(In Loving Memory of My Lola, the real plant lady)
One of the few things I've been loving lately is taking care of plants. I thought plants are for the old souls but-- oh wait-- I am an old soul. But then, I was never a "plant-lady". I have always believed that my green thumb is imaginary. E.g. Cactus died on me back then, and a bamboo plant I bought all the way from Vigan almost stop producing leaves weeks after putting it in my office.
So I thought that maybe gardening and planting aren't my thing. But...
I just had a change of heart (more of a change of place) when we transferred to a new house and my room has a small beautiful veranda in front. The terrace looked suitable for growing some plants so I decided to put up a little garden. I kind of feel the place looked empty without greens and reds, and also some pinks. So I shrugged off my brown thumb and answered nature's call (Planting and gardening, that is.)
Good thing my lola was a plant lady. When we moved into a new house, she had no other place to put up her plants and she was so sick already to take care of them so we decided to adopt all of them. I picked up some for my terrace and the rest we put on our roof top. That's where everything started -- with some adopted plants from my grandmother. Now my garden is growing, alive, and producing leaves here and there. I have to say my green thumb is flexing and I am one happy gal.
1. Red Pineapple Plant
First plant I picked up for my terrace is this plant of which I still have no idea what's the name whatsoever. It produces a pineapple-like flower, and the leaves have lovely shape and color to them. When I first adopted it, some leaves have dried up and the soil looked thirsty due to neglect. (Most of my lola's plants were a bit abandoned because she got sick even before we moved into the new house.) My tita told me to cut and remove the dried up leaves to give it a fresh start. Now it has been doing really well in its new place, producing healthy green leaves and small little red pineapples.
2. Snake Plant
Next plant I adopted from my lola's garden is this snake plant. From the first look of it, I knew it would be perfect for indoors, but it looked dirty in an old broken pail. So, my tita helped me in repotting it (Okay, I admit, she did all the repotting, because I was a newbie back then and have no idea what to do whatsoever. hehe.) Now, it serves as a beautiful ornament inside my room.
3. Cacti
Now let's move on to the third plant I have adopted and the first plant I have successfully re-potted on my own. When I first saw this weird-looking cactus, I fell in love with its uniqueness. Up until now, I haven't seen anything quite like this in cactus stores -- I even tried to google its variant but to no avail I have found none. Promiscuity aside, it looks like thousand dicks formed together. It resembles a work of art, a sculpture or something. The only thing though is that it looks really dirty when I first saw it. It was planted in an old plastic pail, really sick and lonely. So, I repotted it carefully into a ceramic pot I bought from Daiso and put on some stones at the top, carefully cleaned the plant with some cotton buds and alcohol, and voila, now it sits next to my snake plant giving my little room a piece of jungle. It looks so beautiful even my little niece loves looking at it.
4. ZZ Plant / Welcome Plant
This next plant is the ever-famous indoor plant called "Welcome Plant" Some call it "ZZ plant". I think every house I go to has this plant, thus the name Welcome Plant. I kind of know why most households have this plant. First, this plant produces leaves that has almost perfect shape in an almost perfect shade of green that you would've mistaken it for a fake plant. Also, this plant is so low-maintenance yet it grows non-stop. I don't do much to my ZZ plant but it keeps on shooting leaves here and there. This plant was originally given to my mother when we went to Pampanga. She then passed it on to me realizing I am slowly turning into a plant lady. Now my ZZ plant has grown so much I plan to repot it soon because I think its current pot is already too small for her.
5. Cactus
Next plant is a simple cactus which I consider as my first baby. I bought this succulent in monumento and my boyfriend helped me in repotting this. We even named it "Lufee" - his favorite anime character. AS of the moment, it has been shooting baby cactus on the sides and I am not sure if it is a good sign or not. To be honest, I never had so much luck in store-bought cactus. So yes, after months of keeping this baby, I have noticed that its roots have a little rotting on its side corner due to constant watering so I needed to make an emergency operation-- I removed it from its old soil, checked on the rotting part of the roots, handled the healthy roots carefully, decided to use fresh new soil so the rotting won't spread, and then transferred it to a new pot to give it a fresh start. It has been my first ever sick plant I practically worked on successfully on my own. At least the rotting is still on its beginning stage so it is still alive and kicking. Cactus are known to be thriving so I know it will heal soon. I have to remind myself though not to overwater it. I have to admit I am not really sure if I did the right thing but I wanted to learn from this process and I am just really happy I did it. I think I just have to wait and see what will happen to this little baby of mine.
