Looks like this past year has been filled with many trips away from my beloved plants. And this coming year doesn’t look very different either. I’m in Melbourne at the moment and will be going to Silicon Valley soon too.

My gardenias still aren’t looking very good, but at least the frangipanis are looking good. The cutting has got a tonne of leaves and probably grew at least 10 cm of stalk along with it. The seedlings are now leafing like mad too. I have to start thinking about giving them as much sunlight as my balcony allows. I’ll start them over winter, when I’m back in Perth and when the sun isn’t so harsh.

I killed off the momoko tomatoes and hollyhock because I just don’t have the time to give them proper care. I think I may have mentioned this before.

In the mean time, I thought I’d try out this new fangled puzzle of one of my plant photos.

Create your own puzzles at PuzzleBee.com!

Some days I wonder if I should be gardening at all. Things on the balcony are a mix between good and bad.

2 more gardenia plants look like they’ve given up the ghost. All the leaves went brown before drying up and now they look like sticks. The remaining 2 gardenia plants that actually have leaves on them look like they’re struggling. New growth looks small, and the leaves further down the stem have dropped. I did manage to get it to give me one little sickly looking flower though, which made my week!

I thought it could be too alkaline, so I started giving it a handful of coffee every couple of weeks and watering it with water mix with a splash of apple cider vinegar. I only started doing this recently, so it’s going to take a while before I see if it’s helping.

The calla lilies never bloomed for me. At least not yet. They’re probably not too happy about being eaten by fungus gnats. Which I think are still around, but in less quantity.

I burned the leaves of the orchids. They were also suffering from not enough water, so I switched orchid potting mix to one that had finer bark pieces that looked like they would hold more water. I think that did the trick because I haven’t seen any new burns on the leaves. A few also looked like they were shooting up new bulbs.

The frangipani I bought is leafing like crazy. The fungus problem it had in the soil looks like it’s under control. I watered it with an acidic solution and it looks to have done the trick. No flowers or inflo yet, but I still have hope.

The frangipani seedlings are doing well too. They’re all leafing nicely and growing happily in their green house.

The red asiatic lilies are dying down now. I think they’re new bulbs so I’m going to dig them up and split them if required.

I’ve decided to do as much re-potting as possible when the time comes. I’m thinking that the potting mix I bought from this one particular store wasn’t pasteurised and that’s where the gnats came from. So I’m going to try to change as much of them over as possible.

I’m still spraying with pyrethrum regularly to keep populations down, but I don’t really want to do that forever.

All in all, I don’t think I’m doing too badly, but the gardenia thing is really getting me down. They were my pride and joy and I love them too much to give up just yet!

I’ve finished bidding on the cymbidium orchids on ebay.com.au. I won the 4 I had set my eyes on and now I’m very eager to get my hands on them.

They’re being sent bare rooted and so my research began on how to pot them up. I figured they’ll be a little dry when I receive them and if they’re anything like bare rooted roses, I’ll have to soak them overnight before I planted them.

Based on a good article on how to pot up bare rooted orchids from Vivi’s orchid corner, my plan of action will be:

1. Prepare some soaking solution by adding a few added drops of rooting hormone and dilute orchid fertiliser to water.
2. Soak the orchids roots in the soaking solution for a few minutes, then dunk the leaves in it too.
3. Wet some sphagnum moss with the wetting solution and place in a plastic zip lock bag and put one of the orchids in them. Repeat this step for each bare rooted orchid.
4. Sit the zip lock bag upright in a position with bright light with protection from wind (the greenhouse).
5. Once new growth appears, pot up in orchid potting mix (which I’ll have to buy).

I’ve read that one can soak in a soaking solution of sugar and fertiliser, but I’m not so convinced of this, I would think the incidence of fungus would be greatly increased.

The short version today:

Finally re-potted the Calathea and Cordyline from home. Will be bringing them to the office tomorrow to add to the office collection of plants… which is growing… rapidly… oh dear!

I don’t know how it happened, but I’ve gone mad for Cymbidium orchids too. Bought one from Bunnings earlier this week and have bid on 3 others on ebay.com.au! Ah! Where to put these things?! But they’re so pretty… how could I resist?

I have a white Cym right now and the ones I bid on are green, yellow and pink. I want to add a brown to the collection, then I should stop. Not that I want to stop, I just should! The only down side is that it’s going to take a couple of years before I see flowers and that’s only if I give them the right conditions.

Here’s a sample photo of the colours of the Cymbidiums I want in my collection:

The seedlings are doing well. It looks like the frangipani seeds are germinating now, their wings are starting to lift off the soil and some are leaning to the side. The lavender and candytuft also look pretty decent and growing happily.

I need to get trimming on the tomato plants. I think there are too many leaves so I’m going to take to the lateral shoots soon. I would do it tonight, but it’s been rather cold, and I’m too comfy under the blanket. It’s also been a very wet week, rain every day, good for the plants and the water level in the dams, but not very conducive to spending too much time on the balcony.

