zygopetalum in bloom

my mom left me this plant in 2003 before she went back to malaysia. we didn't know what the flowers would look like, we only knew it is a zygopetalum. the plant continues to give out baby years after years. I have repotted it once or twice.. last year, a small spike (i am 90% sure it is a spike, not a baby) came out but due to neglect and inexperience, it didn't grow big or flower. in fact, the spike broke. i was disappointed.

this year, somewhere in beginning of autumn, it showed sign of spike again. this time i spent a lot of time observing and watching. before long, not 1 but 4 spikes appeared. I am estactic and anxious.i moved the plant indoor (to jake's displeasure) to ensure that it will bloom and shelter it from the rain/frost. i probably announced to stace about these spikes in May, but the first flower bloomed in 9 July :) I AM SO PLEASED!!!!!!!! 

my not-so-new addition

meet pregnant onions...i got it from michelle, a friend at orchid clubs. it's not edible, and the babies will just grew out as offset.

i googled and find out extra information about the pregnant onion 

howick orchid society- what happens at monthly meetings

i belong to the howick orchid society and have been a member since 2003.
it is through that club that i picked up tips and pointers on how to cultivate orchid. it helps to know how the people around your area grow their orchid.
this year i joined the committee as the money woman aka the treasurer. it's been fun so far.
here's a glimpse on what normally takes place in the meeting.


Top row : members sit and listens to the president/speaker to deliver the topic of the day.
Speaker of the day, Graham Andrews who own a big garden supply shop has come to be speaker of the day. He talks about different products (chemicals, equipments , etc)

Bottom row: prizes for the raffles/ the mobile library with books of all sorts about orchid. i dare say the collection is better than any of the libraries i've been.

there's also tables for popular and novice votes . the plants belong to the club member and there will also be plant commentary on the plants for the popular and novice votes. below is a sampler of members plant:
multitude of colours ..they are so pretty.

this one has really special container made up of punga log (the trunk of big fern plant)

Commercial Grower at Drury -part 3

i don't know why i left out this grower when i blogged about the commercial grower.
this nursery has 3 shade houses-2 orchids and 1 succulents.
this grower, Dave specialises in dendrobium (although you can also find some zygo and cattleyas in the orchid shadehouse).
some of his dendrobiums are huge..i think they are more than 10 years old.
i bought some succulents and home-made clover honey from him.
enjoy the gallery of pics i took of his lovely plants.

believe it or not, both flowers come from the same parent plants/ seedlings but the colours can vary. that's the beauty of hybridisation.

This is a zygopetalum orchid. Notice the intensity of the purple color on the lip from 2 different plants.


this is the gigantic dendrobium orchid. look at its size relative to average dendrobium.

these are some of the complementary plants in the orchid shadehouse. the hanging/cascading ones are spanish moss. they are a type of air plant.

another type of dendrobium orchid.

this is a succulent plant. not sure if it's aeonium or echeveria but i adore its symmetry.

this is my favourite photo. it's also the result of hybridisation. the plant has the same parents as the first two photos you see.

two bromeliad that caught my attention.


two succulents that's filled every inch of the pot. the left one is called the sempervivum aka hen and chicks and the right one is the 'organ pipe' crassula.

my attempt to bake -carrot cake

i finally baked again after a long while ..the last time i baked was in 2003 or earlier.
i am never very good at baking. jake has been asking for carrot cake. so finally i give it another go.the last time i made carrot cake was in 1997 with pinkcocoa at her housemom's house.
this is like walking down memory lane ;)

here's my recipe if anybody's interested.

• 2 cups sugar (i used 1 cup)
• 1½ cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs beaten
• 3 cups self-raising flour
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 cups grated carrot
• 1½ cup chopped pecans& walnuts (i used macademia)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ tsp salt

n.b. I started heating up the oven as I grate the carrot.

