Garden Diary - Page 4

Continued from... 25 February 2008
Last month I had a surprise though when one of the orchids produced a white flower, a very beautiful one too! I even phoned Mumin to congratulate him on supplying something different than a mauve one! And my phalaenopsis orchids (again mauve) are coming into flower yet again, second time in the last 12 months.
Around last Christmas I got a gift of a pack of tulips from someone who was passing through Amsterdam airport. I planted the bulbs and could not believe when they pushed through the soil. I think it is too hot for them to produce flowers but I am watching them. As we have local strawberries for sale, I believe everything is possible. The strawberry season seems to be from mid-December to about now. Perhaps even later. The taste and flavour is unbelievable, so fresh and sweet, and fragrant - much nicer than the strawberries sold in supermarkets back in UK. I even managed to get three plants from Astrid, the German lady settled in The Gambia. She grows all kinds of salads, herbs and other things including strawberry patch. I love visiting her garden.

20 January 2009
It has been a very long time since I last updated the site. The reasons are many but I hope to be able to continue on a much more regular basis in the future.
Last year my beautiful medinilla magnifica gave up on me. The rain season was extremely humid and long and leaf by leaf the plant died. I felt so helpless. I watched it die and could not stop it. I tried fungicide, pesticides and repotting – nothing worked. Finally, out of desperation, I took three cuttings of what looked like healthy bits of the plant and, surprisingly, two of those cuttings are still green. I have not seen new leaves on them as yet, but I am hopeful.  Maybe not all is lost…Lot of my orchids are re-flowering, mostly mauve ones in different shades. One yellow one is also doing well.

My bat plant (tacca chantrieri) is doing very well. I had at least three flowers on one plant, they really look like bats! I have also acquired a white variety but will have to wait for it to flower as it is very small.

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