July Plant Roundup

July was an interesting month for my garden. It's the rainy season, so everything's a little greener. I also had to adjust the placement of some plants because it gets very windy when there's a typhoon.

Some plants still continued to bloom even with the weird weather -

We harvested some bell peppers and cherry tomatoes -

And I still managed to grow some new plants from seed -

Curry

A variety of orange

I hope to harvest some mustasa to make our favorite dish soon!

#BeKind #StaySafe

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

Should I Collect Pink Plants?

I didn't have that many plants before, but my Mom kept sneaking in some plants in our house. The number exponentially grew when we had to rescue her plants from my childhood home.

My Mom loved flowering (especially orchids) and ornamental plants. Years ago she brought a pot with aglaonema and two other plants. It grew and I eventually repotted them individually. The aglaonema was much more charming when it grew. 

This is where it started back in 2022:

And what it looks like now (there's a few more posts):

The desert rose plants we rescued from Mom's garden have been blooming a lot. So far all are a dark shades of pink (more fuschia).

The bougainvillea cuttings I propagated have been producing dark pink leaves.

I also love this bi-color caladium. They're growing so big and beautiful!

The Calathea plant I bought from a neighbor has pink streaks. It also grew so big!

Let's not forget my beautiful pink Gumamela.

And Mom's Buddha belly plant that produces pinkish Orange flowers consistently.

I have a few more which I got from Ikea and a garden nursery, but I'm still trying to keep them alive, haha.

Should I make a pink plant collection?

#BeKind #StaySafe

Gumamela Cuttings from my 4th Grade Teacher

Just thought I'd make this post to thank my fourth grade Filipino teacher, Mrs. Orenza, for the beautiful gumamela cuttings she sent me yesterday. I appreciate it when my friends post beautiful flowers on their timeline. I commented on Mrs. O's post where she shared her beautiful white gumamela Flowers. I told her I didn't have any white ones yet. 

After awhile she messaged me and said she'll send me some cuttings. I was so shy to accept it at first, but I can never say no to plants. The cuttings were sent to me in less than an hour. I dipped the cuttings first in rooting hormone. 

After watering the plants in the garden, I worked on potting the cuttings. It took awhile before I finished since there were 5 cuttings. I wanted to make sure I mixed the soil correctly. I'm aiming to successfully encourage the cuttings to grow roots. Some of the cuttings had flowers. I'm not sure if I should remove them so the cutting can focus on growing roots. Hmm, I'll research more about it. 

Thank you again Mrs. O! I'm going to watch the cuttings like a hawk to ensure they all propagate properly!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Sunday Family Day

We love Sundays. It's usually a laid back day where we sleep in and try to be bored. We're retired, but we do get busy during the week. There's actually so much to do at home and the chores are never-ending. So, Sunday is fun day. We rarely go out on Sunday's since it's usually crowded outside, so we do our lakwatsa on odd weekdays. 

We stayed in today even though there's a Pokemon community day. We've been catching sprigatitto for years now, so we just caught whatever spawned within our perimeter. I woke up at noon and thought about cooking some pasta. There's a can of crushed tomatoes that need to be used, so that's what I did after eating breakfast (yup, breakfast at noon). I also got to watch some parts of ASAP. 

And here's the recipe of this yummy pink pasta (just use rigatoni instead of spaghetti noodles):

After cooking, I got busy watering the plants. I played with the cats in between since they usually lay on my feet while I'm going around the garden. It was Grogu who stayed with me the whole time I was watering in the pocket garden. He's such a sweetheart and never fails to rub on my legs everyday. After having a snack, I then proceeded to water the plants in the garage area.

I super love the desert rose (kalachuchi) flowers. It started blooming last week. I had no idea it would be fuschia since I just picked it up from my Mom's garden to resuscitate. I'm glad I researched what soil mixture to use and it worked. Hopefully it will continue blooming even though Anakin keeps using the pot to sleep in! 

The gumamela plant also sprouted a nice yellow and pink flower. I learned that gumamela plants are always hungry for fertilizer in order for it to bloom continuously. I'm working up the energy to re-pot them since they've grown so big already. I'm trying to propagate some too. I hope it works since my first two propagation batches failed. Try and try until you succeed!

