I have a little garden in which I potter around every morning before the sun gets too hot. It is a great pleasure to smell the garden early every new day; the flowers, the grass, even the soil. Work on the garden involves planting/replanting, potting/repotting, pruning, weeding, fertilising, grass trimming and of course watering. On my last count there are more than 50 varieties of plants even in this tiny plot. The garden is about 2 years old and has flowering, foliage and herbal plants. For identification, the book Tropical horticulture and gardening by Francis S. P. Ng is most helpful.
In 2009 I planted both blue and pink hydrangeas, but now realise how difficult they are to bloom. The above blue cluster was the only success last year, despite fertilising, putting in flower inducers, and even burying rusty nails in the soil. Don't laugh, but the last advice I got from a garden expert!
The Crown of thorns is easy to grow in pots and when flowering, display very colourful petal-like bracts which may be in a variety of pinks, yellows and even greens. The above blooms lasted a very long time last year, but this year ceased to do so. Instead another pink variety has been in bloom since early this year (I will upload the picture in a future posting about the garden).
The Periwinkle comes in a variety of colours, the most common being the above purple ones. For me, every time I look at the flowers in my garden, I am reminded of their origin. I don't mean Madagascar where they came from, but of the garden of my sister-in-law's late mother in Port Dickson. She generously gave me a lot of plants and cuttings to start my own garden. The periwinkle was one of them.
The purple Straits rhododendron I have in my garden is but one of more than 300 species of rhododendrons found in the world. I did not really grow it but it followed me to Shah Alam when I transferred from Penang 3 years ago. It was a little plant in the pot of another plant, a palm I think. So I put it in its own pot in a corner of the garden. And it grew and grew... into a little tree producing delightful purple blooms. I call it the tree of life because of the fauna that visit daily - birds, butterflys, bees, even squirrels.
My garden thrives even as I have to leave it sometimes to go somewhere for a while. I thank my next-door neighbour for helping to water the plants when I am away. She is a keen gardener too and keeps a very pretty garden.
More on gardens next time. Meanwhile, happy gardening, and don't forget to stop and smell the roses! Or in my case, the jasmines.
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