January 28, 2010 at 8:40 am
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Wishing one and all a very happy and healthy new year. The beggining of 2010 is a good start at our community garden we had our second harvest of sweet potatoes, first harvest of white bitter gourd and play host to visitors from Toyota Motors and also students from Jurong Primary School. It is wonderful that Community-In-Bloom programme has brought people of all ages together.
The visitors get to taste freshly plucked roselle, stevia leaf, roselle drink and also pickled kedondong including homemade kueh-kueh. Students get excited when Mdm Hamidah allowed them to pluck the cosmo and sunflower seeds. The students went home happily and look forward to their next visit to our garden.
Mdm Kamisah
Gardening Leading
Jurong Central Zone G RC Community Garden
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January 21, 2010 at 8:49 am
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For a long time, I wasn’t too interested in culinary herbs like mint. However, via a fellow gardening friend from Green Culture Singapore, my perspective about mint took a dramatic turn and I got hooked to the range of mint cultivars that exist. This is perhaps the first time I am ‘declaring’ my love for this group of edible and very aromatic group of plants.
One of the favourite mints is the pineapple mint. Commonly known via the botanical name Mentha suaveolens ‘Variegata’, pineapple mint features very attractive, oval leaves that are variegated. According to the wonderful book ‘The Encyclopedia of Herbs’ by Tucker and Debaggio, this pretty mint should be botanically named as Mentha suaveolens var. suaveolens.
I got this mint via raising stem-cuttings obtained from material purchased from the supermarket. Fresh stem-cuttings root easily in water. Although called the pineapple mint, the leaves of this mint, when rubbed, do not emit a smell similar in any way to the fruit it was named after. In my opinion, its scent is somewhat sweet and fruity compared to the sharp menthol odour expected from a typical mint plant and this property makes this mint more acceptable to those of us who find the usual mint too strong for the senses.
The soft, furry and wrinkled leaves of this particular mint cultivar are edged with white or cream which makes it a great garnishing material for desserts and ice-cream. Like most variegated plants, the variegation seen on its leaves depends very much on the light conditions it is grown under. Pineapple mint must not be grown under full sunshine in the tropics as an entire day’s worth of exposure to intense sun’s rays has been observed to burn the leaves. It thrives better if given filtered sunshine for half a day. Sufficient light exposure is still essential to reduce the likelihood of etiolation of stems.
Compared to other mints, the pineapple mint is not one of the easier plants to grow. Besides the light factor, its grower has to know that it is not really suitable for growing outdoors without protection from rain. Rainfall in the tropics can be very heavy and all it takes is one very heavy downpour to flatten a colony of this rather fragile mint. Because of its variegation, the pineapple mint is considerably less vigorous compared to other all green mint cultivars. Under good light, the stems of this mint can become quite thick and grows upright. Under dimmer conditions, it is seen to take on a sprawling growth habit. I prune it often to keep the growth of the plant compact and neat. Grow it in well draining soil that is rich in organic matter and kept moist at all times. Remember to feed it often to promote robust growth. Lastly, never allow a mint to dry out!Wilson Wong
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January 14, 2010 at 1:40 pm
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Bonsai is an art of aesthetic miniaturization of trees or making woody or semi- woody plants into looking like trees. Container- grown plants which includes trees have a long history and is even recorded in the Egyptian culture. I must say that the popularity of growing bonsai would be the Japanese. One of the oldest known living bonsai tree can be found in the Tokyo Imperial Palace in Japan. The tree is at least 500 years old when it was first trained as a bonsai.
Some of the common species of plants that can be trained as bonsai are Wrightia religiosa, Podocarpus macrophyllus, Ficus species, Bougainvillea species, Murraya paniculata.
There are many styles that you can train your bonsai into. For example, you can train your bonsai to have a formal upright style where it has a straight, upright and tapering trunk. The branches should be progress in a regular form from having the thickest at the bottom and to the finest on top of the tree. Apart from that there are informal upright style, slant-style, cascade-style, raft-style, literati style, forest style, root-over-rock style, broom style and many more. With so many styles you can choose from, there is really no limit to how you would want to style your bonsai!
