Schlumbergera season

Each year, my schlumbergera plants come into bloom twice, at least. The first one around this time and the second one comes in end of November.
Each bloom has its own display which I compare to a swan taking off, touching down, or flying high in the sky.
This one has a peachy orange color.


This one has dark pink.


This one is pure white.


And this one is a lighter shade of pink.


They all look so pretty, don't they.
Schlumbergera are succulent so they like cool and dry climate. I've heard that people in the tropical zone can "force" these plants to bloom by placing them in the fridge to trick the plants to believe they are in the temperate zone so that they will bloom when brought out. [I haven't tried, so cannot justify.]

My begonias

I have a few begonias in my garden, they are leaf-, tuberous- and cane-begonias.
I don't know much about how to care for these plants but thanks to the suitable growing conditions, they grow well and now bloom for me.
This is a local variety of cane begonia. This plant can grow very tall in my region.


This is a rex begonia. It's the second one I bought. The first one rotted on me maybe because I fussed too much with it. This time, I let it be and it is growing beautifully.


I bought this one in one of my trip down the Mekong delta. It looked pitiful then. I thought it would be picky but to my surprise, it just grows by itself, ie. I didn't do much to it except re-potting it to my mix when I first bought.




And this cane begonia is grown from a small cutting given me by a friend from the GCS (Greenculturesingapore) forum.


I'm on the look out for more varieties, but as always, it's not easy here.

Day break

My dog, Biam, always wakes me up around 5am, no matter rain or shine whenever we are at Tuysonvien. And as soon as we wake up, we would go out into the garden for his "things".
It was not foggy this morning. Looking across at the hills opposite, I could see the sun glow although deep down in the valley, it was still dark.


High above, the cloud looked so pretty reflecting the sunrays.


I spotted a bird perching on the pine tree in my garden, as though he/she was waiting for a friend.

A new day has begun. Noone was seen, nothing was heard, it's so peaceful!

Lucky I didn't get stung!

Wow...there's a beehive on one of the low trees in my garden!
This morning, I was working under the very tree, planting some cosmos there but I didn't look up so of course I didn't see it.


This afternoon, while I was working in another part of the garden and looked back, whow... there I saw a beehive full of bees on that tree!




I got stung by a bee some months ago. Boy, how it hurt! My finger got swollen so much that I had hubby use a ply and cut off the ring on that finger.
I'm sure I don't want to get stung again, especially when I'm here alone!

UPDATE Thursday, Aug 12: The swarm of bees has gone away! I checked it out this morning and there was nothing on the tree. Whew!

My new container planting - The Amazon

Funny me... I always feel an urge to create mini-landscapes, be it with succulents or something else.
Yesterday I finished a new container planting, calling it "The Amazon" because it has mostly shade plants and ferns.
I used a bonsai pot, a piece of driftwood (for structure), few small rocks and a varieties of greens.




The finish product looked quite pleasing to my eyes.


I hope the planting will grow quickly.

My succulent bed - a year later

I started this succulent bed May last year. You can check back here for details.
More than a year has passed and the bed is still looking great, if not greater.




Most of the plants in the bed have multiplied and bloomed. I'm so pleased.






The lesson for me is not only having the right plants for the climate, but also the right planting medium as well.