall in no time. Its no surprise then, that Capitaland has chosen this work of art to be ceiling high, above a little cozy cafe, beyond the reach of any ill-intentioned hands. Somehow the natives of Raffles Place seem blase with the wall. Not aware of its exact location on my first visit, I had asked the tellers and receptionist at Standard Chartered Bank next door about this vertical wall of garden plants, only to get blanc stares. :-))

I heard that HDB is sponsoring a vertical wall display at Hort Park, and can’t wait to see it. Only issue why I’m not implementing a vertical wall yet on my garden is $$$$. If HDB is sponsoring something, I’m sure the irrigation system will be something functional and affordable. Can’t wait to see it!!!

Plants and their Allies

November 30, 2010July 3, 2011 / joanne koo / Leave a comment

Bird’s nest fern or Asplenium nidus seen here at the SBG makes an attractive crowning glory for a vertical wall under shady conditions. It reminds me of a red indian chieftain’s head-gear framing a handsome stoic face. Sometimes you can see these ferns sitting forlorn at the road-side, when the tree branch carrying this heavy majestic frond could no longer support its weight.

The leaves are long, slim and shiny green with smooth edge, spores on the underneath and a black mid-rib. The fern reproduces through spores which spread far and wide. Here, on the planter box of my balcony, 2 ferns have nested in to form luxurious ground-cover.

Bird’s nest Ferns at the Garden Festival, now a popular landscaping mainstay accompanied by silver ferns as ground cover.

Selaginella as ground cover. It needs lots of shade and has a bluish-green shimmery tone.

Vertical Green – Ferns

November 30, 2010July 3, 2011 / joanne koo / Leave a comment

A vertical green for ferns. If you have a narrow space with high walls and little sunlight, like the courtyard at Singapore Botanical Gardens beside the library, you can create a fern wall, set with a tree fern.

There's an ingenious way of covering the wall with netting and creating squares with soil/ sand.