Here’s another instalment for the Root Awakening in the Life! section in the Straits Times in this brand new year!
Enjoy and hope it benefits but do take note that the plant featured in the picture of this Q&A section is probably more of an aster than a gerbera. 
Posted in Root Awakening in ST Life!
The cultivar ‘Coffee cups’ is a plant that is hard to link to the common edible yam, Colocasia esculenta. It is unique in many ways due to the shape of its leaves – they are folded in a way to look like a cup that is capable of holding small amounts of water. The typical yam leaf is shield-shaped and flat.
It is an interesting plant to have because the ‘cups’ actually collect rain water during wet weather. Very engaging to watch, one can see as each cup fills up with rainwater, it eventally yield to the weight and volume of the water by bending their petioles to empty what they have collected. The leafstalk then springs upright again to start the cycle all over again. That is a reason why I have it in my community garden so that people can be acquainted with this fascintating yam.
Before we jump to conclusions that this plant is a potential ‘mosquito’ plant, let me tell you that the plant grows best being bathed in the direct sunshine outdoors. The petioles of this delightful plant will then turn into a deep purple. The heat from the sun should be able to dry the water collected in the leaves within a day or so or that the heat from the sun would have been able to warm the water up to a temperature inhospitable to the larvae of mosquitoes. Well, before anyone quotes me for this, let me qualify that these are my hypotheses! If one is still worried, what one can do is to just tip over the cups to empty the water! It should not be too much work if there is one plant as there can be just that many leaves!
‘Coffee Cups’ was once a popular landscape plant that was quite exotic some years back. Demand and probably the ease of propagation has made this plant widely available and more affordable. In many sense, its ‘exotic’ status has been downgraded, making it comparable to those run-out-of-the-mill houseplants we can see on sale in local nurseries.
As stated on Plants Delights Nursery’s online page on this plant, ‘Coffee Cups’ was discovered by Indonesian botanist Gregory Hambali and brought to the US by aroid expert Alan Galloway.
Another Ipomoea species that is sprawling in my community garden is the moonflower, scientifically known as Ipomoea alba. As the common name of this vine suggests, the plant bears trumpet-shaped flowers that open at night. The flowers are white like the flowers of many other night blooming plants and this is indicated on the plant’s specific name ‘alba’. It is large, when the petals are fully unfurled, it can span 10 cm across in diameter. Hence they are hard to miss even at night!
Good night shots are difficult to take but I managed to snap a picture of a blooming moonflower before darkness conquered last Sunday. That was about 7 pm in the evening. Moonflowers are extremely short-lived. They wilter by dawn the following day. Interestingly, I get seed pods all the time, probably due to pollination brought about by the numerous ants that are attracted to the nectar secreted by the flower.
I often see ants crawling in and out of the flower tube! A visitor kind of freaked out before when she noticed that while she was trying to take a sniff at the moonflower. Do you know that the moonflower blossom is actually slightly fragrant?
The moonflower is a fast-growing vine that have heart-shaped leaves and loves the sun. It can be grown by apartment gardeners provided you have a sunny windowsill or balcony. The vine can be grown in a pot, must be well-watered, especially in a breezy area. Give it at least 6 h of direct sunshine.
Together with the help of my friends from Green Culture Singapore, we have created a little tropical paradise in the heart of Serangoon North Ave 2. The tropical themed garden features exotic bromeliads and airplants, ornamental musas (bananas), spiral gingers (costus), heliconias and various other gingers.
Such a garden is perhaps the first of its kind that exists in a public housing estate and it was my dream to bring such gardens which often occur only some private home gardens or the only other place that has this currently is the Singapore Botanic Gardens, to the HDB heartlands. Of course, what my friends and I created cannot be compared SBG in terms of size and the number of plants. I should be submitting it for the upcoming Community in Bloom Awards 2008, in addition to the other larger community garden, if we can complete the landscaping work in time.
Last April, I was given the mandate to landscape this piece of land from my ex-RC Chairman. The land was once of a former community garden which fell into disrepair and neglect. Rather than letting it be paved up with concrete again, I gathered a group of exotic plant enthusiasts from my forum to work together in this community project. My friends from the forum, Phillipe and Chong Ren, drop by occasionally when they are available and free from work commitments during the weekends. During weekdays, we either sms, chat on the phone or MSN to update each other of the progress of the garden as well as discuss what other interesting and exciting things we can bring to the garden.
All the plants are bought by me and painstakingly chosen and bought over a period of at least 6 months. I must say I am doing it as if I am choosing diamonds or some precious gems! A couple of plants are priceless because they simply cannot be bought from any source and were donated to me by a few plant collector friends. Some people have expressed a sense of awe when they found out that I actually forked out the money from my savings to do all this – all in the name to just bring these plants to the public here so that they can see them without having to go to the Botanic Gardens. Over there, even if they do visit, there is no guide to tell them what they are seeing and hence they will be missing out the juicy details of these plants.
Of course, the garden’s locked up at all times for security reasons and opened when I am working in the garden. A few thefts in the past have rendered the lock and key necessary. I am still thinking of how we can make this garden more accessible to the public. A few lucky passers-by will get a chance to come in to view the garden where they get also a personalised tour conducted by me. A couple have obtained free gifts, i.e. airplants, from me.
This community garden is now at its finishing touches. I will be bringing some wood chips to lay on the ground to give it a more natural look as well as I would be ordering more bromeliads from the US to add to the existing collection which will cost me another several grand. My friends and I thought that these colourful gems of the South American forest will add more of the exotic and expensive touch to this garden. I am planning to bring in plants from the various genera of Bromeliaceae to represent this family of plants where the most common member we know of is the edible pineapple.
