Laman Hati

I was looking for other pictures to write a blog entry when I found these cattleya images. They were taken in February 2011. It must be one of those days that I managed to snap some pictures of my plants.

It has been a while since I fertilized my cattleya. I think the last time was in 2010. Sometimes I just didn’t have the time and chance to go out to the lawn to water them..sigh! Luckily most of the plants including cattleya are still alive and standing..huhu!

As you can see the new flowers of cattleya come from the new ‘pseudobulbs’. I’ve quoted about this in my previous entry – Cattleya Orchid.

Each year a dormant bud at the base grows into a new shoot. This thickens to produce the current year’s pseudobulb.

The flowers arise from the axil of the current year’s leaf where a protective sheath usually develops.

I will try to make time to fertilize the cattleya one of these days and see whether it will bloom again. As they say, some cattleya could flower twice yearly.

I found more info about this kemuning flower as I do some research to write this entry.

Apparently, it can be grown to form a hedge or topiary as shown in iGarden – Murraya paniculata.

It is also known as orange jessamine or mock orange in Hawaii. They say its strong and divine fragrant smell like orange blossoms (which I wouldn’t know because there’s no orange tree in Malaysia..huhu!)

Oh, it also has a bigger variant and a dwarf one. What I have at home is perhaps a dwarf one. A tall tree can grow up to 10-15 feet while the dwarf one to 2-4 feet.

This tropical plant originated from India to Malaysia (South East Asia).

And some claimed that they have successfully propagated the cuttings of this plant by putting the trimmings in potting soil (which I will try soon). Just imagine how fragrant my front porch will be when 3-4 pots of these lovely plants bloom altogether.

I’ve been waiting to write about this cempaka putih for so long. At last it blooms in March 2011 and I get to take a few pictures to share here.

I used to plant a pot of cempaka telur – Michelia Pumila or dwarf magnolia. But it doesn’t live long so I got another type of cempaka during Floria 2010. This time it’s a grafted plant of Michelia Alba which means it will bloom even though it’s small (not even 1 metre in height). I read somewhere that Michelia Alba or Magnolia Alba is a hybrid between Michelia Champaca (yellow orange flower) and Magnolia Montana.

Its name is in honor of Florentine botanist Pietro Antonio Micheli.

Another common name for it is white sandalwood. It is native to the Yunan province of China, grown for its exotic and beautifully fragrant flowers esteemed in China and around the world. Some say that the flower extract is one of the main ingredients for world’s most expensive perfume “Joy”.

From toptropicals.com,

Michelia alba has good antimicrobial properties, especially the leaves. It also has an antioxidant character with moderate effect.

It is also best to note the many names of this Michelia Alba in different language : White Champak, Pak-Lan, Banana Shrub, Cempaka Putih, Bai Yu Lan ( white-jade flower), Bai Yu Lan, Safa.

For my future reference, here is the link for article about Tropical Magnolias.

I hope my Michelia Alba will last long this time. Maybe I need to re-assign its spot to a place where it can get more full sun to make it blooms all year round. I will do that next time I do my gardening and see whether it makes any difference.

Note: Another great entry about Michelia Alba – The Kings of Fragrant Plants.

I think the last time I wrote about my Gardenia was in December. Luckily this time in February, a new flower has bloomed.

The gardenia or as some call it Cape Jasmine is such a fragrant flower. However it doesn’t last very long. For those who like to read about the botanical aspect of it, please read my first entry here – Gardenia-Bunga Cina.

It seems that I still can’t understand the temperament of the Cape Jasmine I have. The buds you see in the picture, most of them didn’t manage to bloom.

I hope I get to see some, or at least one flower for the month of March. I really have to check the fertilizer for azalea as suggested for gardenia. For now I have been spraying the Gardenia plant on weekly basis with seaweed based fertilizer I bought during MAHA 2010.

I’ve had this plant for quite a long time. The first cutting was taken on a trip to Cameron Highlands in 2004.

When we moved to our current home, the wedelia cutting I brought with us didn’t last long. Luckily SIL grew some at her place.

