Dancing happy feet

After so many phone calls and explanations and arguments... finally, I have my neoregelias delivered to my gate - this very morning! Whew... now I realize what troublesome it might take to receive live plants through international mail order.
Remember last time I talked about my pet plants from Bangkok? Well, I continued asking the friend-vendor in Bangkok to get me some bromeliads. This time, to correct the situation of the last, I asked him to include a Phytosanitary certificate in the parcel, as normally required. He did. And he shipped the plants last Friday, Sep 18.

On Tuesday, Sep 21, I got a call from the delivery service informing that I have some plants from arriving from Thailand without a Phyto! That was ridiculous since I had made sure Sutthisak include one and he had confirmed that he did include one!
I continued to "argue" with the officer that the plants were accompanied with a Phyto... blah, blah... Finally, on Thursday Sep 24, the same officer stated that "they had found the Phyto"! They better did!

Anyway, the 6 neoregelias are so huge, even bigger than the Coke bottle here. Good thing!

Now I'm off to set up their home in my back yard. Feeling so happy!

PS: After setting up their home, I took another set of photos and changed those I post previous. Now, they look much better, don't they?

Tillandsia cyanea

My Tillandsia cyanea has opened its blooms on all the six off-shoots. It was a long wait since June when I spotted its stalks.

Most tillandsias are epiphytic but this one is terrestrial. And though it is said that tillandsias are tropical plants, I have found this cyeanea grows better and produces off-shoots more abundantly in a cooler climate .


I bought this plant earlier last year with only one growth and one blooming stalk. After the blooms died back, the plant produced 6 off-shoots. And now each of these 6 off-shoots is producing 6 other off-shoots!

Do you know of any plant that can produce pups at this number? Incredible, isn't it?

My garden this week

I returned to Tuysonvien this morning, after being back down to our main residence for ten days. My flowers have certainly know how to take care of themselves while I was away.

Back in June, I worked some sand into the flower beds and added some organic fertilizer. As a result, the dwarf marigold that I planted there grew much taller than they would normally do.

These daylilies are looking good, too, after a dose of fertilizer late July.

You see, I only have very common plants in my garden because I am not here 24/7 to take care of them. I either rely on my neighbor to water them for me or leave them to nature.

Nevertheless, I'm so happy with these plants because not only they are easy, they self-seed abundantly so I'm never without seedlings for planting. Year round, I have cosmos, marigold, daylily, impatiens, coleus... to provide color for my garden.

Nepenthes ventrata

About three months ago I bought this nepenthes. At that time there were a few pitchers on the plant but all were dry and dying.

I read from the net that these plants need a lot of humidity and light, so I made sure it would get what it needed to grow well. I repotted the plant into new soil and placed it on the granite table, under an umbrella, in our backyard.

Now, there are twenty-four pitchers of varying stages on the plant, not to mention that it has produced two basal shoots with pitchers, too.

All so cute!

Looking out

Early mornings or rainy days when the grass outside is wet, Biam would be kept inside while I would be outside attending to my morning "rituals".

First he would lie still, looking out

Then he would sit up,

and turn his head to the side... as though he would follow me.

Perhaps he might be asking what has kept me so long out there!

Seven things about me

My blogger friend, Lynn at Bestinbloomtoday, tagged me for this "seven things". I don't know if I can get seven things about me to talk about... hehehe. But here's go.
1. I love dogs. At one time, we have nine dogs at home. They were not all beautiful looking dogs but I loved them nonetheless. Now, I have four: three living outdoors and one indoors - Biam. Biam travels back and forth with me between our two homes every other week!


2. Like Lynn, I took shorthand courses, too, while I was working at a secretary for the US Armed Forces in Vietnam back in the 70's. I still can read shorthand, but I don't take notes in shorthand anymore.
3. I'm a fast typist, even back in the 70's when I had to use manual typewriter. My speed then was 60 WPM. And later with IBM electric one, I could make 120 WPM :-o).
4. I learned to speak American English via Archie Comics when I was a teenager. My favorite characters were Archie and Betty.
5. I got married to my husband when we both were in university, 39 years ago. We had our first-born three months before DH graduated!


6. I am the only child of my parents so is DH to his.
7. I retired last year.
I don't know many garden bloggers to tag them, though. So this entry is purely to introduce myself to other friends who happen to visit my blog.