So this post is totally not related to balcony flowers, gardening or the such, but still…

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Things have been hectic with work lately, hence the lack of updates. I was also discouraged with the fungus gnat invasion. I don’t even know if anything is under control at the moment since I only got back a couple of days ago from yet another trip to America.

My dad was kind enough to take care of my plants again. Bless him.

So… from what I can tell, the gardenias are not doing well. Four of the six plants are leafless and it’s summer! I blame the painters for throwing over those heavy canvas blankets over them and depriving them of sun completely for who knows how long. It could also be over fertilising, I may have been giving too much “love” to my beloved gardenias. Now they look sick.

I got a couple of surprises when I walked out onto my balcony. Firstly, it was a mess! That’s what happens when it gets neglected for a month. Seriously though, a big surprise was the frangipani giving me new leaves! I was seriously worried it wasn’t going to sprout because I somehow neglected it or something, but it’s looking very nice.

Another surprise is one of my succulents giving me some kinda flowers! The firesticks are certainly looking very fire-stickish!

There is a third surprise, but I’m not sure if this is a good one or not! On the soil surface of the frangipani and the moses in a cradle (which is now looking very awesome and thriving! Pics to come…) is some strange yellow growth. I’m guessing is fungus growth of some sort.

Not sure what to do with it. It doesn’t look like it’s hurting the plants, but it’s creeping me out at the same time. I read that fungus doesn’t like a sudden change in pH and that mixing in some coffee grounds into the top layer of soil may get rid of it.

Here’s what the greenhouse looks like. It’s not in its final position but it’s already looking good. The frangipani, okra, tomato and hollyhock seedlings are inside and there’s plenty of room to add more.

Speaking of okra, tomato and hollyhock seeds, I really need to pot them up very soon. Their roots, especially the tomato seedlings, are showing through the jiffy pellet.

I don’t think I mentioned this before, but I re-potted the succulents again. They’re in a plastic black bowl all grouped together and looking nice. I’ll show a before and after:

Before…

After…

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:

So I made yet another trip to Bunnings. I gotta stop going there, I’m always finding stuff I want to buy and try to do.

Anyway, so I went there to get some jiffy pellets in preparation to plant some seeds. I had received the okra and dwarf hollyhock seeds from an Oztion auction (still no signs of the Garden Express order!) and wanted to start the hollyhock since it can take up to 4 weeks to germinate. I’ll probably start the tomato and okra seeds in a couple of week’s time.

As always, I took a walk through the plants section and found some pretty succulents I’d like to plant into a couple of tin cans. I’m getting crafty here and making my own pots out of recycled containers. I’m also going to paint a couple of terracotta pots to match my collection of dark coloured pots, but that’s another story.

The succulents I chose were:

• Echeveria pulvinata
• Echeveria runyonii “Topsy Turvy”
• Echeveria Blue Curl
• Some unnamed succulent

Now I need to find some gravel and coarse sand to increase the drainage before I plant the succulents in their new pots.

I’ve decided to give up my Asiatic lilies. Yup, that’s right, the Enchantment variety is going to be donated to someone, but I just don’t know who yet!

In it’s place, I’m going to have the America variety, it’s the darkest maroon Asiatic lily on the market. I’ve placed an order with Garden Express to get 3 America Asiatic lilies as well as 3 Hot Chocolate Calla lilies. This way, I will have a lovely border of dark green and white gardenias and pots of dark purple and maroon bulbs of lilies, callas and tulips. Oh yeah, and a dark red frangipani, if it ever grows!

I also got another light, pH and water meter from Garden Express, and some pot holders to lift the bulb pots off the ground.

I spent last night making the tomato stake lattice. It’s looking ok, a little strange with bright red string, but it’s working as I hoped it would. Here’s what the north wall looks like:

Nice and neat. I’m going to have to find a way of securing down the lattice before there are any significant winds. I also should design a way to protect the tomatoes from strong winds should it come up again.

