Gardening with Wilson

Caught another leafy vegetable in bloom. This time, I came across a Chinese kale plant(Brassica alboglabra) in bloom. This vegetable is better known by its Chinese name as “kai lan”. It is the leafy green that is cooked by stir-frying and eaten with oyster sauce.

Interestingly, this oriental green is the one that I now know that bears white flowers. Most others produce flowers that are yellow in colour. Each flower is four-petalled and resembles the shape of a crucifix and this is the reason why the plant family which this vegetable and all other cabbage-like vegetables belong to is known as the Cruciferae. The name of this plant family has been changed and is now known as Brassicaceae.

Like many leafy vegetables in bloom, once the flower stalk appears, the plant will start to extend its growth upwards, the internodal distance also elongates. As a result, the plant loses its compact shape and usual appearance that we are all familiar with – the image that we remember from what we see from the greens sold in the market.

The kang kong as it is commonly known here is another popular leafy vegetable. It has another common English name that is the water spinach, which indicates its growth habit and adaptation – the ability to grow in water. There are several cultivars that are being grown locally, most can be differentiated by the shape of the leaves. I know there is one that is called the broad leaf kang kong and another is the narrow leaf kang kong.

I would call it a marginal plant because it grows near the water edge and somehow floats on the water surface. It has hollow stems which is probably how it keeps itself afloat? Because of this characteristic, this vegetable is known by the Chinese as “空心菜” which translates into “hollow stem vegetable”.

It is a fast-growing green and can be harvested 30 days after seeds are being sown, if growing conditions are ideal. The tender growing tips are harvested for food. It can be grown like a ‘cut-and-come-again’ vegetable where stumps can be allowed to regenerate after the growth tips have been harvested.

Due to this practice, many of us do not have the chance to see what the kang kong’s flower looks like. In fact, if allowed to grow on its own, this plant can become a sprawling vine and yes, it does climb up any support, by twining its stems around it! Sounds like the habit of a morning glory isn’t it?

Indeed, the kangkong is a close relative of the morning glory! Its scientific name is Ipomoea aquatica, which translates into “aquatic” morning glory. The flowers of the kang kong are a pure white and like its morning glory counterparts, are rather fragile and not very long lasting.

The butterfly ginger, Hedychium coronarium, is by far, a ginger that I loved most because it produces extremely fragrant flowers, something that is quite unique amongst plants in the ginger family, Zingiberaceae. Many people in my community are quite surprised to know that there are gingers that bear fragrant flowers. This ginger’s common name is derived from the flower’s shape which closely resemble that of a butterfly.

Available in various colours, the common varieties found in Singapore’s nurseries are the ones with flowers that are pure white (H. coronarium var. coronarium), white with a yellow spot (most probably H. coronarium var. chrysoleucum, shown in the picture below) and another is salmon in colour (or orange? Most probably a hybrid). Many of the nice hybrids have yet to make their way to Singapore’s nurseries. But I am not surprised if there are some collectors who may have imported some on their own growing in their gardens.

Besides its fragrant and pretty flowers, the butterfly ginger also produces fruits are a beauty in their own right. Recently, I was quite surprised to spot a ripe fruit of the butterfly ginger which had freshly split opened to reveal the seeds. The rind of the fruit was a bright orange, which contrasts starkly with the seeds that were covered in a prominent red coloured flesh. Altogether, it looks delicious enough to be eaten but I haven’t got the guts to try it yet…

We are all familiar with the lettuce we see and eat in our salads. But how many of us have seen the plant in flower and how the flowers really look like?

My community gardeners left their favourite lettuce plant to flower so as to collect its seeds. As you can see from the picture below, it is one attractive cultivar that has lanceoate leaves that are tinged with red. 

The plant started to send up its terminal flowering stalk some time back, rendering the plant no long harvestable. As the flower stalk grows, you can see the internodes also widen and the plant in the picture below is about 1.2 m tall. I expect it to grow a little taller than that.

The close-up pictures of the flower buds and opened flowers are shown below. As one can see, the opened dainty, yellow flowers of the lettuce resemble daisies. In fact, lettuces are members of the Asteraceae (formerly known as Compositae), which is the daisy family.