I went crazy yesterday and ironed quite a lot of clothes, so I'm just chilling for the rest of the day. I'll visit the cats again after dinner to see what they're up to. I might try also the treat toy I saw on IG. I need to make them move more since they are getting chonkier, haha. 

Happy Sunday everyone!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Cat Patrol and Gumamela Flowers

We had a busy afternoon today. It's always good to spend a few hours outside. We were not able to do it everyday now because of the rain. I puttered around the garden and gave some sundried coffee grinds to the gumamela plants. I was surprised to see another flower today. It looked a bit forlorn, but still very beautiful. I probably need to move them to bigger pots and make sure to provide fertilizer consistently. 

Of course, the afternoon won't be complete without spending time with the cats. They are quite a handful now and we try to give each one of the equal playtime. Meredith has been picky with food again, so we've been giving her broth. Brimsley's the same, she doesn't eat every so often. The vet said to bring them in if they become inactive. So far all our cats are active, so we're just observing for now. 

Pikachu took over cat patrol today. She was so cute hanging out on the wall. She would look left to right as if looking for intruders, haha. She's one of our most vocal cats and always meows whenever we're around. Truly a cutey.

Happy Monday 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

Happy Bulbs

I was having a horrid day the other day due to headache suppliers. To break the bleak time I was having I went outside to water the plants. It's a good thing to spend time with plants when you're in a bad mood. My mood started to light up after watering the bamboo in our back garden. 

I always check the status of my plants. I watch out for pests and other issues. I've been giving the gumamela (hibiscus) plants extra TLC since the year started. I added soil and compost. I also fortified it to prevent cats from using it as a toilet. I guess it liked the add ons because it started to grow more leaves. I nipped new leaves as instructed by the manang at Mahogany (in Tagaytay). 

I was so happy to see bulbs growing on the gumamela plants. I recently gave it some rice water and it likes it. I just need to be careful since sometimes it attracts pests. I spray them with neem oil once a week to keep aphids away. If we're able to water the plants properly in the morning, all the bulbs will eventually open. It's been so hot though, so we'll see. 

Gumamela plants also like coffee grinds. I've been giving them a little every few weeks. I usually collect a weeks worth of used coffee grinds (and tea leaves) and then I leave it under the sun for a week. I use an old baking pan so it would completely dry. The berry bush I have out front also likes coffee grinds. Aside from providing nutrients it also wards off cats (they don't like the smell of coffee). It's also a great way to re-use coffee grinds. No need to throw them away. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Removing Powdery Mildew from Gumamela Plants

The gumamela plants I bought in Tagaytay produced a lot of flowers within a month. Then I noticed that the flowers started falling off even before they bloomed. I noticed some powdery mildew on it and sprayed neem oil* on the plant. It worked, but it did not resolve the issue. The lady bugs** I found on the gumamela plant were not enough to solve the issue too.

After two weeks of spraying neem oil every few days, I looked for another solution. I read it's better to spray apple cider vinegar*** onto the stems of the plant. Luckily, I had some apple cider vinegar so that's what I did the past ten days. I sprayed the stems every few days. I also checked the leaves for any fungus on it (always wear gloves when working with plants!). 

It looks like it worked because I don't see that much powdery mildew anymore on the plants. I also removed infected leaves and flowers. I noticed the gumamela plant  growing flowers again too. Whew! I'm really bent on making sure the set of plants I got from Tagaytay live because I already failed in it ten years ago. 

Learning how to tend to your plants is easier nowadays because you can search for anything on the web. You can also simply take a photo of the issue and use image search to find an answer. Plus you can also join groups to learn from others. 

I always wondered how my Mom knew so much about gardening. She had very few books and she didn't like going online. I realized she knew her plants well because she spent a lot of time with them. That's how she's been able to keep her garden beautiful.

*Neem oil spray - neem oil + castille soap + baking soda + water in a spray bottle

**Lady bugs - they were probably in the plant already when I bought it

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