Updates on my plants ...

The flower plant that Ngee Hwee gave me is not growing well. The leaves now looked a little dry but my wife say cannot have too much water and sun. Just see how it goes. Also the flower seeds are not spouting so still waiting...

My granny aloe vera had substained some bruises during the transplanting to another pot. Also some of the branches are dying off so I decided to cut those injured ones off yesterday and leave the rest. It still does not seems to adapt well to its new pot yet so hopefully it would do soon.

My chilli padi plants are growing big and strong. Also quite a lot of flowers and hopefully chillis soon.

Just threw away a xue liu plant as it is not growing well and I suspect the soil is the problem but since I need to be selective on the ones that I want to keep, had to cut down the not so nice ones. So one more down, five more to go...

The ju zhi shu on the right is recovering now and also it has more flowers blossom compared to the one on the left. However, it has less newer leaves growing.

I had also transplanted the money plant to another longer pot last Sunday. I also threw away some of them as they are not so nice ones. However, they do not seem to be adapting well to the new environment. Just touched one leave today and it feels dry to touch. Maybe roots not taking water well. Will let them be and see how it goes.

My new flower plant

Had just received the a new flower plant and seeds from Ngee Hwee. Just planted them in their new home. Hopefully they grow well in their new environment. Did not take the other one as only can see the seeds and in a interesting pot. Will reveal next time... Below is what the new flower plant looks like.

More plants coming... Also photo updates

I have spoken to my colleague, Ngee Hwee and she also keeps plants as well. She mentioned that she has some flower plants (purple flowers) that she can give me and I accepted them since I have more leave plants than flower ones. Need to add some colour to these plants, I think. She mentioned that she would be giving me tomorrow so just now, I also prepare a pot for the new arrivals.


Above is the complete transplanting of the granny aloe vera into her new pot. It is really heavy and I had to complete the transplanting at the crampy staircase or else I don't think I can carry her up here. With this, I was hoping that granny aloe vera can grow bigger (almost like the one we saw in the market selling one). Only time will tell...

Complete showcase of my plants. At least it gives an idea where and how they are placed together and why. Main reason for the placement is sunlight penatration. Plants along the corridor do not get a lot of sunlight shinning in (suitable for indoor plants) and the staircase has a lot of sunlight shining there (suitable for light loving plants).

First will show you the first plant that greets me everyday.

My ju zhi shu. They are located on the right hand side of my main door and after the major leave trimming, a little "botak" now. The right one also have a few white flowers growing now (previously got flower buds).


This is actually the top shelf of a 3 ft rod iron rack. I have used my neighbour's floor tiles (he donated to me since he said it looks nicer). There is this purple creeper plant which I cannot find a name for it. My mother-in-law said it got special medical use to I still kept it while I threw most of it. Oh, the green thing is actually a jumbo container used to water the plants. : P For the bottom shelf, I did not show as I use it to keep my gardening tools and water (fish water contained in pet bottles) and some pots. Too ugly so cannot show lah...

Beside the 3 ft rack are my money plant and 2 unknown plants (also have some medical use). The middle one is my neighbours. They are moving to their new house, so explains why so many plants are mine. : P Hopefully the new owners do not have many plants or I have to give up some space and need to optimise the space that I have left. Still I try not to give up the space at the stairs as it is good for my plants there. : P

This is actually the staircase going up to level 10. Here I kept most of my aloe veras. Sadly, it seems that the mommy aloe vera is having a new plantlet again (that makes 4 plants that I need to transplant!). Then I had to deplay my transplanting since I need to plantlets to grow to a certain size before I transplant them. So far no casualties. "Touch wood"! Beside the granny aloe vera is the cute stray plant and the middle one on the floor is the xue liu that has curl leaves when staying with the aloe vera on the left (now left it alone but looks small as 2 branches were removed since I think they are injured and took them off).


This is the staircase going down to level 9. You will see a long pot of chilli padi, 3 pots of xue liu and a unknown plant (to reduce cholestrol). Intent to keep the xue lius bigger and then select the best (2 pots) at the most and give up the rest. No use keeping so many of the same plant. Xue liu anyone? Heee...