I’m spending more time reading gardening articles and trying to find some winter flowering plants that’s compatible with the gardenias than actually doing any gardening.

Which reminds me, I found an interesting little water saving device, Dripstick.com.au, it’s a drip watering system that looks decent and looks like it’s affordable. On ebay.com.au, it’s selling for $24.95 with $9.50 shipping. If I ever go away for an extended time again, I’ll get a few of those for the gardenias.

You know winter is well and truly set in when the asiatic lily is fading and the frangipani leaves are dropping.

The seedlings in the greenhouse propagation tray seem to be doing well. Lots of lavender seedlings popping up…

and even the candytuft seedlings are coming along…

The tomato plants are growing like weeds but a lot of the lower leaves are starting to turn yellow. I’m not sure if that’s just the natural progression of the plant or if it’s not getting enough light since it’s winter. They get about 4 hours of direct sun and bright filtered light otherwise. The fruits are getting rather large now (well, large for cherry tomatoes) are starting to change colour.

Funny how I’ve had a couple of dreams lately about bright red cherry tomatoes on my cherry tomato plants. In my dreams, they tasted awesome. That would be a nice treat if my tomatoes turn out tasty!

I can’t believe I forgot to blog about the whole seed planting thing. I added the frangipani photo gallery and forgot to actually blog about the planting of them.

Anyway, so I planted a bunch of seeds last weekend, 20 frangipani seeds, a heap of lavender and 10 or so perennial candytuft. I’m keeping them moist but not wet by watering every 2-3 days with a 10 mL syringe.

I know it’s been less than a week, but the first seeds are starting to show some…. progress.

The first of the lavender seeds has germinated.

The candytuft seeds are… hairy? I have no idea why, I’m hoping it’s not fungus! Anyway, one or two of them looks like showing the first signs of roots, but they’re so small that I couldn’t get a good photo. This is a photo of the hairy seed.

The last thing I did was to try and fix the Moses in the cradle. I pretty much cut it back so it’s more compact again, and I stuck the cut bits back into the pot. I hope that works! If it doesn’t, the little bastard’s going in the tip ;o)

I was away longer than expected and didn’t have much time to write. I’m back now and I’m glad to be able to spend some time on the balcony with the plants.

The biggest news is that the tomato plants are flowering and fruiting up a storm. Even though it’s pretty much winter here and night temperatures are getting down to 9°C, the tomato plants have got some green tomatoes on them. Can’t wait to taste the first one that ripens!

Picture time…

The saddest news is that most of the lavender seedlings didn’t survive. There’s only one seedling out of 8 that looks like it’s going to live, the rest of them are either dead or dying. I’ve already planted new seeds and hope these ones will yield at least 2 more viable plants.

My frangipani is another worry. I bought it in mid March 2007 and re-potted it. I thought I’m doing everything right by this tree, but it’s not growing any new leaves. Mind you, it is quite cool now and the frangipani might be dormant, but then again it hasn’t dropped its leaves, but then again it’s only early winter here. Argh! I should stop obsessing over it. The leaves it has are green and I’m sure when spring comes around, it’ll be ready to show me some new growth.

When you have a small balcony garden, nothing much happens most of the time. At the moment, the only thing worth mentioning are the gardenias, which are blooming left right and center despite the rather wet, rainy and windy weather we’re having.

I didn’t have time to take any new photos of the little darlings, so it’ll have to wait til tomorrow. It looks like I’ve done right by these gardenias this time around and they’re rather happy at the moment. I love heading out there in more morning and taking a quick whiff of their heavenly scent.

I’m heading away for 2 weeks on Sunday. I’m quite anxious about leaving the plants (they’re the equivalent of family pets to me). I think the gardenias will be ok with the late autumn rain we’re having and I’ve got some gel spike thingies from Bunnings for the tomato plants. The frangipani should also survive on mother nature’s rain, it’s pretty dormant at the moment so I’m not too worried about it. I had to stake it the other night because it got too windy outside and the cutting started to lean unfavourably.

My only concern is the lavender seedlings. They need constant care at the moment and watering every 2-3 days. My dad has volunteered himself to take care of them while we’re away, he’s probably the best person I know to look after them. I just have to remember that good old saying, “Plants die, get over it”. It’s not like I don’t have another 92 lavender seeds
left to germinate if these ones don’t make it.

Can’t wait til I come back, there’s a lot I want to do, but I’ll save that for tomorrows rantings and ravings.

Took me a while to get it sorted, but the first galleries of plant photos are up.

We have the gardenia photo gallery, the Asiatic lily photo gallery and the cherry tomato gallery. More photos will be added to these galleries as my plants grow. More galleries will be added as well, can’t wait until the frangipani starts flowering (if it ever grows!).

Thanks again to Thomas Boley who wrote the fantastic gallery plugin that I use, and thanks to Marek Malcherek who wrote the equally brilliant watermark plugin.