Surprise in the Mail Box

I found a surprise in the mailbox today! It's a big brown envelope and at the back it was written that it is from Kak Dah of My Little Vegetable Garden blog.

A few weeks ago, Bang Chik (Kak Dah's hubby) has posted on their blog that they are giving away roselles seeds. Anyone interested, can email them with details. I am so happy to receive this gift from these two fellow gardening bloggers. It's my very first gift from our circle of gardening enthusiasts. Thank you very much, Kak Dah & Bang Chik!

First, I found this big brown envelope in my mail box.

In it is this beautiful Raya packet.

Inside the Raya packet, there are so many Roselle seeds!!!

Wow, I really feel abundance!!!

Thank you, Kak Dah & BangChik!

Adenium Yahoo Group

My application to join the Adenium Yahoo Group was approved yesterday. The first mail I received is some tips on how to cultivate Adenium! Wow, that's really good tips. If you are keen to join this group, it is very simple. Follow these instructions:


1. Go to Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com/)
2. Click on Groups (can be found on the left-hand panel).
3. On the search text box, 'Find a Yahoo! type ADENIUM.
4. When you found the group, click on the blue font 'Join this group'.

Voila! It's simple, isnt' it?

A hybrid Adenium from my friend, Yang Mama's garden.

As I post this blog, I am also praying for our friend, Pei Ping, who is in the maternity ward now, delivering her baby girl. Wish that both mother and baby will be safe. Waiting for the good news from the Dad, Chin Keat. The family of 3 will become 4 real soon. Little Zhe-Hern will be glad to have a little sis soon! Below is a photo of the bubbly Zhe-Hern.

Adenium with Seed Pods

Out of my 6 pots of Adeniums, 4 are having seed pods!! What a blessing!! This has never happened to me before. I am thrilled over this! My friend, Roxanne, who is also an Adenium enthusiast and I had also featured her Adenium previously said the Chinese believes that this is a sign of abundance and good fortune! Wow, this makes me feel very blessed!


How does seed pod formed? From what I gathered through my reading on the internet, the seed pod is formed when the flowers from the Adenium is pollinated by insects. Adenium does not self-pollinate.

This is the oldest Adenium that I have grown. I have kept this plant for 10 years has 3 pairs of seed pods on it. This is another first time for me. Usually I will only have one pair of seed pod on this plant.

As you can see in the photo above, I have used a gardening wire to tie up the Adenium pod. I learnt this from the Green Culture Singapore (GSC) Forum. The wire will prevent the seeds from being blown away when the pod burst upon maturity. This can be seen when the pod turns brown and its skin is no longer as smooth as it is. Each pod contains many fine, hairy seeds. This seeds can be kept in the fridge and it will last for very long time.

If you see the first photo in this posting, all the seed pods have symmetrical length seed pods. However, my 2nd pot of Adenium shows stunted growth on one end of its seed pod (refers to pink arrow). I don't know why this happen.

My 3rd pot of Adenium shows one healthy pair of seed pod.

My 4th pot of Adenium shows 2 pairs of new seed pods. They are still very young. I hope the seed pods will grow well.

The above is an old photo of Adenium seeds that my friend, Chooi, gave me. I have tried to germinate the seeds and eventually only two turned out well to be the 2 young Adenium seedlings below that I have recently transplanted into bigger pots.

From the GSC Forum, I have learnt some tips to grow big caudex for Adenium. I have pinched some leaves on the top of the plants with the hope that this would made the caudex grow big, instead of the plants growing tall. Pinching of the leaves can only be done after there are 3 pairs of leaves on the seedling. Not before that as the plant would still be too young. Covering the root with lotsa soil can also help to make the caudex grow big.

Botanical Garden - Lakeside

The Putrajaya Botanical Garden is really huge. During our last visit, we only managed to cover the Morrocan Pavillion, Vine Garden and Heliconia Walk (shown by the the pink arrows in the map below). This time, we were able to cover the Canna Walk and Pandanus Walk located by the lake before it started to drizzle and we had to run for shelter. Sigh!!! Or shall I stay optimistic and tell myself that gives us reason to return to the Botanical Garden again for another visit!!

It was a gloomy afternoon. But we were filled with excitement. We brought some snacks, books, newspaper and a mat with the intention of having a picnic at the Botanical Garden. It has been a looooong while since all 4 of us had a picnic. Our excitement was shortlived, when the drizzle started. Thus our visit only covers area near to the lake side.

Here is the jetty where one can get a boat ride in the lake. As our visit was on a week day, so the boat service was not available. We were hoping to get a ride on the tram. Unfortunately, it was not available too as the tram has been sent to the Prime Minister's residence, meant to be used during the Hari Raya Open House.

Overlooking the lake, is a huge structure with green roof and domes. That is Perdana Putra that houses the Prime Minister's Office.

By the side of the lake is the Putrajaya Lakeview Restaurant. My friend said that the view from the restaurant is spectacular in the evening.

Fortunately, we had those grass-thatched gazebos that provided us with shelter from the rain. It was really nice to sit under those gazebos and enjoy the splendid view of the lake in front of us.

Some beautiful orchids used to decorate a small section at the entrance of the Lakeview Restaurant. As it is the month of Ramadan, we can see an oil lamp has been placed there. I assume it is lit up in the evenings as part of the celebration of Lailatul-Qadr* night.

