My first real project of 2010

My only cosmo seedling

I have started this batch of new seeds to grow. It is really exciting, I find, that the seeds have germinated. As of now, I have about 5 types of new plants growing, namely: Crotalaria retusa, Hibiscus sabdariffa, kale, cosmo and chilli. The seedlings have been growing for a few weeks now and I certainly hope they will thrive in my small corridor garden.

These are kale seedlings which I just took a few days ago. The clarity of which does amaze me as I have not been able to obtain such said clarity before.

More kale seedlings in the same pot

I will be posting my updates and more pictures very soon. Wish me luck!

Contrary to what my blog name suggests [lycopersicon, meaning tomato], I do not have any tomato plant in my small garden at all. I suppose I should start a few tomato plants soon once things get going in this small piece of paradise for me; I still need my other plants to become established before I divert my attention to grow the amazing lycopersicon soon. I want a tomato plant so badly!

A pleasant surprise!

Boy was I surprised to find this small little shoot while I was on my way to work this morning. Inconspicuously hiding behind a bigger pandan plant, this zamioculcas zamiifolia young, or commonly called the zz plant, was an accident in the works as it was no intention of mine to grow it. It was, however, an unexpected growth from an abandoned part of the bigger plant I have in the pot thanks to my mother who did some trimming a couple of months ago. Nevertheless, it was nothing short of wonderful, and lovely too, as it brightened my day today! I have since taken it out of the pandan pot and transplanted it into a more comfortable pot where the new shoot can have the whole place to itself. Hopefully it will enjoy the change in environment. Well, it's fingers crossed yet again!

It's like impossible to root those tagetes lucida cuttings which I took. I have been trying so many times and no one time had I gotten any promising result. Those cuttings just either wilt a few hours later or simply bide their time to eventually rot into nothingness. I am really finding it very hard to garden around these days when this is not the only setback that I have faced. Besides the tagetes lucida, my basil cuttings did not work out too. I have no idea anymore. I probably watered too much. It could also be the soil that may be the problem as it was perhaps unsuitable for the establishment of the said cuttings. Nevertheless, I shan't let this lack of success bog me down too much. I shall try again and hopefully, the next attempt at rooting the basil and tagetes lucida cuttings would be splendidly successful! Let's keep my fingers crossed for now.

Having met with some failures in propagating my herbs which I just got from SGF, I am now down in the slumps and dispirited over the helplessness of losing my cuttings. It sure is frustrating to see your cuttings slowly perishing and find that you can do nothing about it. I should have learnt more about growing cuttings but I am disadvantaged by the lack of resources: back in the past, I would have certainly used my nifty (or handy) plant hormone solution that I got from a supermarket. Now that I have used up the said hormone solution and with no avenue of getting a new bottle, I am at a loss; I can only settle with planting directly into the soil and hoping providence will treat the cuttings well. So far not so good with that though, I must say! I have unfortunately been set back for the past few days without any sign of improvement showing in the propagation of those herb cuttings. Absolutely dejected by this outcome thus far, I can only see this as an experience of learning. Like what my cousin taught me, and I quote, "Success is a lousy teacher". Only with this experience do I get to learn something. Hopefully, I will get to yield success in the near future. It's fingers crossed yet again. Wish me luck!

I am so excited to actually receive some tulip bulbs from a friend today. To the person who gave me those bulbs, thank you if you are reading this. I will be trying to get them to grow very soon. Hopefully they can. I will know more after I get the information I need from the net!

Finally got my Roselle! I have already taken a cutting for propagating the only plant I have now. Hopefully, I can successfully clone the plant and viably generate multiple copies of it. My fingers crossed!