Recently, I’ve brought a Brachychiton rupestris (Bottle tree) and I’m training it to become a bonsai! A bottle tree has a swollen trunk and it can actually be trained as a bonsai overseas. My bottle has been stabilized and new leaves are coming up. The base of the trunk is also starting to swell up. In Khatib, they have a bottle tree park. Now in my office I shall grow a miniature bottle tree and train it to be an informal upright style bonsai. =)
Wyatt Tan
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January 14, 2010 at 8:04 am
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I was given a division of Orchidantha siamensis by a fellow collector a while ago who knew I was interested in plants that are classified in the order Zingiberales. There is only one genus, that is, Orchidantha, in the Lowiaceae family. This genus consists of about five to eight species of plants that grow in the wet understorey of the lowland forest and are native to Southeast Asia and some Pacific Islands.The genus name is given due to the orchid-like appearance of the flowers produced by these plants. Flowers are usually produced via a subterranean inflorescence and are often hidden away. One of the petals in each flower is enlarged to give a large lip-like structure similar to what is seen in a true orchid. Flowers of one species, Orchidantha inouei of Borneo emits the smell of dung in order to attract small dung beetles as their pollinators! The plant I have freely flowers and thankfully, the smell of its flowers can only be detected when one really goes upclose to them!
I particularly like the Orchidantha as it is perhaps the most shade-tolerant group of plants I have come across so far. Many foliage plants introduced in many houseplant and indoor plant books cannot match it in terms of the ability to grow and thrive in deep shade often encountered in the indoor living environment. It seems to be also able to tolerate dry air rather well too. From this, I reasoned that they also make good candidates for planting in very dim areas in an outdoor garden.Best grown and appreciated as foliage houseplants that confer a lush tropical feel, Orchidantha species are herbaceous perennial plants with a clumping growth habit. New growth rise from a rhizomatous underground stem. Leaves are lanceoate in shape andhas several pairs of longitudinal veins parallel to the distinct midrib.
I noticed Orchidantha is best grown in a very shaded area as even rays from filtered sunshine can bleach the leaves, giving them a sickly yellow colour. Intense sunshine will burn them. They prefer to be grown in soil that is rich in organic matter, open and kept moist at all times. Avoid growing them in a windy area as constant air movement can dry plants out. Propagation is easy via division of large clumps.Orchidantha, apparently, have medicinal and folk uses. The scorched leaves of Orchidantha fimbriatum (syn. O. longiflora) are pasted on the back and chest to relieve chest and back pains. Leaves are sometimes used to wrap food in cooking.At present, Orchidantha is still difficult to find in local nurseries but I believe its usefulness as a foliage plant for growing in very shady areas, once discovered, will greatly call for a demand for plants to be made available to the nursery trade. Wilson Wong
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January 7, 2010 at 8:30 am
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The roselle plant is well known for its fleshy calyces that are used to make a beverage that tastes like Ribena. The drink reportedly possesses anti-hypertensive, diuretic and mild laxative properties, and contains abundant amounts of natural antioxidants such as vitamin C and anthocyanins.
The pink flower of the roselle plant that looks like a small hibiscus.
Either fresh roselle or dried calyces are used to make the drink. They are first boiled in water to yield a deep-red and sour beverage, which is then sweetened with sugar and chilled in a refrigerator before serving. Besides producing calyces for making drinks, the roselle plant has a stem that is laden with calcyes at every node. This can be turned into an alternative cut-flower material for flower arrangements, after the removal of its leaves. Also, did you know that the young leaves and tender shoots of the roselle plant are edible? They can be eaten raw in salads or cooked as greens either on their own, or with other leafy vegetables and meat. The stems of the roselle plant also yield a fibre that can be used as a substitute for jute in making burlaps.
A stem with calyces on it makes an attractive cut-flower material for flower arranging.
The roselle plant is easily raised from seeds or stem-cuttings, and is best grown using well-drained, fertile soil. It can be planted outdoors in the ground or inside a container placed on a windowsill or balcony, as long as the plant receives direct sunshine for at least six hours daily. Fertilise regularly with granular fertiliser to encourage vigorous growth and generous production of calcyes at maturity.
Cut portions of roselle plants are sold as a leafy vegetable in Little India.
Did you know?
If you were wondering what calyces are (singular – calyx), well, they refer to the collection of sepals behind the petals of a flower. Sepals in most flowering plants are leafy and green, forming the outer protective covering of a flower bud. Botanically known as Hibiscus sabdariffa, the roselle plant is a member of the hibiscus family, Malvaceae. The plant is a shrub that produces numerous attractive, pink-coloured hibiscus-like flowers, with a distinctive eye in the centre.
By Wilson Wong
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