1. Grate the carrot.
   
2. Beat eggs and mix sugar, vegetable oil, and the vanilla extract. (i used a combination of hand whisk and the electric whisk)
3. Then add the flour, ground cinnamon, grated carrot, and the chopped nuts into the mixing bowl and give it a good fold. (i am terrible with baking language)
4. Set the mix into a detachable cake tin. (I used 11 inch detachable round cake tin lined with baking paper)
   
5. Next, bake for 1 hour and 10mins at 160 celcius.

p/s: i think the cake is nice especially served with vanilla ice-cream.

mango custard pudding

had this for dessert the other night, courtesy of my sis-in-law who made them.
she used real mango slices to garnish them. 

happy birthday , bro..

i just remembered, it is my bro's birthday today.
happy birthday, bro.

*pics taken at suspension bridge @ karangahape gorge earlier this year

new york city - by feet

we set off from queensboro plaza, and it takes about 20 mins to get to manhattan. however, we have decided to go catch the staten island ferry to see lady liberty. (add another 15 mins)



it was a new ferry terminal and i saw this interesting poster pasted at the terminal. FEED A PIGEON , BREED A RAT. Pigeon is equivalent of rat in NYC. they are a nuisance and their poo probably is toxic too. the ferry ride takes about an hour and the wind was very chilly.
took some blurry pic of lady liberty.

after that, we venture to canal street (the china town). there're rows of stalls selling trendy jewelleries by mainland chinese. after 2-3 stalls, you will realise that the stock are pretty much the same. the price is cut-throat for us. but the angmohs buy them like hotcake. suffice to say, those seller don't 'layan' people like me.

there're lots of cabs (yellow) around. just had to take a pic of the cab :) HEHE. Little Italy is just adjacent to Chinatown. there's lots of restaurants and interesting little shops. it was very christmasy too, since it's only 12 days to Christmas.

finally we went to Times Square, the famous landmark in NYC. Honestly I was expecting a huge clock somewhere but we couldn't find it. but it was very colorful and full of billboards.

the rockerfeller centre christmas tree again. throngs of people were trying to look at the tree. i was one of them.

the amazing St Patrick Cathedral. It was very beautiful and grand. It was so peaceful inside eventhough it was crowded.

we only explored NYC on our own for a day. there are still many places yet to be explored. maybe that gives me a valid reason to revisit NYC sometime in the near future *Grin

Commercial Grower at Drury -part 2

i also had the opportunity to visit another grower. was greeted by his little terrier. he's real camera shy.
This grower is more old-school. interesting point to note, he hails from holland too. he plants mostly anthuriums. he also had orchids. *mainly oncidiums (the yellow coloured orchid), some odontoglossum


he had so much variety of anthurium around , they were really spectacular.
here's some sample of his beautiful collection.

*putting them on a grid like this do them no justice, but that's the best i can come up with.

Commercial Grower at Drury -part 1

i went to a commercial grower at Drury, about 30mins from South Auckland on the last week of May. it was part of an outing organised by the orchid society.
I was expecting muddy, and drippy places.. but i came to something totally opposite.
the area is sterile. it's an eye-opener.

*seedlings are grown on the floor of the enormous glass houses. there's at least 1-2 acres of glasshouse. some workers were working on the seedling. there were anthuriums, bromeliads, ferns and orchids grown inside the glasshouse. was told there were also vegetable seedlings too.. the roof captures the heat and sunlight. the whole facility is based on dutch technology. the dutch actually came and build the facility.

*that's one of the partner of the nursery. he was giving an extensive talk about growing phalaenopsis in the commercial sense. there were rows and rows of phallies in the glasshouse and he supplies them to the florist or the plant shop. he has worker whose job is staking the phalies stocks. guess what's cooking in the drums?? hehe fertiliser. there were a row of about 5 big drums, and each contains specific fertiliser for different plant group.

*baby phallies, and the various type of bromeliads.

what i have been up to

i think i better write a little of what i have been up to aside from posting pics of newly acquired plants or existing plants.

work has been quite hectic. lots of small deadlines. my boss would ring me even though he's just 2 doors away and my ancient phone does not have caller id so each time he rang, i said Good X, J's speaking.

i prepared a list (to be done after work) of " to do list" today and marked it off as i go.

