Jardinerong Sunog (the Burnt Gardener)

The one on the left receives direct sun from about 12 PM to sundown. The one on the right gets full sun from around 7 AM till the sun vanishes from the horizon. As far as insolation is concerned, both plants benefit from direct sunlight, and yet the results are vastly different. Because as you can see, not all "full sun" are equal. A week ago, I saw a post on Facebook about an Echeveria 'Black Prince' that appears etiolating, with conspicuously brightish green leaf bases. According to the owner, her plant receives "full sun", but having seen hundreds, if not thousands, of succulents, I know what "full sun" does to plants. And her plants certainly do not fall into the category. When I inquired about the length of time, she said it's 8 hours. My plants (when pertinent, because this logically excludes the ones that prefer more shade) receive roughly 11 hours of full sun every day. It would have been more if not for the mountain range th...

Admittedly, I'm not much into trees. Horticulturally at least. But really, it's more of a reflection of a lack of sufficient space to maintain a number of them than a lack of appreciation or interest. There is, however, a tree I am infatuated with. I now introduce you to  Saurauia elegans . Saurauia elegans are small trees that don't seem to achieve even 20 feet in height, and all that I have seen so far are in the 10 to 15-foot range, with an open canopy of rough, reddish-pink stems and petioles and clothed with large, very stiff and textured leaves with serrated margins. To be truthful about it, these are more like large shrubs than trees. The genus is represented by at least 57 species in the Philippines, some of which bear edible fruits. Dagwey, a small fruit made into preserves and jams in central Luzon, is from S. bontocensis . The amusingly named 'sundot-kulangot' (literally, booger pickings) from Baguio is also from a Saurauia . I hasten to add to my no...