As I have mentioned, after my small aloe veras and xue lius are big enough, those who can grow them can contact me to get them from me. With good soil, they can grow like granny aloe vera or at least like mommy aloe vera. They can produce plantlets quite fast (at least mommy aloe vera is about a year plus old, if I'm not wrong).

Some new updates...

Went to IKEA and found that the price of the RICH soil mix is sold at 1.90 and the Flourish top soil is sold at 5L-$2.90 and 10L-$5.80. Cheaper by 10 cents from where I have bought but don't think worth the effort to carry all the way back home. Also don't need so many soil at the moment.

Later found that I need to buy more soil so I can replant the granny aloe vera so decided to go IKEA to buy 2 packs of soil. Instead buy 2 more clay pot ($3.90 each and is big) and somemore stuff not relevant here. Then I proceed to replant the granny aloe vera when I reach home. Now the granny aloe vera is happily planted in the new pot.

My 2 Jiu Zhi shu also got trimmed off ugly or unhealthy leaves by my wife and me. Even the one which looks quite full is now quite sparce. However, one of them is having a lot of new leaves growing while the other had little and many flower buds growing. One of them even had a flower that blossom today! : D

I have also replanted the Xue Liu with a aleo vera into a pot of its own. It looks bad with the new leaves curling until I decided to cut them off as well. Hope it grows better now. The aloe vera here also got a broken branch during the replanting. Looks like it is healing now.

The mommy aleo vera has another plantlet growing at the side! So that makes 3 plantlets now. Since I wanted to replant to the IKEA pot that I have bought for her but with the plantlets so small, will wait for them to grow bigger first before replanting all of them.

My chilli plants are having flower buds now but still small. Hope they grow and have little chilli padi soon.

I have also removed 2 pots of the unknown purple plant and threw them away but kept the last one just in case. Since I have no use for them and they creeps and grows easily. Will keep 1 and to reduce my pots.

I have also removed the dying unknown plant. Found out that its roots got hurt during the transplant so it it doom. So sad to see it go like this.

I have also found a small fern plant growing below the pot of mommy aloe vera. Yes, at the hole for water to escape. Will let it grow bigger before I transplant it over to a new pot. Hope it can live too.

Some plans that I have:
- Transplant mommy aleo vera to a new pot and her plantlets as well.
- Make a shelf for the plants?
- Make a pot holder to hang over the fence?

My gardening skill experiences

It is only recently that I was also getting more into gardening (might be due to my interest in planted tanks in my another blog) that I feel that it would be good for me to keep a record of the plants that I have been taking care of and also update them for people to appreciate them if they share the same hobby as me.

Below are the plants and other info as well:
- Aloe Vera

This is the granny aloe vera. The deco was for CNY but lazy to remove them.

This is mommy aloe vera. She now has 3 plantlets with her now. Here you see only 2. Beside her you will also see a small aloe vera (from granny aloe vera) with a small xue liu.

This is the 2 aloe vera in a pot. They come from granny aloe vera. They are growing now. May separate them or plant them in a bigger pot.

I have 4 pots of aloe vera. The first one was from my mother-in-law which she kept for many years and gave it to me as a gift. It was brought from Malaysia and is the bigger version, similar to the ones we saw in the market where they are sold for consumption. Since it cannot grow anymore (due to pot size), it is big but not as big as you see those on sale in the market. Since then, it has been providing me with many small aloe vera which I had to dig them out and replanted them. I shall call this one granny aloe vera. I have just bought a new pot for granny so hopefully, maybe this weekend, I would be able to transfer her to a new pot and see her grow.

I have another aloe vera which I have digged out from granny aloe vera and has been growing well. Recently it just got promoted to be a mother (got 2 small aloe vera at the side of it. Will call this mommy aloe vera).

I also have 3 more small aloe vera which does not look well now but hopefully they would be well like the rest of the aloe vera that is beside them. Putting small aloe vera with bigger ones seems to provide them a better environment to grow. At least I have not tried isolating them.