• picked up society's bank statement from Marnee;
• updated society's member list;
• still haven't draft /write to R walker, society auditor (i am so slack)
• typed up lyrics for next choir song. still not convinced that's the song we will sing. i just want to tick off the list. in case you wonder what song i picked it's an old song by Maranatha.
• finally, updating my CV! i realised i haven't touched it since last April.

in between the to do list, i actually went to Ezibuy, Freedom Furniture and 2 supermarket after work. in the first two establishment was just window shopping. was wanting to get something for my bro's birthday and also hunting for sunblock. also read the magazines without buying. read the most recent NZ Gardener and NOTEBOOK (this one looks so yummy, I almost bought it) and browsed through Better Home and Garden.

from sunblock, i end up getting snail and slug pellets, a bottle of echinacea and cotton buds.

newly acquired plants

few weekends back, i went to a plant sale. they are ex-hire plants. so some of them are really huge. some of them had been deprived of attention. i wish i had a trailer so i can buy those bigger plants.

i picked up many bromeliads, and some houseplants. couldn't resist the phalaenopsis too. 

端午节

端 午节 (duan wu jie) or otherwise known as dumpling festival or dragon boat festival falls on the 5th day of the 5th month on the lunar calendar. this year, 5th day of 5th month falls on 31 May. coincidentally, it is also my deceased maternal grandma's birthday.

anyways, as the chinese settle on any parts of the earth, they will bound to remember all the different chinese festivals in the year.

this year, my in laws made many bak zhang or rou zong zi /meat dumplings. they made a cantonese shaped dumpling but with hokkien ingredients. i'll let the pics tell you what's it got.

My orchid-Paphiopedilum Insigne

*pics taken at different stages while its flowering. (took about 1 week to record it to full bloom)



somewhere in 2004, i bought this paph from the orchid society trading table.
it must be my 3rd or 4th orchid. it has one flower when I bought it.
after it finished flowering, i left it outside per the instruction from book and seller, but it hasn't done very well. as in not much growth and no flower. earlier this year, i moved it indoors and it started shooting new growth and then a stalk appeared -it's going to flower. i am so pleased and so proud of myself.
the blooming itself took about one whole month. it stayed as a bud for weeks (something like 4 weeks?) and on the final week, i managed to capture the bloom, day by day up to when the flower finally bloomed.

My orchid- Prologue

the bud of my paphiopedilum insigne ..this is the first photograph of the bloom.
it stays tight lipped for a long time. 

Lays-Sea Weed flavour

on one of our trips to T-Mark (taiwanese groceries), we found Lays -Sea Weed flavour chip.
it has subtle sea weed flavour and tastes light.
totally recommend this chip. trust Lays to make good chips.

Beginnners Guide to ..

YES. my passion for the moment, gardening. this post is especially for stace ;) i am trying to infect her with my gardening bug. *Grin.

here's my recommendation of beginner fool-proof plants.

main reason for picking them:

• super undemanding (can withstand some neglect)
  
• hardy
  
• multiplies giving you sense of achievement
• very colourful, looks cute
• can be decorative
• can be grown indoor and outdoor

• Echeveria imbracata (aka Monster flower, given its huge rossette forming structure)

- they have very interesting colours. they tolerate almost any type of soil (although the book recommend sandy soil) but they thrive on almost anything.
-with a little bit of attention, it will spread and produce many baby plants.
-they produce pink flowers with yellow linings to the petals
-recently I have tried and succeeded to propagate by using single leaf of the succulent.
-good for borders, pots, anything.

• Crassulae ovata (Jade plant)

-they come under a sub- species, for eg, some are green leaves, and some have green leaves with red rims.
-they have thick leaves and i grew mine under a bit of shade to give that dark green color on the leaves.
-sometimes they will flower too.
-to propagate, use single leave or a little branch.

• Pachyphytum oviferum

-sometimes called moonstones,
-they have very thick leaves and flowers is pale pink.
-can be propagated by single leaf or stem.
-when grown indoor, it can be very white but in sheltered dry outdoor areas, the sun brings out a pinkish color in the leaves.

• Haworthia attenuata

-my dad's friend gave him some bunch of these when he visited him in Auckland. he left me one baby plant and has since multiplied to two pots.
-narrow spiky leaves with bands of white tubercles give the outside of the leaves a zebra patterned look.
-they look a bit like zebras.
-in spring, they give out sprays of tiny flowers.

