microb's blog: One step back two steps forward

Many years ago a friend gave me a Stromantha Plant. He said it would not grow for him and never bloomed so he gave it to me. Well, for me, it grew, it bloomed and it multiplied and now I have dozens around the gardens. Each year the parent plant puts up multiple long stalks topped by a new plantlet that first blooms a nice red bunch of small flowers and then bulks up ready to be cut off and put in the ground

So, if I picked the right photo this is the stalk of the Stromantha showing the plantlet on the end. I cut these off with about two inches of stalk below the plantlet, push the spade into the ground, push open a crack behind the spade and push in the base of the Stromantha. Within a couple of months the leaves look healthy and a new little plantlet will start to emerge.
Anyway, the make a short story long, I had to trim back some of these stalks as the weight of the plantlet bends over the stalk across paths, or the plantlet reaches the ground in the wrong place and roots itself. I had 24 of these to put in the ground. I also still had some pots of Costus waiting to go into the ground. So a couple of days ago I put them all in the wheelbarrow and headed across the bridge to beautify the forest gardens. Got to the bridge and to my horror the pigs had returned and had done some minor path excavations right up against the bridge gate. I ventured across the bridge with caution and made my way deeper along the paths and saw a lot of diggings and as I rounded a corner (no not pigs) but found that the pigs had pushed down a couple of 5 foot hapuu ferns, removed the top 6 inches containing the new fronds and then munched away at the hapuu fern stem. They hollow out the stems and completed kill the plant. Sometimes a new fern will emerge from the base but, of course, these grow one to two inches a years so a king of the forest is lost for ever.
I ventured further into the forest shouting things like "hey piggies" "suey" etc etc and then heard grunting not too far off so ran back to the bridge to attack the problem another day.
Next day I got bolder, made my way all the way to second gate, determined that the pigs had left the area and checked out the fences in detail. I found the breach at the further possible point from the bridge. The archway made by the pigs back on exit was about 2 feet high so the last one out was one large pig. Loaded up the wheelbarrow with post pounder and metal T post and patched up the hole. I then cut some 6 ft lengths of sturdy stakes from the nearby trees and pushed a few of those in along the fence line for good measure.
I think it was Wednesday I finally got the Stromanthas in the ground.
Finished cleaning and repotting the Amorphophallus bulbs. Ended up with 198 pots



The plastic knives just indicate that the pot has received attention this year. There are no names. I know I have about five different varieties, two different ones have bloomed this year. My acquisitions from the Gardens last year have put up their first leaves this year and are different from the others. Its really the different foliage that make them interesting when there are no blooms to enjoy. In addition to the 198 pots I have a tray of loose "pups" which are small bulbs too plentiful to bother with so they will get buried around the base of the bamboo clumps in the forest.
A couple of months ago a friend gave we some seed packets to work with. The Chinese impatiens are growing well. Now looking for buds. The four pots of Oxalis are doing fairly well and have made some small pink blooms and then there was this other pot of seedlings. This pot was with the others when sown but, for the life of me I don't remember what they were. This pot put up hundreds of seedling like mustard and cress and they were slow to develop the second set of leaves. I won't move seedlings until I see that second set of leaves. So once the second set of leaves appeared I attached the mass of seedings, just selecting the strongest






I started by selecting the 25 strongest seedlings and put them in one small tray. A couple of days later I went back and filled another tray with 81 more, and as you can see the orginal pot still has a mass of seedlings still developing. It feels like I'm Mickey Mouse with the brooms in Fantasia. Do I keep doing tray after tray of seedling until finished. Right now I'm going to need 105 four inch pots just to keep up with the two trays I have when they get bigger. And I don't know what they are. Maybe they are weeds!!!

These are photos of the pig damage to the ferns. Could not get them to load in the right place.







I finally had time to clean out ponds 1A and 1B. These are 8' x 8' ponds with water lily plants that had become overgrown with other pond plants and surface weed. Now they look like ponds again as I prepare for the summer and the emerging of the water lilies. Also trimmed overhanging plants in pond #2. Spotted another young goldfish that is home raised. We get one appear from time to time. Its good to keep some of the pond weed thick in controlled areas to allow the goldfish to breed. In this photo pond 1A is front right, 1B is front left, #2 is just visible back right and pond #3 is back left. When I've finished lengthy saga I hope to go out and continue cleaning other small ponds



Orchid cactus blooms are becoming more numerous. Dozens of new buds are appearing. Next couple of months will make all the effort worthwhile.







And you never know who will be keeping an eye on me while working in the yard

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