* Note: During the last 10 days of Ramadan month, Muslims will keep vigil for Lailatul Qadr (The Night of Decree), the night when the holy Quran was sent down. It is believed that angels descend and shower blessings on that particular night, so homes are brightly lit-up with oil lamps.

Tall, splendid-looking pandanus plants greeted us at the Pandanus Walk. Aren't they beautiful?

Bright, vibrant-coloured Rangoon Creeper was found near walkway by the lake.

These are what we found at the Canna Walk. These bright coloured Cannas definitely cheered us up!

Pickles Comic

Something to tickle your funny bones today! This may have happened to many of us before!!


I would also like to wish all Muslims friends Selamat Hari Raya!! May the festive occasion be joyful and filled with peace and love.

Canna

The Putrajaya Botanical Garden has a beautiful section dedicated to Cannas. It is called the Canna Walk. In this section, one gets to see the garden fabulously landscaped with various colourful Canna and I found these description of Canna on the signage:

Cannas are native to Tropical America, where there are about 25 wild species. Canna generalis, commonly known as garden cannas, are hybrids that come in many different colours. Most cannas propagate by underground creeping stems (rhizomes), while others propagate by hard, bead-like seeds.

Cannas gained popularity as a garden plant in the mid-19th century, when the first hybrids were produced in France (1848). Since then, hundreds of hybrids displaying many shades of red, yellow, orange and pink flowers have been produced.

According to Professor R.E. Holttum in Gardening in the Lowlands of Malaya 1953): "There are very few plants in Malayan gardens that give really solid masses of colour... cannas are very important, as few other plants, whether herbaceous or woody, can compare with them in producing massed colour effects."

1st Harvest of Choy Sum

My first harvest of choy sum took place today! After months of trying to grow Hong Kong Choy Sum (which is of a miniature species in comparison to the usual Choy Sum), I finally get to harvest them.

Although the harvest is very minimal, only 3 bunches of choy sum, but it gives me a great sense of achievement! Ha ha..I know 3 bunches are not even enough to feed one person! But that's a good start! I have sown some more seeds and hope during the current sunny weather with intermittent rain, my seed will germinate fast!

I also found some white trails on some of my choy sum leaves. Seems like many of my smaller seedlings are also affected. I doubt those plants with white trails are edible. Sigh! That would be a waste. Is it a snail trail? Or what is it? Can anyone help me with this question? I gotta stop it quick if the trails are caused by some snails or bugs.

Flowers & Friends

Friends are like the flowers in our garden. They bloom and bring joy to us. At the same time, we need to fertilize and care for them with tenderness and love so that they will continuously bloom for us.

I bought this card for a dear old friend. Hope she will be delighted when she receives it. She reminds me of a beautiful orchid ~ very lasting and always bring joy to me.

Does any of your friend reminds you of a certain flower?

Nestled in the heart of Kuala Lumpur's Lake Garden is the Kuala Lumpur Hibiscus Garden. I have heard of it for quite sometime but only recently did I visited it.

Our visit was on a weekday, thus there was no entrance fee charged. The entrance fee is only RM1 on weekend. At the same time, we found very few visitors at the garden and we were like having the whole garden to ourselves!

Seen here is the Hibiscus Fountain and the building in the background is the Garden Gallery. There is an exhibition gallery and during our visit it featured award-winning photographs from a contest that was recently held.

Hibiscus Rosa-sinensis, the Queen of Tropical flowers is Malaysia's National flower, locally known as Bunga Raya. It is also known as shoe flower. It belongs to the cotton family Malvaceae and consists of 300 species. It is a shrub that can grow to a height of 3 to 5 meters. Its flower is among the world's largest and most beautiful bloom growing to 25cm in diameter. The flowers are very colourful and come in various sizes, shapes and forms.

At the Hibiscus Species Collection section of the garden, we saw hibiscus that are grown as 'single planting' ~ like a tree. Many a time our local hibiscus are grown in the form of hedge or border shrubs or screen. The 'single planting' hibiscus are rather tall, as can be seen in the photo below. I noticed that our local council, MPSJ, has recently started landscaping the dividers on our streets with such hibiscus.

Hibiscus can be planted from seeds or propagated vegetatively by stem cutting and marcot (aerial rooting).

An unusual pink hibiscus

A coral-coloured hibiscus

We saw some monkeys busy plucking fruits from a tree. When we were kids, we used to have this tree behind my parents home in Melaka. We simply called it 'cherry tree' as the fruits look like little red cherries. Birds love the fruits. Would anyone be able to tell me what is the right name for this tree?

Below is my best monkey shot so far!! This little fella just stared right into my lens and turned me into a happy photographer. I had a great time taking his shots. Oddly, the monkeys over here aren't afraid of humans at all! They were chasing and pulling each other, totally disregard our presence.

An uncommon white hibiscus.

I like this vibrant orange-coloured flowers that are climbing over the pergola. They are so attractive. Again, I don't know the name of it.

A huge hybrid hibiscus in white and pink. It was bigger than my palm.

Golden shower orchids hanging from the top of the pergola

Tumbergia Bengal hanging from the pergola

Beautiful structures in the Hibiscus Garden

Entrance to the Garden Gallery

Interestingly, I learnt from the gallery that hibiscus floral plan is always five. Thus, every hibiscus comes with 5 petals, 5 stigmatic lobes, a 5-celled ovary, 5 teeth each on the calyx and the epicalyx. However, multiple petals forms also exist.