• Pony tail palm (Beaucarnea recurvata)

-my dad grew this in Sibu. they grew really big but takes ages to grow.
-am surprised to discover it's a type of succulent. it has a bulbous base.
-they like the ocassional drinks. if you grow them indoor, the leaves becomes very dark green.mine seems to have tinge of red on the leaves (maybe due to low temperature)
-what i really want to increase in my collection is palm with two bunch of pony tails on the same bulb.

• Sansviera (mother-in-law tongues)

- this is a really tough plant. it grows upwards so is suitable for any place.
- by tough i mean, it can withstand much neglect. i went on my trip and don't think it received a single drop of water. it still survived.
-after repotting in feb, it has produced many new babies and has grown much taller.
-having said that, i killed jakes first sansviera by standing it under full sun and full rain. (sometimes the plant label can be very misleading).

i think this is enough to get started ;)

new york city -being traffic engineer

after chicago, we flew to new york city. we flew into la guardia airport. it was good coz it wasn't crowded. unfortunately, we had to stay at queens. to be fair, the subway was really convenient albeit it was unlike the singapore or hong kong subway. it was less well lit and much older..they are like what you saw in tv.
i spent my first day at a traffic centre. jake's decided to bring me with him to meet his business contact. so i was 'traffic engineer' for nearly half a day. :P i pretend to be super interested at the traffic system. one cool thing was i could see traffic at times square from the control centre.
L:R the DOT 's numerous screens;funny how they call it air circulator when it is a fan; the server room; emergency response room they even have the news channel constantly on, CNN wasn't their choice of news channel; the system used by the operator in the emergency response room; NYC DOT logo;chart of every traffic light available on Manhattan; the bigger screens of the streets around;in walters suv, passing by one of the bridges; another view of the bridges;NYC has so many bridges, i donno which one is which; their EZ pass system you instal the 'machine' in your car and your car get scanned each time you past the bridge/tunnel; streets in Manhattan; some tunnels we are in; the great mural across the restaurant where i had my fabulous steak; 5th avenue pre christmas time.



at night walter and wife brought us around manhattan. we had dinner at this upbeat restaurant. and walter drove us around in his wife's SUV showing us the bridges, traffic system. i lost count of the number of bridges that we crossed. traffic was really jammed ...
we were on 5th avenue in the SUV and it must have took us 1 hour to get from one end to the other. it would be faster for us to be on our feet.

busy Saturday

with jake gone fishing since 6am, i was left to my own devices. since my laundry is overflowing from my hamper, it's time to put them into the washers. i figured out if they have gone fishing, it must be a good day. i started my first load at 6 am. gosh!!!!!!! and i logged on to read blogs etc.

then stace came online. that was good. we get to chat on MSN :) HEHEHE.
whilst talking to her, i loaded up some pics into my yahoo photoalbum. sal can finally see some pics of my wedding.

then i went to the bank to sort out the signatories for the orchid society. right after that, i went to shop for baby showers gift. that's when headache struck me!!!!!!!
there are so many choices available. they are all so cute. i must have been to about 4 baby places in the mall. most of the shops are filled with mothers and their prams. i finally saw a really cute 2 piece pink fleecy things from the craft market at the mall. one of my friend sells her hand made jewellery there. this time i stopped by one of this store which is tended by two nanna . they were knitting and i spotted the cute bunny rabbit 2 piece baby gear. i asked if she's made them and she said YES. i immediately bought them. i think i like to support local made products :)

then i drove to the horticultural society autumn show. i promised marnee that i would make it to the show. it was a chrysanthemum show and it was such an eye opener. i have never seen 'chrysanthemum' of that size. it's almost as big as a newborn baby's head. some were bigger. then i realised i left my camera at home. M was there and she showed me around.

next year i must go back and this time with camera. there were arrangements made by herbs, and people can compete with the fruit they grown at home. it's amazing what they have at the show.

i bought another houseplant from the trading table. *hiak hiak . i haven't checked out its name yet. it has kinda stripey look and has a shiny purple on the back of the leave.


here's jake's catch for the day, i think the snappers were in the freezer already by the time i took these photos.

mutated radish

recently i saw this giant radish lying around in my kitchen. it has the oddest shape, and weigh at least 2kg.

nevertheless, it still tastes good like normal shaped radish.
lesson of the day: Never judge a book by its cover.