Sad to say, there have been massive complaints from the residents, perhaps due to the obvious fact that they are ignorant, which has brought me undue amounts of distress and unhappiness. A few have complained why a garden has to be fenced up to protect “seemingly” cheap, ugly jungle plants and that it is exclusive to myself. Others have questioned about the possibility of mosquito breeding where I must admit that I am the one who is more concerned than anyone of them and is taking every measure to ensure this doesn’t happen. There are a handful which make up who cannot appreciate the “messiness” which is often seen in tropical gardens.
I have shown the first aerial picture taken of this garden to my fellow Green Culture Singapore members, one of which is a professional landscaper, who all gave their most frank feedback – the garden is now at its best and well-planned. It is a very, unique feature in the estate that my residents should learn to appreciate and cherish.
I have just put up two feature articles for the month of Dec 07 on the Green Culture Singapore website.
The first article was written by my young member, Xuan Hong, which focussed on his experience in helping to set up the Borneo Exotics booth. He was also there to promote the sales and growing of pitcher plants, together with Cindy and Hong Rui, two other fellow Green Culture Singapore members.
Reflections at GardenTech 2007 & Borneo Exotics
Xuan Hong, together with Hong Rui and Cindy, all members of Green Culture Singapore had the opportunity to help out at Borneo Exotics’ booth during GardenTech 2007. Read this feature article written by Xuan Hong where he details his experience during this garden fair held for the first time in HortPark.
URL: http://www.greenculturesg.com/articles/dec07/dec07_gardentech2007.pdf
The second article was written by myself on the leopard lily (Belacamda chinensis), a tropical iris relative that is now more commonly seen being grown in Singapore.
Getting to know the Leopard Lily
The leopard lily is better known as an ornamental plant that is currently getting a little “over-used” in Singapore because it can be seen in many of the new and upcoming condominium showflats where they are planted en masse outdoors. Little is known that it has medicinal properties. Read this article written by Wilson to learn more about this plant and how to grow it.
URL: http://www.greenculturesg.com/articles/dec07/dec07_belamcandachinensis.pdf
Happy Reading!!!
Posted in GCS Feature Articles
Tagged belacamda chinensis, Borneo Exotics, GardenTech 2007, HortPark, leopard lily
We are all too familiar with the tubers of the sweet potato. Most of sweet potatoes we see in the market have a brownish skin. Now, there are tubers that possess a purple skin which are from Japan where some people are crazy over them due to some reported health benefits after consuming them. The leaves which are very nutritious can be bought from the local market where they can be stir-fried and eaten like a leafy vegetable.
The sweet potato is scientifically known as Ipomoea batatas and is a cousin of the ornamental flowering vine, the morning glory. For some people, it is hard to draw the relationship between these two plants. One common feature between the both of them is the similarity of the shape of the leaves.
Another feature lies in the flowers. Most of us would have seen the trumpet-like flowers of the morning glory vine, but have anyone seen those of the sweet potato? As I was walking through my community garden, I was surprised to see my sweet potato cultivar ‘Blackie’ blooming. As I have read earlier, the facts coincided with what I saw – the sweet potato’s flowers resemble those of the morning glory and are violet in colour.
I was indeed surprised that my garden’s sweet potato vines actually flowered. Because the young shoots of these plants are regularly harvested for food, I thought the vines will never get a chance to grow long enough to mature and produce flower buds. Perhaps this vine managed to escape!
During my gardening talk delivered last week, I introduced Chinese chives as one vegetable that everyone should grow. Chinese chives is not a vegetable that appeal to everyone’s taste but I am sure it does have its own allure as an ornamental plant. Hence it is very at home in a potager garden.
This vegetable should be grown in large numbers in a bed. The plant is grass-like and it looks best when it is in flower. Small, white flowers are borne on umbels and are displayed in erect stalks held above the mass of green tape-like leaves. Do you know that the flower buds are edible too? They can be found on sale in our local wet markets!
It is best grown in well-drained soil that is enriched with organic matter and fertile. It tolerate some shade and seems to do quite well in Singapore when it is grown under semi-shaded conditions.
I would recommend one to buy a pot of Chinese chives when they are available in pots in the nursery. One can wait for the clump to grow up and then divide to get more plants. This is an easier and surely a less painful method compared to growing them from seeds.
I had been really busy over the past four days of New Year’s holidays to rest as well as spent quite a bit of my time to tidy up the community garden, which kinda become a big mess due to neglect. Whilst working in the garden, I spotted the inflorescence of my Heliconia ‘Alan Carle’. It is small heliconia an erect inflorescence that is yellow in colour.
The inflorescence looks somewhat like the one seen in ’Golden Torch’ that is often planted en masse in Singapore’s streetscape (better term for ‘roadside’ plant). Not suprisingly, both plants came from the same cross – Heliconia psittacorum x spathocircinata. But luckily, ‘Alan Carle’ isn’t as commonly used as a candidate for our roadside plantings, yet.
What’s unique about this plant is the leaves. Unlike many other heliconias, ‘Alan Carle’ has leaves that are curiously splashed with golden spots on the leaves all over. The spots seem to be more evident when the plant’s grown in semi-shade rather than where it is now grown – full sun conditions. Or at least that is what I have noticed.
Also, the perianth of ‘Alan Carle’ is tipped with green.
This hybrid should be more free flowering. But I only got one inflorescence. The reason – lazy Wilson hasn’t been fertilising it enough!
