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’m probably going overboard, but I bought more plants for the office. The old lot of plants are looking severely sad, and I mean S-A-D, the only plant that didn’t look like it was going die was the bamboo palm.

The old plants consisted of a corn plant and dracaena marginata donated by my mum, she’s not going to pleased to know that they’re both suffering. We also have a yucca just clinging onto life. It suffered from a really bad infestation of some sort of mites. The leaves were covered with white, weird smelling, powdery stuff and I just couldn’t get it cleaned up in time. It’s such a sad looking plant, I’m considering putting it out of its misery.

So anyway, since the old plants weren’t doing so well, I thought I’d spruce up the office with some new plants that are harder for me to kill. I bought a mother in law’s tongue/snake plant, a peace lily and 2 more bamboo palms. They look rather attractive clumped together.

With a little more knowledge under my sleeve, I choose these plants because they do well in low to moderate light conditions. The only one I have to watch out for is the snake plant, it might suffer from my over-zealous watering.

Which brings me to mention my new device! I got a water/pH/light/all in one meter! I couldn’t believe it, for under $20 from Waldecks I got this fantastic little tool, and it’s so easy to use!

Oh, and I also got a little froggie ornament. He sits on the edge of the peace lily pot.