Although members are restricted to cultivate plants other than bonsai trees in the bonsai workshop, Teacher Wong always keeps some flowering plants in the workshop for ornamental purposes.  And now in the early winter, we have some big and beautiful Chrysanthemums with showy blossoms

Merry Christmas and Happy Gardening!

A hanging basket would be nice for trailing plants like Episcia, but I couldn’t find a suitable place in my house where I could hang the plant   While I was puzzling over the new container problem for my Episcia, I saw a cool bike/trolley looking raised planter when I was shopping one day. Yes! This could solve my problem I thought, and so I bought it right away.

This is what I got for my Episica. I guess it can keep the stolons hanging nicely for another year at least

I bought this Hoya Kerrii (aka Sweetheart Plant) a few months ago in the summer.  Although I know that Hoya Kerrii is a slow-growing plant like most other succulents, I observe it closely every once a while, and hope that I will find something new, something different and exciting on this Sweetheart Hoya.

And last month, I finally got to see some “action” -  my Hoya Kerrii has grown another heart-shaped leaf!  Unlike the other leaves of my Hoya Kerrii, this one is all in green.  Now I wonder if the edge of the leaf will somehow turn yellow as the leaf grows bigger.

I did a bit of research on Hoya Kerrii and have learned that Hoya plants need to be a bit potbound before they will bloom. In many cases they simply will not bloom the first few years, but only until adequate roots have formed. A slightly potbound plant will put its energy into growing leaves and flowers rather than producing a larger root system. Hmm… do you think I should pot my Sweetheart Hoya into a smaller pot?

These are the flowers of Hoya Kerrii (photo from Brian’s Garden).  Cute aren’t they?  And from what I have learned, Hoyas are also very fragrant and some species even smell like chocolate too! Ok, now I am looking forward to this day to come

These hanging impatiens bags look so pretty and easy to maintain that I really wanted to make one of my own once I spotted them in the bonsai workshop.  And here, after getting some instructions and advices from Teacher Wong, I have made my own last week

First challenge: Finding a thick and strong garbage bag.  Once I got the container for my plants, I filled it up with potting mix and tied it up tightly.  Then, with a cutter, I made a few openings for my impatiens.

Make sure not to make the openings too close to each other, for we want to give the impatiens enough space to grow and flower.

I have potted six young impatiens in this 30 cm x 60 cm bag.  As Teacher Wong advised, before hanging up the bag, I left it laid flat for several days, so to give the impatiens a chance to root firmly in the potting mix.

The impatiens have been rooted well in the potting mix since a few days after potted.  Yet, I didn’t move the impatiens but only till the plants needed to water again (which was 10 days later).  Since I couldn’t find  a safe way to hang up this heavy bag of impatiens on my balcony (around 18 lbs when the potting mix is more or less dry ), I put it on top of my balcony table,and let it lean against the corner.

So, this is my impatiens bag.  I hope it will grow healthy and flower vigorously in the coming months

This is my tabletop garden – Doraemon Bonsai.  Yes, it doesn’t look like anything close to those elegant oriental potted trees that we usually call as bonsai.  But since bonsai is the art of recreating the beautiful scenery we find in nature in pots and trays, I really do think that this is a bonsai, for it is reliving a scene in the nature (of Doraemon’s world)

You can visit Happy Bonsai for more about bonsai and this tabletop garden – Doraemon Bonsai.

This moss garden – In the Wonderland – has bought me so much joy.  From collecting moss in public park to choosing the right garden container, from making sand art in between the soil mix to cutting up my bracelet, necklaces and earrings, it has been an unexpectedly fun, dare-to-try experience.  While I love my moss garden, it is definitely the process that I enjoyed the most.

