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

Actually my idea of making this set of four succulent gardens all started with a succulent that I bought in CitySuper 1.5 years ago .  As time passed by, the white little rocks in the container began to turn greenish and look dirty (as shown in the photo on the right).  So, I decided to give its home a renovation.  And since I had a few other small succulents with me, why not give them a colorful new home too!

Besides the danger of getting people confused, especially the already-drunk ones, these succulents can make cool decorations for party venue as well

Which one do you like more?

Tabletop Garden – In the Outer Space v1

Cactus makes very good tabletop gardens.  There are many species of cacti, some with outrageous colors, some with small yet flashy flowers, and some with weird shapes and sizes.  We can use cactus to make a very big tabletop garden crammed with various types of cacti, or we can use some baby cacti to make a petit tabletop garden as small as a coffee cup.

Ideas of cactus garden are limitless.  Just be creative and give it a try. I guarantee that you will find a lot of fun in making tabletop gardens with cactus too!

I went shopping in the morning and got myself 8 pots of cacti.  There were so many different species of cacti in the market. Many of them were very beautiful, with pretty flowers, flashy colors, funny shapes and sizes.  If I didn’t make any effort in stopping myself from buying more, I probably would end up with many more cacti than what I have now.

Before actually starting to plant any cactus into my garden, I tried to get a better idea of the garden layout first.  Since my container garden would be viewed from the front, taller plants should go in the back.

Phallic cactus – The phallic shape of this cactus didn’t hit me until I brought the cactus home and got the plant out from its pot… haha

Originally, I wanted to cover my cactus tabletop garden with a layer of small, off-white stones.  But since I couldn’t find any on hand, I used some bigger stones instead.  The tabletop garden actually looks pretty cool with these big stones.

Actually I should have anticipated this… After playing and observing this tabletop garden for a while, I have found its design deficiency – weak support. The red and yellow cacti were very tall, yet, lack of strong support. There were neither plants nor rocks to provide the cacti with enough support.

So, there is really nobody for me to blame on, but myself. The deficiency of the garden design is what that caused the collapse of my tabletop garden.

That’s great! Now I have learned my lesson

Since the red cactus wasn’t looking very good, I took it away and rebuilt my tabletop garden – My Star.  I left the garden like this for a month, making sure the cactus and the succulent were doing fine before putting the final touch.

A month later…  After confirming that both my cactus and succulent were doing fine, I added in a layer of black rocks and brought back the original look of my tabletop garden – My Star

I bought these two Echeverias in December last year for my tabletop garden – Merry Christmas.  In these three months, the stems of these Echeverias have kept stretching longer and longer, and now, they are like a Yao Ming of their genus.

Echeverias need bright light.  And obviously, I didn’t give my poor Echeverias enough light, as the stems of the plants kept growing longer and longer in the direction of the light.

This photo of my tabletop garden – Kung Hei Fat Choi is taken in early February.  After being deprived of light for over a month, the stems of my Echeverias started to grow longer. Yet, as ignorant as I was, I thought I might have fed my Echeverias too well with the liquid plant food that I had just bought for my cacti and succulents.

This is how my Echeverias looked like in my tabletop garden – Merry Christmas.  I bought these Echeverias and took this photo in the end of December last year.

After this experience, I have learned my lesson – light is one of the most important factors, if not the most imporant one, in the care of houseplants. Of course, water, humidity, nutrients, space, temperature and such, affect the health of our houseplants as well.   Yet, it is usually much easier for us to modify these factors than the placement of the windows, skylights, doors, balcony and such.  Hence, the among of light a plant can recieve in the indoor environment is one of the greatest limiting factors when we select our indoor houseplants.

No wonder most indoor houseplant selection guides categorize indoor plants by light requirement.  Okay, I better start listening…