6. Pink Rose
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Now let's go to this next plant which I consider as the muse of the team-- this pink rose. I bought this in a garden store near our place and this is the only rose plant left at that time so I know it was destined to be mine. The flowers are breath-taking. The best part of buying this plant is waking up one day and seeing pink flowers in front of your window. It felt like being greeted by nature. The feeling was amazing really. The problem witht his plant though is that, just like a beautiful lady, this rose is high-maintenance to keep it beautiful and healthy. I have to deadhead the rose to keep it blooming, keep it out of fungi, and regularly spray on some fertilizer. I guess even in gardening, beauty is hardwork. I am just hoping that all hardwork will pay off. By now, it is currently starting to produce new baby roses and healthy leaves so I am just waiting for it to shoot out pink roses again.
7. Water Plant / Devil's Ivy
Moving on to my other plant is this water plant called Devil's Ivy. I bought this one because I initially wanted to place it at the top of my vanity so it would crawl down to my mirror (just like those I see in Instagram). So I guess it is safe to say Instagram made me buy this plant. When I saw this in the garden store, I fell in love with its healthy green leaves so I know I have to buy it. It only cost 50 pesos anyways. I plan to propagate this in water so I could place it in my vanity just what I initially planned but I still haven't found a bottle that I like. One of these days I guess.
8. Orchid
Now let's go to this orchid which I have A LOT to say. This Orchid obviously has been through a lot and it was further damaged from being transferred from one place to another. My mother was the first one who tried to revive this Orchid. Its leaves were already wounded and sloppy. She replanted it in a tupperware and placed it in our backyard. After a month of no progress, she then asked me if I could put it in my terrace so it would have a nice taste of sunlight. I put it in my terrace but I didn't pay much attention to it. I felt no connection with it whatsoever. However, slowly day by day, it started to grew on me and I kind of feel sad for the orchid especially when I realized that two more leaves have turned yellow. It looked worse, even my boyfriend who is not into plants noticed that this orchid is already dying. So, I decided to step forward and revive whatever's left in this plant. First I took off the yellow leaves, which, according to google, is naturally caused by the Orchid's old age. Then, I carefully removed it from the tupperware and checked on its roots. I washed everything with tap water so I could clearly see the condition of the Orchid. I was so relieved to see that there were still few good roots left so I know it was still alive and can still survive. Good thing the root system was not that bad but it was slowly rotting. After carefully removing the mushy bad roots, I then transferred it into a plastic cup with lots of holes on them, which I DIY-ed myself. (I poked holes using a heated nail.) I used charcoal as my soil because I have no other media to use that is suitable for orchids. I plan to buy a good orchid soil mix but for the mean time, charcoal is the best way to go. I also learned that orchids are naturally air plant so I hang it near my other plants so it won't feel "isolated". Right now I am just carefully monitoring the progress of this orchid but at least it is now planted in a better place.
9. Gumamela
Another plant I got from my mother is this gumamela. She gave it to me after buying it in a garden store. I don't have that much to say about this plant since I have just acquired it. I am still waiting for its first bloom but I am happy I finally have a new flower plant in my terrace.
10. Vietnam Rose
Down to my final plant is this Vietnam Rose I got from a "maglalako" - street seller. This plant is an interesting one because it has lots of flowers in a small pot but it will only bloom one flower at a time, and each flower will only bloom for like an hour or two and then it will close again and wilt. That fast, eh. However, this is so easy to propagate, you just have to stick a cutling into a soil so no biggie. It now serves as little accesssories in my garden (more of like a filler), placed side by side my orchid.
Whew!
That was a lot!
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