Inspirations

Did I mention that despite my grouses about the garden festival, I actually went back to the stalls a second time? I was hoping to grab more of those Platyceriums, but alas! They were sold out! 

Nontheless, I can home with more Tillandsias. Nothing exciting, just slightly better deals than I get at the local nursery ($5 vs $8 for T.andreana). And also a small clump of T.ionantha Fuego also for $5. 

I came across this business/blog 2 days ago, and it has quickly become a favorite for reading. I don't know why, but it's really refreshing and makes me yearn for a space to grow flowers and keep chickens. 

http://www.floretflowers.com/blog/

I've also been messing around with plant growth regulators, which re-started due to a question from my brother in law. But more about that later! 

Airwell diaries 25/7/16

T.flexuosa doesn't seem to be doing too well in low light. 

T.brachycaulos 

T.velutina on left, T.bergeri middle - T.bergeri was a new test subject, added a few days ago. 

T.ionanatha seems happy, though not as vibrant as the ones receiving good sun. 

T.usneoides (fine)

T.capitata peach 

T.caput medusae

T.tricolor 

T.flabellata 

T.juncifolia 

Singapore Garden Festival 2016

What a disappointment! 

As usual, it probably catered for general gardeners and orchid growers. The displays were ok - I appreciate all the hard work that went into it. But the vendors .. Eeks. 

Amongst the Tillandsias, they were just blearghhh. Nothing interesting, and all the stalls had the same offerings - T.ionanatha, T.ionantha "Druid", T.funckiana, T. X Houston, T.schideana, T.xerographica and the such. And they weren't even anywhere a good deal .... I did however bag a mislabeled Tillandsia from one of those weird Ecuadorean companies though, and a few other odds and ends. 

Labeled as Racinaea miniata, which I am sure it's not! 

Looks more like Tillandsia disticha major

Some buys on my second trip there. T.andreana at $5 each which is a good deal. Also, T.ionantha var stricta and fuego, all at $5 each. 

T.brenneri, $35 - a lot more than the USD$12 list price on their site which is why I only bought one. 

T.intermedia with pups at $25, another decent buy! 

T.schideana major at $8. Got ripped off for this one, found it at $5 on my second trip there. 

By far however the best buy was really surprising - really large Platycerium elephantotis, going at a mere $30 each!! Now I'm regretting not getting more. Dammit. 

The big clean-up

Ok, so my boy decided to puke on the balcony this morning, forcing my hand into a long-needed and overdue clean-up of the balcony. Anyway here I am, blogging with the work kinda half done. I got rid of 5 pots of miscellaneous plants - Murraya paniculata, a Magnolia and 2 jasmines. Somehow, my skills at general gardening really suck. I had been hoping for a fragrant garden, but I guess it didn't work out well. 

Anyway, here's a shot of the irrigation system. The plants get a nice misting twice a day. I like how the photo is angled such that looks all lush and tropical-ish - a little misleading really. 

Airwell diaries

Just documenting the progress of the plants in the airwell. They get significantly lower light (about 200 foot candles according to my Sekonic meter, but I'm not entirely sure if this translates to PAR). It's a plant torture chamber and so far I've had some plants such as Aglaonema and Calathea sp that do well there. We'll see how things go - the office gets about the same light intensity according to the meter and people have had success with Tillandsia indoors. 

T.flexuosa - since 2nd week of June. Looking significantly sadder as the bottom leaves have browned out. 

T.usneoides "fine" since 6 July

Caput, capitata and tricolor since 6 July

Brachycaulos, juncifolia, velutina since 6 July. Ionantha since 1 July. 

Flabellata since 1 July

Getting out of hand

Yikes, I'm starting to go down that slippery slope of excessive obsessionality when it comes to collecting plants. I feel it in my bones. And it's not good! 

Got a bunch of beauties recently from the local nursery. 

Top left to right:

T.juncifolia , T.aeranthos , T.flabellata

Middle:

T.caput-medusae , T.bergeri , T.xerographica , T.somnians 

Bottom:

T.usneoides (fine) , and bunch of small T.concolor, T.capitata "peach", T.brachycaulos and T.velutina. 

In addition, the SGF is coming soon at the end of the month. I'm doing it as a family outing, but what I'm also really looking out for are cheap deals on Tillandsia especially. I'm ashamed to say that I've also caved in, and made a pre-order for one of the Ecuadorean vendors to bring in plants for me! Some of them are intermediate/cool-growing things so we'll see how things go. 

*update* well seems like the Ecuadorean batch won't make it in time for SGF. Oh well .. More $ for other plants then! 

Ouch

My back hurts, really badly. And it's been going on intermittently for the last month at least. This weekend was particularly busy; zoo yesterday + garden centre, and longkang fishing at Okto today. 

Anyway I've expanded my succulent collection lately! Picked up a couple of succulents off a friend a week ago, where I learnt that he uses a purely inorganic mix for them. So yesterday at the garden centre, I took the plunge and bought a couple more to try. The mix I use is small-sized gravel + 20% activated carbon + a pinch of rock dust. I came back and did some reading and apparently people use a mix of 1:1:1 fine bark, granite chips and turface. I probably should have used some pumice instead of mostly gravel, but oh well we'll see if I keep them alive! 

I'm TERRIBLE at succulents. Which is really odd, since I keep other hard-to-keep plants alive. So here are some pics while I still have them. 

More purchases!

Thankfully, my balcony plant area is messy at baseline so the missus didn't really notice all these new plants. Or so I hope - women are usually smarter than they let out, as I have learnt. 

Tillandsia flabellata. Love the long, strapping leaves! I intend to populate the airwell with these, but for now one of them is being acclimatized to full light on the balcony. 

T.stricta clump, nice buy at $25

T.Houston "Cotton Candy", 2 different color morphs. 

Huge T.pseudobaileyi. A lone T.paleacea on the bottom left, which I hope I won't kill from over-watering. 

T.chiapensis with lots of pups. The grower said the plant pupped without flowering. 

T.ionantha var. vanhyngii

T.stricta stiff leaf at the top, which was a nice free plant the grower threw in for me. More T.funckiana (love those!) and the fine-leaved form of T.usneoides. 

I love new plants! Sigh .. These little pleasures in life. 

New purchases!

Got these at a steal at a retail nursery! 

I broke up the T.ionantha clumps and tied them up on the trellis.

Wheezing again

James caught the bug from Bryan and came down with a wheeze again. After unsuccessful treatment at home with oral augmentin and nebs, we brought him to hospital and he's now warded. The nasal swab came back as RSV so now he has to be isolated. Wtf. 

Glory lily

I'm proud to say that these were raised from seeds. Yes it took 3 years, but it finally flowered!!

Random Tillandsia from the balcony

Tillandsia bergeri

Tillandsia flexuosa. Why isn't it flowering yet??

Another blog?!

Yes, unfortunately I've been switching my gmail accounts around a bit, and I've decided to migrate all my blogs to just this account for simplicity. It's actually easier to use the Blogger app and it's a PITA to switch between accounts from different emails. 

Before migrating though, I had the chance to look through both Versions 1.0 and 2.0 of Grey Thoughts, Blue Memories. Wow. Like just wow. All those memoirs, floating around in cyberspace since more than a decade ago! And though it's not that long ago, while reading those old posts, many of those memories seem like a whole lifetime ago. 

This new space will just be where I post little bits and pieces of my life. Seems fitting, as I've kind of gone through a major phase of life right now. So it'll be a whole bunch of randomness. To keep things clean though, my brewing blog will still remain the same separate blog. Here's to another journey with Grey Thoights, Blue Memories!