New Flowering Plants

When we went to Mahogany Market last week, I couldn't help but buy a couple of plants. I still have a gazillion from Mom's garden to re-pot, but I wanted to get a few plants to help ward off pests. I tried growing marigold plants from seed, but it didn't work out. A neighbor said she also tried to grow them from seed and it also didn't work out. So, I bought a couple from Mahogany Market.

I re-potted them the day after because the condition of the plastic pots were circumspect (it weirdly had rice on it?). I placed them in the shade for a few days and moved them under the sun over the weekend. The most prolific one is the yellow marigold plant because I put it beside the tomatoes which get a lot more sunlight. I'll move the others this weekend so they can produce more flowers. 

I also got additional gumamela (hibiscus) plants. I got several colors so I can have more flowers in my garden. I absolutely love gumamela, they bring back happy childhood memories. One of them gave a beautiful yellow bloom. They also absolutely love the sun and I have to find a sunny spot for them. The ones I got 3 years ago are still alive (save for one). I hope they'll give me some flowers soon. 

I need to add more flowers in our garden to encourage more pollinators to visit. There are two large bees so far helping pollinate our tomato and bell pepper plants. We hope to encourage more to come and visit. 

Happy gardening everyone!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Bone Meal for Gumamela

My gumamela plants were not flowering again. I did some research and found out they like bone meal. My plants needed a top up of soil so I made soil mix with loam soil, compost, rice hull and bone meal.

And... Tada!

One of my plants had a lot of buds before the typhoon. Some survived and I noticed one blossomed today. Too bad it was already evening when I noticed it.

Anyway, you just need a tablespoon of bone meal for every gallon of soil. I realized we eat a lot of chicken and thought maybe I could just make it. Unfortunately, you need to boil it for 12 hours! Maybe a pressure cooker can make it shorter, but I don't have one so I'll just buy when needed.

#BeKind #StaySafe

Bought Some Gumamela Plants from Mahogany Market

When I saw the gumamela (hibiscus) plants at Mahogany Market, it elicited happy childhood memories. Mom had it in her garden when I was growing up. I used to get flowers from it to make bubbles. I asked my Malaysian friend if they would grind some gumamela flowers, add water and detergent to make bubbles (and use alambre to blow bubbles with). He had no idea what gumamela was used for since they probably had ready made bubble juice in his generation. #signsofoldage

I had no plans to buy flowers when we went to Mahogany Market. I ended up getting four pots of gumamela on a whim. Aside from Mom having gumamela in her garden, I remember we had them in school too. It used to be very common also in our village. I don't see it often nowadays and probably plant collectors don't see much value in them. It's valuable to me because it brings back happy memories. 

To be honest, it took awhile to figure out how much water the plant needed. I read it liked its soil to be moist. The plants shed leaves and the flowers soon died after they opened. I immediately read more about hibiscus care and figured out it probably needed more water. I checked the soil in the afternoons to see if it was dry. It was, so I experimented for a few days to see how much water it needed. 

The plants have been with me for a month now. They look healthy. I've started to remove new leaves as instructed by Manang Lydia. She said I should do this to encourage the plant to grow more flowers. Since they re-potted the plants already, I will probably add some fertilizer by month end. That's one thing hibiscus plants need according to my research. 

I hope the plants last long with me. My plan is to also see if I can propagate it so I can give some to my friends.  :)

#BeKind #StaySafe