Jardinerong Sunog (the Burnt Gardener)

A few days after this year's New Year celebrations, I purchased a plant of Gymnocalycium anisitsi i subsp. damsii *, a very commonly available plant in the Philippines, for experimental purposes. In my mind, I wanted to change the plant's soil with one that is purely mineral, and subject it to the vagaries of weather conditions, just to test what a mineral mix can do to a plant under harsh conditions.** For many people, such a mix would be tantamount to a death sentence: nutritionally very poor, very open, and dries too quickly. A bias towards the use of a heavily organic soil as one that is suitable for cacti cultivation has been accepted as gospel truth, despite the great numbers of plants succumbing to rot or sunburn in so many collections, particularly with the novices. For this undertaking, I removed all the offsets and gently sprayed off as much of the old soil, which consists of leaf litter in advanced stages of decomposition. The plant was not air dried nor was gi...

Hoya davidcummingii was described in 1995 by Dale Kloppenburg in Fraterna , and was named in honor of David Cumming, who collected the first cuttings that were eventually introduced to general cultivation. The type locality is said to be 1.5 km. from Lake Bulusan, coming from Irosin, in the province of Sorsogon in southern Luzon. The altitude of the locality is said to be 500 ft. above sea level.  Photo below illustrates the revolute corolla lobes which curl in a rather coy manner: This species, despite coming from a high rainfall area, appreciates a drying out in between waterings. If kept consistently moist, the roots from the base of the main stem will rot. The leaves are quite succulent, and can withstand periods of little or no precipitation. The plants are best grown under bright filtered light, and can stunt when placed someplace shadier, and will certainly burn in brighter light. Hoya davidcummingii is one of those adorable species that will produce flowers eve...

Nepenthes graciliflora was for many years considered conspecific with N. alata , a taxon previously interpreted to exhibit a very wide range of variations and occurring throughout the Philippines. But works by Drs. Matthew Jebb and Martin Cheek in recent years have elucidated the boundaries of N. alata 's species concepts which ultimately resulted in the description of a number of species, some of which are controversial due to limited sampling, which is only confined mostly to herbarium materials. Nevertheless, the delimitation between N. alata and N. graciliflora is now fairly well clarified, with the latter taxon now taking up most of the distribution records previously ascribed to the former. Not surprisingly, N. graciliflora displays quite a good deal of variation, but how do we know how it really looks like and which ones can be considered variations? To answer that question, one has to look at plants from the locus classicus , or the place where the first specimens sub...

This particular plant has been circulating for quite some years now as ' Stapelia schinzii hybrid', although it isn't clear as to what other species contributes as the parent. It is possible that this particular clone is what has been known as CX880H, which traces its roots as greenhouse collected seeds, by Rod Knowles of Merseyside, NW England. The few photos I have seen from plants with such collection number exhibited flowers that are on the pink side, but plants even from the same seed batch, particularly hybrids, whether presumed or certain, are certain to feature variations, including with regards to coloration. But if I am mistaken on the identification, I would be very glad if someone can correct me, or at least provide additional details. The thing with seeds collected within a diverse collection of related plants flowering at roughly the same time is that there is an increased likelihood that contamination from other species has taken place. This hybrid is s...

Two of my fraileas opened up their buds yesterday a little past high noon, and I had to scramble for quick photos as the flowers are typically short-lived and the sun is burning brightly overhead, which made photographing plants quite uncomfortable (even a burnt gardener needs to stay in the sun for as little time as possible). Species from the genus Frailea are popular due to their small sizes and their large yellow flowers, which only open during the hottest and brightest days. When temperatures and light aren't ideal, the flowers stay closed and self-pollinate, a condition termed as 'cleistogamy'. Cleistogamous plants have flowers that either do not open or, if they do, open very slightly. When Frailea flowers do open, these are often autogamic, or self-pollinating. This means that seeds are eventually formed even without the flowers getting pollinated. All my fraileas are grown in a purely mineral mix and exposed to the elements, without any overhead protection. W...

Our 'drier' months aren't as dry as they should be. Just the past week and earlier today we had showers particularly at night and early morning, and we also had frequent rains last March. Not a day passed during the month of December when we had not experienced a downpour. I am not complaining, as rains cut my watering time drastically, but the frequent precipitation also meant that the dormant plants have now been tricked into thinking (sorry for the anthropomorphization) that the rainy season has arrived and it is time for them to wake up to a new season of growth. Amorphophallus macrophyllus 'Bluto'. The tuber evidently has formed two active growths. Kaempferia marginata The curiously shaped tuberous rhizomes of the climbing Flame Lily, Gloriosa tuberosa . The past two weeks have seen the renewed activity on kaempferias, and two days ago some of the Amorphophallus have shown signs of doing the same. I often repot these plants, along with ...

Hoyas have often been considered as succulent plants, but in reality, only very few species bear leaves that are thick enough for them to be considered 'succulents'. Examples include Hoya australis subsp. oramicola , H. australis subsp. rupicola , H. australis subsp. saniae , H. kerrii , and H. pachyclada. But there is one other very succulent Hoya that is very little known because, well, it is almost unknown in cultivation as it is a still undescribed and unnamed species. In February 2010 I was given a small cutting of a curious succulent plant that is said to have come from an island north of Palawan. The plant is obviously a Hoya , with leaves splashed with paler green blotches which prompted me to suspect that it could be H. memoria , albeit with very thick and more obovate leaves. Compared to that species, the veining is much more obscure and the new growths are not reddish. The cutting took some time to produce ample roots, but when it did, it grew so well that ...

Found from Deccan and the Himalayas to Hainan, throughout mainland Southeast Asia to the Indonesian and the Pacific Islands, Oberonia mucronata is one of the most widely spread species in its genus . In the Philippines plants have been found in Bataan, Bulacan, Camarines Norte, Rizal and Sorsogon on Luzon; Mindoro and Palawan islands; Davao and Zamboanga on Mindanao; and the island of Basilan.  The species name came from the Latin  mucronatus , which means 'tipped with acuminate points', a reference to the teeth on the labellum, which appear as frills. The plant is previously known as O. iridifolia , until the name Stelis mucronata was found out, which represents the earliest known name applied for this species, having been described in 1825 by David Don. Paul Ormerod and Gunnar Seidenfaden made the proper transfer to the genus Oberonia in 1997. The genus name honors the mythical king of the fairies, Oberon.   This is one of the more robust species among...