- Jin Qian Shu (Zamia zamiaculous)


This one is also given to me by my mother in law. It initially was a big bunch and my mother-in-law split it into two. She took half of it while I took the other half. Initially it does not grow any shoots and I was wondering what was wrong with it. Finally it started to have shoots (before Chinese New Year) and does constantly have shoots now. Also had 2 flowers but grows to the side (must be growing towards the sunlight).

- Money plant (Heartleaf Philodendron)


Another gift from my mother-in-law. It was in a bad state after I got it from her. She has helped to replanted it (she mentioned someone had cut the tip of the money plant so cannot grow). Anyway, it was growing too much that I decided to put two of it to decorate my shallow planted tank and recoil the money plant. How slightly better.

- Xue Liu (Puncia granatum)

The one on the left was almost bare when I came back from ICT. The other one was completely bare. I have removed the other one and transplanted another xue liu into this pot (since it is bigger).

The xue liu on the left is an interesting one as it is the only that split. Beside it is a small xue liu (like that ever since).

Just got some seeds from a lady at FarmMart and my sister and I tried to grow them. I have managed to grow 7 initially and they have been with me since. I have transplanted 2 to a new and bigger pot before I go ICT but they lose most of their leaves when I came back. Was taught by a lady at the nursery to cut the top of the plant so it can grow at the sides. I have tried that on these two only. Also have a pot of three but one of them is always so small. Still lazy to shift it.

- Ju Zhi shu (Citrus sinensis)
The better looking one and now growing many new leaves. Also got a flower blossom.

The one on the left (repotted twice). Now looks better. Should have seen it when I came back from ICT.

Got two of them as a gift from my father-in-law for my Chinese New Year and house warming. Was initially placed between the main door and now are placed at the corridor. One of them was placed at the staircase before (try out the environment) but too much sun and not enough water almost killed it (before I came back from ICT). It had a hard time too as it was previously on a pot stand and strong wind blew it down the stairs. Had to replace the pot twice as the initial one was too small. Now it is recovering but still has many leaves dropping around.

- Chilli padi
They look lazy since I think the afternoon and evening sun was too strong. After u water them, they will be up again. Heavy water drinker. See them you will know. Good indicator for water requirement.

Had tried to keep these before but failed miserably. Had managed to keep a few tall ones but had very little flowers and also most keep losing their leaves. Finally I removed all of them and start all over again. Now got seven of them (five in a long pot while two in a pot with another unknown plant). Now the 5 are growing well after I have transplanted them to a long pot. Some are rather big but still no flowers yet. Also removed 2 since I have too many already.

- Guan Yin Zhu


This is another gift from my mother-in-law. It looks ok when it was here but things turn for the worse as leaves turn brown and it looks like dying. Because it grew a long branch (it can survive), I decided to cut off all the leaves and leave the branches, hoping that they would grow new leaves and branches. This is what it looks like after cutting off most of the leaves.

- Unknown plant 1


My wife wanted me to eat the leaves so reduce my cholesterol. I don't like the taste (poison as my wife put it whenever she has to drink tonic) so I ignore her but still kept the plant. Once we cut the stem gave away the top of the plant to her colleagues. Then we saw it grow at the sides again. Last Sunday I took it all out and replanted 2 while giving away the rest. One of them is recovering from the transplanting while the other is not so good yet.

- Unknown plant 2
This plant is given to me by my mother-in-law due to its medical use. It looks nice (purple colour plant and can grow anywhere, as long as it has contact with the soil and it will grow roots from the stem). Had some but have been throwing quite a bit.

- Unknown plant 3

This plant was found growing in the pot of granny aloe vera. It looks interesting so I decided to keep it. Have managed to transplant it into a small pot and growing quite well. Hope it stays that way. It also seems easy to keep.

- Unknown plant 4

Also found growing in the pot of granny aloe vera. However, it seems hurt during the second transplanting and looks like dying. Hope to take a picture of it before it completely died. Maybe tonight or in the weekends, if possible.