The one in the picture below was planted on the ground where the soil is not suitable for pearl grass as the area retains too much water from rain and bad drainage. I’ve tried planting pearl and cow grass at that area twice and failed miserably.

Some of the useful info I found on the Internet taken from sptimes.com.

Scientific name: Wedelia trilobata.

Common names: Wedelia, yellow dots, rabbit’s paw, trailing daisy, creeping ox-eye.

The details: Native to northern South America and the West Indies. Dark-green leaves, daisylike yellow flowers year-round. It spreads rapidly as a ground cover and also does well in hanging baskets.

What it likes: Full sun or partial shade. Thrives in moist, but not soggy, areas as well as dry areas with poor soil. Fairly salt resistant.

Good to know: In some cultures wedelia is used to treat hepatitis and infections and to clear the placenta after birth.

Oh, if you noticed, the wedelia are planted among golden pothos vine.

Every time I prune my pothos, I just stick the cuttings back into the ground, and somehow they grow and live happily there. At least I don’t have to worry about the drenched soil at that area especially after a heavy rain.

I didn’t realize that the last time I wrote about the kemuning plant I have was in 2007..pheww..it has been 4 years and I can’t even remember whether the one I have now is still the same plant or I have bought a new one..sigh!

Well, for those who would like to read about the first entry on Kemuning, you can check the link here : Kemuning- Murraya paniculata.

Ever since I moved the current pot of plant to a sunny spot, it has been flowering quite often. Of course whenever I spray with water or when it rains heavily, most of the flowers will fall down. So whenever the Kemuning plant is in the flowering phase, I always try my best to water it gently.

Oh, I’ve read in one of the Indonesian blogs about Kemuning. It says that the leaves could be pounded with few other herbal ingredients, add on water and strained. It is effective as slimming drink. I don’t think I will try but it’s good to know that the leaves and other parts of the Kemuning plant are safe to be consumed and not poisonous.

It has been raining most of the time this December, and I have not been able to do much gardening due to busy daily routine as a mother to an active toddler.

So when the gardenia keeps on blooming, it really makes my day to see the lovely white petals. I like it best when it is not fully bloomed like one in this picture. If only I could pick and preserve it the way it is (well, that’s the use of camera, isn’t it, even if it is only able to capture in picture..heh!)

I was at SIL’s house when I noticed that her neighbor has a very healthy and blooming bush of gardenia at the front lawn. Maybe I should try planting my gardenia on landed soil rather than in a pot. Anyone with experience care to share?

I think what I have here is Gardenia jasminoides. It also known as Cape Jasmine or Cape Jessamine, derived from the earlier belief that the flower originated in Cape of Good Hope, South Africa. Malays call this flower as bunga cina.

Gardenia jasminoides is a shrub with greyish bark and dark green shiny leaves with prominent veins. The white flowers bloom in spring and summer and are highly fragrant. They are followed by small oval fruit.

I have been waiting for it to bloom again after her last bloom in 2007. There were many times that I’ve seen buds coming out but none manage to make it to bloom until last week. I’ve read somewhere that “bud drop” is the common problem with gardenia.

The most irritating problem encountered with gardenias is “bud drop,”when flower buds abort just before blooming. Common causes include low humidity, over-watering, under-watering, insufficient light high temperatures, rapid temperature fluctuations, cold drafts or change in plant locations. In other words, gardenias are temperamental!

From Gardenia Plant Care,

A fertilizer designed for azaleas will also fill the nutritional requirements of your gardenias. Be sure to prune older gardenia stems right after the flowers stop blooming. This encourages new growth as well as more frequent blooming.

This was the first gardenia that bloomed last week. I was too busy to take picture and when I managed to find the time, it was withering away. Hopefully more buds will coming out soon. Next time when I go to ACE hardware, I will check for azalea fertilizer.

I am linking up the fact sheet about Gardenia care from University of Rhode Island Landscape Horticulture Program in case I need to read about common problems in planting gardenia in the future.