gardening update

jake's gone to melbourne @ 0430 this morning (departing @0630) for business and i am left to my own devices again.

decided to weed the flower bed. the weeds have come back with a vengeance after winter. so armed with a mini hoe and two plastic bags, i spent the afternoon pulling and hoeing the bed. feeling extremely pleased to see the flower bed clear of weeds. i also gave my potted plants a check and weeded them. jake's cacti's probably going to bloom in late spring (see bud forming). i transplanted a few succulents here and there while weeding.

checked on the succulent that marnee gave me. was shocked that there were holes on the leaves :( and couldn't see any slugs or snails near it. a check on the gardening book revealed that there could be a caterpillar in the plant. TRUE enough, there was a small one (1.5cm) amidst the leaves of the black rose. needless to say, i killed the caterpillar. it must have been feasting on the leaves for at least 1 week and a half now.

coming projects:

1. improving the soil condition and start a hedge on the flower bed. couldn't decide whether i should have buxus sempervirens (english box) or lonicera nitida (box honeysuckle aka poor man's box). i think final decision rest on the sort of soil condition these two thrive in.
2. transplant crassulae ovata (jade plant) from the propagator bucket to new pot. they seem to outgrown the bucket.
3. start to propagate something since it's spring. (maybe hebe -a type of shrub)
   

update

i have been MIA for a while, reason being the pc was getting reformatted thanks to the malicious stuffs we got while surfing.

anyhow, i have been reading novels this month. So far, have read:
1. Guy Next Door by Meg Cabot or Meggin Cabot (UK edition)
2. The J.A.P. Chronicles by Isabel Rose
3. The School for Husbands by Wendy Holden

funny how all three novels have pink covers ;)

today i went to the garden centre with the intention to get English lavender but i came out with fuchsia instead. 4 of them. i have never planted fuchsia before so they will be an experiment. the ones i bought were: Genii, Celia Smedley, Sunset and Beacon Rosa. They colour of the flower range from shades of purple and red. Genii particularly has very light almost golden colour leaves.

spring is here..

i can't believe spring is here. weather's warmed up, flowers are blooming and daffodil is no exception. i have only come to realise how pretty they are this year. i used to associate them to cancer society flower but last saturday was an eye opener. they are so many varieties out there. see sampler above.
they come in all shades of colors and sizes.. some are huge and some are tiny..
some are fragrant... the big ones look almost like artificial silk flower.

the daffodils above are exhibited by howick horticultural society. marnee's active in the club and invited me to check them out.

besides daffodils, there's plenty to see in the show. check out the camellias (below). i had mistaken some for hibiscus and carnations.



different shades of camellias..

there were also orchids and fruits being exhibited. i don't know how they judge the fruits ..but it's interesting to see.

stace, that big giant spike of little yellow flowers are part of the black rose..(left to right :3rd pic)
i am waiting for mine to give out big spike of flowers like the pic ..kekeke.

this is a flower from the magnolia tree. they are in abundance now..they are as big as my palm.

south auckland orchid society show

i brought my two orchids (one zygo and one cymbidium) to the club meeting on 13/08 for the purposes of club display and to get more advice on how i can better plant them. The people loved the zygo. J Scott who's a very good grower said it was very well grown during the plant commentary. J Duff who grows really good zygo, along with several other people said i should put mine into the coming show at papakura on 19/8 The zygo won the best novice votes ;) at the club meeting. so at the end of the meeting, i left my two orchids with G who will bench them for me. i had to admit, i was a bit hesitant that they were not coming home with me.

on saturday, i was nervous. talked jake into going to the show with me. brought my camera and as i entered the hall, i started looking for my plant.

i found them in the novice section and the zygo's won 1st prize and the cymbidium won 2nd prize in another class. i was and still am over the moon. i entered the competition not expecting to win anything and i bagged two prizes home.

Thai Exotic Fruit Festival

a while ago, (mid july) i went to the Thai Fruit Show and Exhibition @ Auckland City. In fact it's really close to China where I had yum char (read previous post).

It was an eye-opener, and i was really impressed with what's in the exhibition.
I couldn't stop snapping pictures when I was there. there were orchids, fruits, silk, and FOOD ..the festival was to clebrate King Bhumipol's 60th year of becoming the King of the Thai kingdom.

l to r: above: lady making the silky thread, what's produced, yards and yards of the silky thread.
l to r: below: thread in different colour, and some description of thai silk

more silk, in all types of patterns..

i reckon almost the whole auckland thai community is there. the girls were doing the thai performance. i like their head ornaments :)


couldn't resist taking pictures of the colorful silk threads.

saturday morning-yum char @ China

despite its name, this restaurant has contemporary setting but also utilises antique looking stools and tables. the specialty for the dim sum menu is mostly durian flavoured.

i particularly like the presentation of its dim sum dishes. it is much better looking than the regular chicken feet. ie, there's peanut and capsicum with the chicken dish, and the pork ribs.


*the durian flavoured bun.

the price at China is mid-range from $4.00 - $8.00 a basket.
China's located near Britomart in Auckland city.
i will definitely go back again :)

Banana Pinwheel Scones

i made these for an office morning tea about a fortnight ago. the recipe is from a kid's magazine and they smells and tastes good when it's piping hot. of course it would be nicer with a cup of tea.

here's the recipe:

2 cups self-raising flour
1 tbsp sugar
pinch salt
2 tbsp melted butter
1/3 cup milk

Filling
2 mashed bananas
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

1. mix the flour, sugar and salt together in a bowl. Add the melted butter and mix through. Make a well in the centre, add the milk and mix lightly with a table knife.

2. Turn the dough out onto a board and roll lightly but quite thing.

3. Spread the banana mash onto the dough, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar and roll up.

4. cut into 12 small pinwheels and place them onto greased muffin trays.

5. Cook for about 12 to 15 minutes in a 200 degree celcius oven.

update -my birthday

just a couple of updates:

i celebrated my birthday last wednesday. thank you everyone for your card, presents, wishes...*hugs and kisses.

i had a small party on the saturday to celebrate my birthday. here's some photos...


on wednesday, we had another cake :)

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.