Jardinerong Sunog (the Burnt Gardener)

Since I started my advocacy on using mineral mixes for cacti and other succulents, I have been getting swamped with inquiries regarding the types of rocks to be used, the ratio in relation with the other materials, and other nuances. In this post I will be getting more specific and discuss why some materials are not really suitable for use in this regard and why some ingredients are better than the others. But first let's talk about the pots. Pots Perhaps no other branch in horticulture has experimented with so many different kinds of containers than in the succulent sector. The often fantastic shapes of succulent plants lend themselves very well to such containers, many of which can be downright outrageous or even more beautiful than the plants they hold. Whichever container you use, it would be for the best interest of your plant if you choose one that is one or two steps larger than what you would normally consider for the size of the plant. I have said this before and...

One of the idiosyncracies of collectors is that when they have achieved a certain number of plants, they lose track of a lot of things, including their plants' provenance, source, and even names. Just recently an Amorphophallus impressus bloomed here, and even today I still can't figure out how or when I acquired it. Same goes for the plant shown here. The plant at hand is a specimen of A. paeoniifolius , which is the most commonly encountered Amorphophallus species anywhere in Asia. I have some plants here, both potted and grown directly on the ground, but one is a bit of an oddity. As you probably already know (assuming you are familiar with these plants), one of the features of this species is the much tubercled petioles, which are raised and appear as prickles. Even a blind man can discern a paeoniifolius just by running his fingers on its petiole. But one plant I have has a smooth petiole.  Compare the one above to the ones below. The one on the right is a ne...

I have been cultivating Kaempferia marginata for quite some years now, and although it blooms reliably during summer, two flowers appearing at once is not at all the norm. Today one of my plants did just that. This ginger is widely distributed from India to Yunnan, and Myanmar to Thailand (where it is used as a vegetable), and is said to grow on scrubby forests and grasslands. The species has naturalized on Hawaii. A striking feature is the pair of orbicular, wavy-margined leaves that lay flat on the ground. The leaves may be entirely purple or green with purple markings, and even plain green. The flowers are tinged with purple, although pure white ones are known too- like in my plants. To me, these blossoms are like butterflies resting on the foliage, and in shape reminds me of Hedychium coronarium , although with no discernible scent. These flowers are short-lived, and last only until late morning. No worries though as these plants bloom practically everyday when actively growi...

Four or five years ago, a German friend then living on Mindoro gave me small plants of what he said was a species of Globba , from the ginger family. He said he found them on the wild. It did not look like our most common Globba species, G. campsophylla , so I was curious to see its flowers and determine what it could be. The following year, the plant grew mature enough to produce flowers, which I then identified as G. marantina . Suddenly I wasn't too ecstatic about the plant anymore. Globba marantina is found in a large swathe of territory encompassing eastern Asia to the Bismarck Archipelago. However, because of its weedy nature, the wide distribution may only be artificial. Philippine plants for example, are interpreted as escapees, although seemingly highly localized. An indigenous Globba species with similarly colored flowers is G. aurea from the island of Palawan, with erect inflorescences. Globba marantina honors Venetian physician and botanist Bartolomeo Marant...

When my then girlfriend and I went to Ilocos Norte on northern Luzon two years ago, I saw some plants growing on the beach which I thought at first to be Sesuvium portulacastrum , from the Family Aizoaceae . I collected one and it established well for me in no time. So well, that I soon found seedlings growing nearby- seedlings that grew fast and produced more seedlings. I brought home an invader. Two years later and the descendants from that original plant is still with me, growing where they should not be. Admittedly, I could have adopted a more drastic stance and these plants would have been gone long ago, but I still could not resist having them around. Here below is an illegal occupant on a pot of a blue Clitoria ternatea : And here you can see the tiny black seeds from an opened capsule; in a matter of days I am going to see tiny replicas appearing on neighboring plants' pots. I suppose this species is apomictic, or forming viable seeds even without pollination. The...

This is one of my more obscure orchids around, which I believe came to the collection as a small division about seven years ago. I have no provenance data, so I really do not know where it came from. I tried identifying it using my digital copies of Philippine orchid types, but the plant did not really match any of the dendrobes. That leaves the possibility that this is a species still unknown to science, or perhaps it also occurs from outside the Philippines. Nonetheless, this is a very easy going species, fully exposed to the elements and highly resistant to fluctuating climatic conditions. The stems have no pseudobulbous bases, but the function of storage organs is taken out by the knife-like, fleshy leaves. The upper portions of the stems are bare and on their nodes are where the small blooms are produced. This should give you an idea of the size of the flowers: The flowers do not open widely, pure white except for some purple lines on the side lobes and a dark yellow...