This month, I have written two gardening feature articles for members of Green Culture Singapore to read and enjoy. The month of January 2009 is the Lunar New Year period and both articles revolved around this joyous, festive theme.
The first article focussed on the popular houseplant, Zamioculcas zamiifolia, that is also commonly called the “ZZ Plant”. Unlike most other festive plants that produce showy and colourful flowers, Zamioculcas zamiifolia, is grown more for its elegant growth form and shiny foliage. Read the article below to know how it became a Lunar New Year festive plant and how to propagate it.
The second article is a book review on the work by Peter Valder entitled “The Garden Plants of China”. This book was recommended to me by a fellow Green Culture Singapore member some years back because I was looking around for a good book to learn more about the many Lunar New Year plants.
Click on the URLs below to download the pdf file to read the articles.
Zamioculcas zamiifolia: More than just a Lunar New Year festive plant
Zamioculcas zamiifolia, commonly called the “ZZ Plant” is a popular Lunar New Year festive plant that is also grown as an ornamental, mainly for its attractive glossy foliage. It is evergreen in the tropics and constitutes one of the worthy buys in the category of festive decorative plants because it does not die away and had to be discarded like those that originated from temperate or subtropical climates that are imported prior the festive season. Read this article to learn more about this cast iron indoor plant!
URL – http://www.greenculturesg.com/articles/jan09/jan09_zamioculcas_zamiifolia.pdf
Book Review on “The Garden Plants of China”
Want to know more about your Lunar New Year plants? Read the book entitled “The Garden Plants of China” by Peter Valder! It is a colourful and highly informative book that is a must-read for those who want to know more about these festive plants as well as many others that are also grown in Chinese gardens. The information about many of these plants are scanty and scattered and this work is a bold attempt to bring as much as what Valder can gather into one volume. It also enables the interesting knowledge about these plants to be made accessible to non-Chinese readers too.
URL – http://www.greenculturesg.com/articles/jan09/jan09_garden_plants_of_china.pdf
