Desert Rose 7 Months After Being Rescued

I started rescuing my Mom's plants last year. It's been a long, slow process since all her plants need to be re-potted. I re-potted two desert rose plants (Kalachuchi) last October. I placed both pots in our tiny square garden. It's a very sunny spot which the plant loves. The plant also gets some rain water when it rains. 

I was ecstatic when the plant started growing new leaves. It was a sign of recovery and by January it started blooming flowers. I was so happy since it was just two months since I re-potted them. Here's how they looked -

January 2025 vs. October 2024

October 2024 vs. January 2025

Both pots kept on producing flowers. It was a happy sight since I liked the color. The plants also have healthy green leaves and continue to grow. I'm keeping them in pots for now and will transplant to soil eventually. 

May 2025

One thing I realized is like hibiscus (gumamela), desert rose plants need to be fed with compost every few weeks. I have placed a reminder on my calendar so I don't forget. Notice the beautiful color of the flower and leaves. I took this photo the other day after I added compost to the soil early this month. 

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Our Square Garden

We had a tiny garden across our pedestrian gate. It used to have a couple of plants and bamboo when we moved in a few years ago. The plants though died and the bamboo attracted insects. The cats also used the area as their toilet. Not good especially since it's the first thing you see when you enter our gate.

Anakin fell from the garage roof, he thought he could get down through the bamboo. We were on the other end of the house when we saw it happen. We ran to check on him. He was fine, he meowed and ran away after we checked if he had anything broken.

We decided then and there to remove the bamboo and fix the area. We got stepping stone tiles to cover the soil and placed sun loving plants. I placed flowering plants so it looks pretty. I got busy today re-potting the santan plants. I like that the tiny garden is a bit more organized now. I will also love the mango and fig tree there sometime this week. 

We also rearranged the philodendron row to make space for plants from Mom's garden. I also need to trim them and I need to re-pot the aglaonema since they've grown too. Lots to do in the garden, but have to take it slow so I don't get sick.

Happy Monday everyone!

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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!

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Buddha Belly, Desert Rose and Caladium Bicolor

I'm on a roll After realizing that the plants from Mom's garden were essentially succulents, I decided to immediately re-pot them today. I had been watering them like crazy and realized they might die without proper care.

I was pleasantly surprised with what I got. One of the plants is commonly known as Buddha Belly (Jatropha podagrica). I'm not sure if it's a common succulent, but I was happy to see it had flowers when I saw it in my Mom's garden. It's a beautiful plant and I hope it will bounce back after I've given it some TLC.

Another plant that caught my eye is a caladium or more known as the Heart of Jesus. It wasn't in peril, but I liked the color. It will also remind me of my Mom whenever I see it. 

Last plant I got were two pots of desert rose or commonly known as kalachuchi. I remember Mom didn't like it before because of the smell of the flowers. I'm not sure why there were two in her garden. They both badly needed TLC, so I re-potted them in big pots. Hopefully they recover.

I never thought I'd enjoy gardening this much. It's a lot of work, but it's also a great way to know my Mom more with the plants she kept. She always told me she didn't like cacti and succulents, but most of those I re-potted the past two days are succulents. She probably had a change of heart since they are flowering plants. I'm also enjoy figuring out what the plants are and researching how best to care for them. 

I hope I'll be able to save the plants. There's a gazillion more!

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