A Gift of Seeds

Ho..ho..ho..Christmas came early for me this year! I was surprised by a big mail from Maryland, USA when I went over to my old address to collect my mails. The package came from Wendy of Greenish Thumb blog.

Wendy celebrated her blog's 1st Anniversary by organising a Seeds Giveaway for the first 25 persons who e-mailed to her for seeds. I was one of the fortunate ones that responded and received this gift from her. Thank you very much Wendy for your kind generosity to share the seeds that you and your Dad had collected!

There are 24 packages of seeds all together! Your generosity moved me, Wendy!

The seeds were all beautifully packed in individual parchment paper envelope that allows us to see the seeds. Each seed name is hand-written on the envelope. I can imagine the thoughts, effort and time put into preparing these beautiful gifts for all of us.

Some seeds even came in this professionally designed matchbox. How creative! She got the idea from Martha Stewart. If any of you are keen to learn how to create this beautiful packaging for your plant seeds, please visit Wendy's posting here.

Thank you Wendy for these wonderful gift!
Wishing you a Happy 1st Anniversary to your blog, Greenish Thumb and may you celebrate many more anniversaries in years to come!

How Is My Garden Growing?

With spring onions here and there....


Blooming Thai basils everywhere...snip, snip....gotta keep the flowers away so that the plants can live on.


Marigold is over 3 feet tall and giving me blooms!! Yahoo! I now have yellow and orange Marigolds. Sorry didn't take any shot of the Yellow Marigold.


Gardenia buds showing


but.....they never did bloom...


until I see this sweet smelling white blossom that made my heart skipped with delight!

Selamat Hari Raya

Wishing all Muslims Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri.
May you have a blessed and joyous celebration with family & friends.

Easy to Care

I love seeing constant blooms in my garden. However many profusely blooming plants that I like, e.g. petunia, zinnia, impatiens are annuals that will need replacements after they grow, bloom, produced seeds and wilted. I try to grow blooming annuals such as Costus and Birds of Paradise. These plants produce blooms constantly and they are tough plants that can sustain hot weather and occasional lack of watering.

I have 3 pots of Costus in my garden. One of the plants have over 9 blooms now. It is a beautiful plant to have as the inflorescence really brighten up my garden. Each bloom can last for a loooong time (over a month). The inflorescence will turn brown over time and I just snip the stalk off to allow space for newer stems to grow. The inflorescence is tough and rainfall does not affect its blooms.

As seen in the photos here, the red, vibrant inflorescence is a spectacular bloom. The long red inflorescence is complimented with bright yellow tubular flowers.

My Costus is fertilized with goat dung manure on a monthly basis. That, I believe, ensure regular blooms are being produced by the plant. When the weather is too hot, the leaves will curled up by afternoon. However, the thick leaves are able to sustain 2-3 days of no-watering in current hot weather. That is another reason that I love this plant. At times, when we are away from home, not being able to care for my plants kept me worrying. It is most worrying in the current hot spell season. Usually I will water this plant once in the morning. These days, watering twice a day is the practice.

I would certainly recommend this plant to anyone who loves regular spectacular blooms in their garden. This plant is also easy to care for any new gardening enthusiast!