Newest addition...

I was complaining about reducing my pots and here I just added another one. The latest addition was from my mother-in-law. She got it from one of her relatives in Malaysia. Well, I was thinking of having one so I asked her for it and I just got it on Wednesday, after visiting her. After I put it into a pot, I have been leaving it near the stairs since there are more sunlight and wind there. My mother-in-law has commented that my place very suitable to keep cactus or aloe vera since there are strong wind (keep the soil not too wet) and quite a lot of sunlight. I have to agree that the plants that are best kept are aloe vera and Zamia zamiaculous.


After taking the photos, I can show you what are the current plants at their locations.

- Outside main door
What I have here are a pot of Heartleaf Philodendron on the left and Episcia cupreata on the left. The Episcia cupreata was once put near the stairs with more sunlight but got 'burnt' since too much light there. It is only recently that the Episcia cupreata are growing better now. I have separate them into 2 pots and both are doing fine.

- Corridor (corner)


The 2 plants on the left are unknown. The one on the right is Zamia zamiaculous. The one of the left has been in a bad shape after I transplant to this pot. I was suspecting that I did not water enough (I water every alternate days) but the leaves still look wrinkled. I should be giving up on it soon. I also found quite a lot of ants on the plant. I have been using insecticide to get rid of the ants. The middle pot is an unknown plant my wife brought back. It had a orange flower in the middle but it look bad so I took it away.

Beside these three are more... From the left, I have Episcia cupreata, Zamia zamiaculous, Man Tian Xing and Puncia granatum. The pot is almost too small for the Episcia cupreata to spread now. The Puncia granatum is the last of the ones that I have. It still look so thin but after I trimmed off some branches, it seems to grow healthier ones. Hope it stays that way...

- Upstairs

Plants from the left are aloe vera, arrow heads and aloe veras. My granny aloe vera is still here. Too heavy to shift her around. The mommy aloe vera on the left still looks thin. I wonder should I get rid of it?!? The arrow heads are doing well but only for those closer to the sun. The rest just died. I was thinking of changing to a rectangle pot for them but need to get it from Daiso first. Also here you can see my DIY rack using 2 pot stands and a wooden plank.

- Downstairs
Plants from the left, aloe vera chilli plant, Guan Yin Zhu, aloe vera and my new edible cactus. The aloe vera here are transplanted from the older aloe vera but got injured during transplant, that explains why the 'hands' looks more curly then usual. The chilli plant just grow out of the soil and I just let it live, not I planted there on purpose.

Well, this is what I have for now since it has been a while since I track what I have. So if you want any aloe vera, can let me know ...

Pot reduction time...

Well, after thinking for a while, I have decided to reduce some of the plants since they are either not growing well, not nice or died under my care. This is my plan to reduce the pots of plants that I have now but I think not much difference unless more can be done.

Here is a breakdown of the pots at 4 different locations as of 14 Mar 2007:
Corridor - 7
Outside main door - 2
Upstairs - 4
Downstairs - 3

I think I managed to reduce 1 from the list. For the record, I have taken out the following plants from my collection that I have not updated until now:

- Citrus sinensis
Both of them have been removed. One of them unable to recover from too much sunlight and the other not growing well so that is the end of them.

- Unknown purple plant
Removed since I have no use for them and they seems to grow too well until my puncia granatum not growing well. Too bad.

- Man Tian Xing
The small pot was removed since the plant just died. Found that the roots got bad and that is the main reason it died. No explanation for its cause of death.

- Puncia granatum
I have lost 2 of my 3 Puncia granatum as they somehow are not growing well and I have to let them go. Too bad...

- Unknown plant 1
This is suppose to reduce cholesterol but it tastes quite bad when taken raw and I'm put off by it. It has been taken care of since I have no use for it.

- Unknown plant 3
This can be found on the roadside and I have even found it on sale in GIANT supermarket. It is small and produce small purple flowers. I noticed that once it grows too much in size, some parts starts to die. I'm tired to trimming and let it died on its own.

- Chilli padi
I have removed all my chilli padi as I did not harvest them and most became dried chilli padi. I have gave them away to my neighbour. They also require too much water too since I have changed my watering habit.

From now on, any aloe vera plantlets that comes out from the aloe veras will be exterminated before they can grow. This is to prevent me from having to take care of them and too many of them and no one wants them. They also deprived the bigger aloe veras from the getting the fertilizers that I put weekly so unless there is any requests, I will strictly keep my aloe vera numbers to 8. There is one big aloe vera that does not grow fat stems compared to the rest. I'm considering getting rid of it but it is rather big now (mummy aloe vera).

There is also a pot which the plants are not growing well but able to survive and produce a purple flower bud when my mother-in-law showed it to me last Saturday. This pot may have to go since it needs to be watered everyday or the leaves will wrinkle. It is caused by the windy and dusty environment that I have here. Most of the time the surface soil will look dry after I water for a few hours.