This is yet another instalment of Gardening Q&A for me that was published on the Straits Times Life! section.

 This time I was reminded by my good friend Cheow Kheng that the column got somewhat bigger and my picture was enlarged also. Hmm…

Anyway, I just hope the advice I gave helps those in need to get them more informed with regards to the plant that they are growing.

Almost every Chinese New Year, there will be a new plant that will make its debut in the festive plant market. In Singapore, this year we get to see the apple tree (Malus domestica) on sale in the local nurseries. For one thing, they are not cheap! It is not unusual for nurserymen to wrap up the fruits and prevent people from touching the plant for fear that the plant or the fruit gets damaged. Any blemish can render a festive plant unsellable.

 Why the apple tree has become a festive plant for the Chinese New Year? I guess we do not need to think too far. Alot of the Chinese names of plants are “auspicious” in nature and perhaps that is a sales tactic that has been exploited to make an ordinary plant into something special for the festive occasion. Because the Chinese name of the apple (苹果) rhymes with the word “safe” or “peace” (平安), people who wants to have these attributes for the Year of the Rat would cart one of these apple trees home. Maybe even two, since things obtained in even numbers are considered auspicious.

I was at Ang Mo Kio Lanscape and Nursery yesterday and I managed to see two pots of relatively healthy apple shrubs. They are one of the better looking ones with its fruits and leaves still intact. As expected, a truly temperate plant like the apple surely gets a rude shock in terms of the great temperature change it is experiencing now. Many respond to the heat stress by first dropping all its fruits and then the foliage. Such responses are not well received by the Chinese who are often superstitious and if such things happen, people regard it as bad luck.

Was told by a florist friend that such apple trees are most probably grafted plants where the flowering branch was cut and grafted onto a root stock so that the potted shrubs are able to flower and fruit and such a small size. It is common knowledge that the apple needs to get to a much taller tree before flowering and fruiting commences.

All in all, such a plant is meant to be discarded after being used for display during the Chinese New Year. It is really no point and in fact, a waste of space, time and effort to try to keep it alive after the festive season. But do not be surprised if you see someone here trying to revive or keep it alive. Many Singaporeans do that for the reasons that “I want to give it a try”. 

As usual, I had been quite busy that I missed one of my heliconias that was in bloom in the tropical garden in my RC. Wonder if the residents spotted the bloom since it is quite hidden by the leaves of other heliconias.

I was pleasantly surprised that my Heliconia episcopalis ‘Red Orange Spear’ had sent up its characteristic red orange inflorescence. The inflorescence reminds me of a burning flame and it is somewhat different from the many others we are familiar with. The bracts are so closely spaced together that the whole thing looks like a lollipop!

This heliconia adopts a cannoid growth habit and can be quite prolific with its blooms once it is established and well-fertilised. I grow mine under semi-shade and it attains a height of about 1 to 1.5 m and I fertilise liberally with compost and organic fertiliser.

What makes me happier is that another new inflorescence is emerging on the same plant!

Tried my hands on experimenting with the oriental melon two years back, way before I got myself a community garden. Got some seeds from Known You Seeds of the hybrid ‘Silver Light’ whose description is given below:

“This oriental sweet melon is early, vigorous, and adaptable to hot and humid conditions. Fruit is a globe or flat globe, weighing about 400 g, uniform in size, with greenish white skin. Flesh is light green, sweet, and crispy.”

The plant is easy to grow and the right cultivar must be obtained for growing in the lowland tropics so that the fruits produced are sweet. Give it plenty of space to sprawl as it can be a large vine. Some people attempt to grow them up a trellis which is equally possible. The oriental melon is somewhat like a honeydew except that it is so much smaller, where the fruits are only enough for a person’s consumption.

I grew mine on the ground and faced some problems where the fruits are within reach by ants and other pests like snails and slugs. But the ants aren’t all that bad, come to think of it, because they crawl around and helped to pollinate the flowers when I wasn’t around during the weekdays.

‘Silver Light’ is a fast-growing and vigorous variety. It is rather resistent to downy mildew which many curcubits tend to get infected when they are grown here. Took about 2 months for it to flower from seed and about another two for the fruits to develop and ripen on the vine, notice the colour changes in the fruit’s skin shown in the series of pictures shown below.