I didn’t have much success with the moss that I dug in Tai Po.  The moss stayed pale green and had never grown into a thick, emerald green, spongy carpet (middle) as I hoped for.  But luckily, I found some beautiful moss in the garden of my bonsai instructor (left: the moss in the red bowl is taken from the bonsai garden). And yes, of course I asked for permission before picking the moss in his garden

To decorate my garden, instead of spending money on some beads and stones, I checked my closet and picked a few necklaces and accessories that I had put aside and never used for years.  And these are what I’ve found.

A gigantic light-orange butterfly, some black giraffes, a crystal blue flower-shaped lake, a pale white laughing Buddha,   “Wonderland” was the very first word came to my mind when I was trying to think up a name for my moss garden.

Here are more posts about moss.

]]> http://www.gardeningoncloud9.com/200907/tabletop-garden-in-the-wonderland/feed/ 8 http://www.gardeningoncloud9.com/200907/my-first-playful-tree-workshop/ http://www.gardeningoncloud9.com/200907/my-first-playful-tree-workshop/#comments Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:28:52 +0000 Sandy http://www.gardeningoncloud9.com/?p=2261 Last weekend I had my first Playful Tree Workshop in RAW (Random Art Workshop). While the preparation work was a little more of a headache than I had expected, the workshop went on smoothly overall. With some simple guidelines, and all materials and tools ready, everyone in the workshop was able to make a very cool cactus garden all by themselves.

I had lots of fun that day, and I hope everyone in the workshop had a good time too!

Since my magic beans have been climbing and wrapping around the water pipe pretty well, I decided to take away the training poles.  I just love the leaves.  It is awseome to see how my climbing beans have added more greens on the wall, creating a little vertical element in my balcony.

Tabletop garden – Black N Matching

Here, let me show you how to make this tabletop garden.

In this tabletop garden, I used mini Fittonia, dwarf Neanthe Bella Palm, and Chinese Evergreen. All of these plants can grow well in partial shade, as well as indoor.

Because this is my Mother’s Day present for my mom, I handmade a heart-shaped S and put it in the garden. It is not only my initial, but also my mom’s (Susana), as well as my brother’s (Stephen). If you don’t have a particular design that you want to put in your garden like I did, you can consider using cookie cutters, which make good decorations in your tabletop gardens.

Here are some tabletop gardens that I have used cookie cutters:
Tabletop Garden – After Jurassic
Tabletop Garden – My Star
Tabletop Garden – Double the Love

Chopstick is a common gardening tool for Chinese. I like using a chopstick when I am potting my plants. And in Japanese Garden, Gururaj shares how he uses his pair of chopsticks in his garden. I bet many Japanese gardeners use chopsticks when they are in their gardens as well.

Besides chopstick, my pointed-tip tweezers is another gardening tool that I have found very helpful. In fact, since the objects in my tabletop gardens are very small, for greater precision, I prefer my tweezers over a pair of chopsticks when I am working on my tabletop gardens.

I made this tabletop garden on May 9, a day before Mother’s Day. It looked fine, with only a small part of the “S” being covered by the mini Fittonia. However, on Mother’s Day, which was just a day later, I found the plants had covered almost the whole “S”. This was due to the nature that plants – the tendency of reaching towards the light source.

I got reminded again that, unlike oil painting or sculpture, the matters involving in a tabletop garden is organic and will change along with time and its surrounding environment.  And yes, that’s the fun part too!

Besides Louise, I have a few other friends who guessed the plant that I used in my tabletop garden – Money Bowl is Nasturtium. Actually, it could be quite confusing since both plants have leaf stalks growing from the center of the leaf disks. Yet, it will be very easy to separate the two plants when they blossom.

Nasturtium has yellow or orange flowers.

Interesting Facts of Chinese Money Plant

Besides Chinese Money Plant, Pilea peperomioides is also called Missionary Plant due to the fact that this plant was introduced to Europe by a Swedish missionary working in China in the last century.

For more details, you can check A Chinese puzzle solved – Pilea peperomioides in Wild Chicken.  In addition, here is the plant care information of Pilea peperomioides