I got mystery plants! When my grandmother passed away and we had her funeral, part of the ceremony involved her offspring receiving little packets of rice and beans that we were to scatter in our garden. Since I don’t really have a garden, I scattered them in my indoors and outdoor pots and the beans from the indoor pots have sprouted into some sort of plant. I have no idea what it is, but I potted them up into their own pot and fetched one more seed from another pot so I’d have 3 of these mystery plants.

Another beautiful sunny winter’s day. I managed to spend an hour or so outside on the balcony finishing up some of the jobs I desperately wanted to do.

I went back to the store to get another 2 glazed pots in the same style and colour of the one I bought yesterday. As they say, everything looks better in uneven numbers.

So with the new glazed pots, I potted up the tulip bulbs and the lilium bulbs. Finally! They really should have been done a couple of months ago, but oh well, everything rarely goes according to plan with me.

The rest of the plants and their soil have also been treated with pyrethrum, so I hope this will bring down the numbers of fungus gnats quite drastically. I had also bought a big plastic tub to store all the spare soil, mulch and fertilisers as a quarantine method. This is really a temporary solution as I’m still looking to purchase a mini-shed or storage locker to properly store these things. Eventually, I’d like to control the fungus gnat population with some of those parasitic nematodes, so I better start looking for them soon.

The last of the capsules of the frangipani seedlings have been removed. Out of 20 seeds, 12 have germinated. How many will ultimately survive is anyone’s guess at the moment. The biggest downer is that I only have one Firestorm seedling, so I’m going to baby that one. The other varieties (Brittany, Lurline and some mystery frangis) have 3-4 seedlings so you could say I have “spares”.

Yay, managed to get a bit of gardening done in today’s gorgeous winter sunshine.

I bought some more potting mix, a couple of indoor plastic pots, a glazed pot for the tulips, some longer garden stakes for the tomatoes and some pyrethrum concentrate. Yup, decided I couldn’t wait any longer while trying to find more organic means of controlling those pesky fungus gnats.

I managed to treat the indoor plants and seedlings with the pyrethrum, but spent a little too much time at work (yes, I work on the weekends too, such is life) so didn’t get a chance to do the outdoor plants as well.

I plan to make a lattice out of the bamboo stakes I bought today and have it up against the north facing wall on the balcony for the current and future tomato plants.

I started the process of planting the tulip bulbs I received recently. I managed to get the soil mixed and into the pot then decided to treat the soil with pyrethrum before planting the bulbs in it. Tomorrow’s going to be a lovely, sunny day again, so I’m going to spend a bit more time on the balcony finishing these jobs.

This weekend’s weather doesn’t look good, rain and thunderstorms with more rain next week.

I did manage to get outside on the balcony to take a look at the tomato plants. I trimmed off a lot of the leaves and now it looks naked. The frangipani also only has 3 leaves left, that looks naked too!

A couple of days ago, I started to collect tomato seeds of a Japanese variety called Mokomo. I had bought a punnet from the supermarket and it tasted really good so I wanted to harvest the seed for an August planting.

1. To harvest tomato seeds from a tomato using fermentation method:
2. Select the healthiest looking tomato (if its from your own plant, one from the healthiest plant)
3. Cut the tomato across its equator
4. Scoop out seeds with a spoon into a cup, container or jar and add a couple of tablespoons of water
5. Cover with plastic food wrap and poke a few holes in the top
6. Stir the seed mix once a day for about 3 days
7. Scoop the top layer of junk and wash down the drain.
8. Pour the remaining seed mixture into a fine kitchen sieve and rinse well.
9. Spread seeds out on a piece of waxed baking paper and allow to dry for a week or so.

I ordered some tulip bulbs called “Queen of the Night”, dark burgundy coloured tulips, almost black in colour. Not that I really have room for them… or a pot… or money… but I couldn’t resist! I fell in love with tulips while in Seattle and I want to grow some for this spring. This variety is a late spring bloomer that’s better suited for warm climates. I’m hoping to get them soon as they should’ve been planted back in May. July is a little late for tulip planting, but I hope they’ll still flower.

Got a new photo of the frangipani seeds just popping out of the ground as well.

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)