Something that I would like to try next time is to practise the proper pruning methods observed by commercial farmers. Not only it results in a tidier vine, it also helps to direct the plant’s energy to help with fruit production.

The female flower.

The developing fruit, after successful pollination.

It is exciting to see the fruit enlarging every week!

This fruit’s almost ready to harvest – see the lightening of the rind’s colour.

Another fruit that is ripening…

The harvest brought home and weighed. As can be discerned from the weighing balance, the fruit weighs about 500 g!

I was at a loss as to what to update on my blog in recent days due to the numerous things that are swimming in my mind… Anyway, I realise I haven’t posted anything on spiral gingers as yet so I thought it may be nice to put up a first article on one species that I particularly love.

For anyone who have gone to the Singapore Botanic Gardens, you may have passed by some paths that have been lined with the bamboo costus. Currently, I have two young plants in my community garden.

Botanically known as Costus stenophyllus, the bamboo costus is a spiral ginger admired for its beautiful  stems that are lined with brown coloured alternating bands. This costus somewhat defies the usual definition of a spiral ginger as it has rather straight and upright stems. If you look closer, you will notice the stems near the tips actually do ‘spiral’ a bit.

It’s leaves are all bunched at the top of the stems and they are thin unlike many other species of spiral gingers. This characteristic is reflected in its botanical name, where “steno” in Latin refers to the narrow shape of the leaves.

Taking both characteristics into account, the plant looks somewhat like a ginger equivalent of a bamboo. This plant looks best when several clumps are planted together as that will give a big visual impact. Outdoors, this plant does best in a semi-shaded location. Make sure the soil where it is grown doesn’t dry out. Don’t grow it in an overly windy area.

It also does well in containers too! So apartment gardeners who like this ginger can actually grow one at home. Give it some filtered or direct sunshine for 6 hours daily on your balcony. Rhizomes will spread when given time and plants can be unpotted and divided and replanted into another container.

Conical red inflorescences which resemble the head of a snake emerge from the base of the plants. I noticed this only happens in mature plants, which are clumps of a substantial size. The true flowers are yellow in colour that peek through between the red scales on the rather long-lasting, attractive inflorescence.

As much as I can recall, it should be around at most a year ago since I got bitten by the tropical ornamental plants bug. Today, I officially declare that I am a carrier of the tropical ornamental plants fever. For those who knew me, I am better known as a vegetable farmer. Come to think of it, I was still a rather staunch vegetable and herbs grower a year ago and I won’t be able to imagine that today, I will be so interested in heliconias, ornamental bananas, spiral gingers, cannas and bromeliads…

Why the change?

What is the main reason that caused me to cross the boundary that I drew for myself in the past? Below is a self-explanatory quote which I found from my reading of the Backyard & Garden Design Ideas magazine, an Australian publication, which I have fallen in love with.

Low-maintenance: Not many of us have the luxury to spend time dead-heading the flowers, pruning or tidying the garden. Tropical garden plants are mostly very low-maintenance as dense planting disguises fallen leaves, makes neatness unnecessary and covers up times when some plants are not looking their best. (Issue 5.6)

Vegetable and herb gardening can be very time-consuming and tedious as it requires constant attention to ensure that there are no pests and diseases affecting the plants at nearly all stages of growth. I felt that I want to enjoy a garden and not toil in it.

Still a beginner…

I am still learning the ropes of how to design and plant a tropical themed garden. People who know me often shake their heads when they see me shift a plant around in the garden. At my worst, I can do that several times within a day! Call me a bad designer, but I am treading a fine line between what you would call as a plant collector and gardener designer.

Collector’s plants are exotic and hard to come by. Their availability is really unpredictable. Planning a garden with exotics can hence be very difficult. You can always allocate a space in the garden plot for an exotic plant but when would you know that you will get it? Even if you land your hands on one, is the size and look of the plant appropriate?

The style of tropical gardens are mostly informal in nature. I still remember I was trying to plant a tropical garden as if I am planting a vegetable and herb garden! Vegetable and herb gardens are usually quite formal in their format here.

Work started on the smaller garden which was aimed to become a tropical paradise in April 2007. Look at how dense the grass that was growing on the disused plot!