Remove Old Leaves to Promote Flowering

"Remove the old to make way for the new."

That may as well be a sentence you'll read in a "declutter and organize your life" self-help book or magazine. But it's a statement that applies too to gardening.

Below are pictures taken from the same plant, a Cypress Vine. Can you spot the differences between Photo A and Photo B?

Photo A

Build a Bleeding Heart Wall Trellis - Part 4

In the previous entry or Part 3 of this how-to series, I wrote about a successful vine thriving on a tall trellis. I also listed some considerations on why I decided to build a trellis made of steel wire.

For the Steel Wire Trellis project, here are the materials and tools you'll need:

Materials:
Steel Wire - Gauge 14, 120 feet
Square Hooks - 2", 21 pieces
Plastic Expansion Shield (tox) - #5 or size for the square hook screw, 21 pieces
Epoxy Clay
Quick Dry Enamel Paint

Tools:
Vise Grips
Channel Type Pliers
Long Nose Pliers
Power Drill
Concrete Drill Bit - size appropriate for the square hook screw
Paintbrush - 1"

Patola or Luffa

Our patola or luffa is now ready for harvesting. It seems still a bit young though since you'll notice that the top part hasn't been "filled-up" yet. The plant grew on the backyard garden trellis.

How to Deadhead the Cypress Vine Manually

In a recent entry, I wrote about the importance of deadheading for more flowers. In that same entry, I added a simple procedure for deadheading the flowers of the Cypress Vine using a pair of pruning shears.

But what if you don't have a pair of shears on hand? Certainly, the pruning shear does a better job of cutting the spent blooms cleanly, but there is a way to conveniently and manually deadhead.

Shown below are a couple of buds on the same stem. The one on the left is the seed pod left by the flower. This is evidenced by its long pistil still showing. The pistil looks like a long white thread. On the other hand, the one on the right is a bud just about to sprout a flower. In another entry, I wrote how to differentiate a flower bud against a spent bloom.

Sitaw or Yardlong Beans or String Beans

We've been finally harvesting Sitaw or Yardlong Beans lately. They are also called String Beans. The seeds of these plants came from a gardener in Los Banos Laguna when we went there May of this year. The lavender flowers come in pairs. Here, I'm showing one of the flowers.

Training Unwieldy Millionaire's Vine Branches

In a recent entry, I mentioned how a the Millionaire's Vine (aka Princess Vine) can be trained on its trellis. This is especially when the vine is still young and is just establishing its growth.

There will come a time however when the growth and foliage has become so lush and thick that adding more thin wires to hook the vine branches may no longer be practical. Shown below is such a situation.

Build a Bleeding Heart Wall Trellis - Part 3

In Part 2 of this how-to series, I mentioned about a Bleeding Heart vine that was doing very well on a high trellis. The photo of that vine is shown below.

The name of the proud owner of this vine is Jim R. Stevens and I learned of him from forums.gardnweb.com. Here's the specific entry in that forum.

I asked Jim about his trellis' spacing dimensions and verified that the spacing is 8" by 8". The spacing is a bit tight in my opinion and decided that a 10" x 12" (height x width) would do.

Jatropha podagrica or Buddha Belly Plant

A couple of years ago, a friend gave my wife a small potted plant. The friend specifically said the plant was Ginseng and had medicinal properties. After hearing the word "medicinal", images of myself quietly sipping piping hot Ginseng tea in our garden quickly flashed my mind. =) I was a bit surprised and interested as I've never seen a living Ginseng plant. So I asked my wife to take care of it as it may help relieve our ailments, imagined or real, in the future.

The plant has since grown and a few weeks ago the plant bloomed and the flower was strange yet beautiful! (Click on the image below to enlarge.)

When you Need Seeds from the Cypress Vine

Then the obvious is to let the seed pods mature on the Cypress Vine. Here, I allowed several seed pods or "fruits" to stay on the stems so I could "harvest" the seeds for storage.


Build a Bleeding Heart Wall Trellis - Part 2

After seeing the sorry state our vine was in, I was determined to find a new home for it. In Part 1 of this how-to series, I simply propped it up temporarily with a couple of bamboo sticks.

I googled the internet for successful flowering Bleeding Heart Vines and saw a couple of photos that blew me away.

This one is quite incredible.


It is in a pot but with flowers aplenty! I couldn't imagine the number of flower clusters in this plant. It's as if the color of the white calyxes simply overpower the green leaves.



Well, as as they say, "to see is to believe". And after seeing the above, I suppose it IS possible to have such prolific flowering.

  • EVEN if the vine is in a container (garden pot)
  • and EVEN if there's no trellis.

Bleeding Heart Vine Flower (Glory bower)

It's been quite a while since clusters or cymes of Bleeding Heart (Glorybower) flowers have sprouted. Finally today, the corolla has emerged from one flower giving the characteristic blood-red color.


Shown below is a time-lapse photography sequence of the flower culminating in the sprouting of the dark red corolla:

Tip for Correct Drill Bit Depth

In many DIY (do-it-yourself) projects around the home and garden, you'd encounter the need to drill holes in wood or concrete. The best way to do this is with an electric or battery-powered drill. You simply choose the right sized drill bit, tighten in on the drill chuck and you're ready to drill away.

But how do you ensure that you've reached the right depth for the hole? Some drills now come equipped with a measuring gauge/rule, but what if yours doesn't have one?

Here's a tip. Use an old standby - the masking tape. Simply measure the depth from the tip of the drill bit. In the photo below, I'm using a drill to bore a hole that's 3/4" deep because that's the length of the expansion anchor. Cut a short masking tape and wrap around at the marked depth.


Run the drill and stop at the point where the first masking tape edge has just entered the drill hole.



Which Bloom to Deadhead in a Cypress Vine

In a recent entry, I wrote about the importance of deadheading the Cypress Vine and the best time to deadhead. Obviously, the flowers to deadhead are the spent ones. But if you're not careful, it's easy to mistake the spent blooms for those blooms just about to open. And what a shame if you cut them by mistake!

So which are the spent blooms? The photo below a side by side comparison between a spent bloom and a new one.


The spent bloom is the one on the left. Here are the telltale signs of a spent bloom:
  1. Encircled in red is the seed pod or fruit. It appears to be more rounded and bulbous.
  2. The seed pod is more exposed and the bloom appears pushed out.
  3. Encircled in light blue is the spent bloom. It looks shriveled.
  4. The tip of the spent bloom is withered and rough.
Compared to the spent bloom, the new bloom looks fresh, smooth and still closed with the tip rounded.

Build a Bleeding Heart Wall Trellis - Part 1

Two months ago, I learned from DH that we had a Bleeding Heart Vine (Clerodendrum thomsoniae). When I looked at it, the plant was in a pathetic state. It was in a small pot and was probably three and a half feet high. I took the pot and positioned it near a post where it will get ample morning light. The photo below is the plant as I saw it BUT WITHOUT the two bamboo sticks.

Okra or Lady's Fingers (Abelmoschus esculentus)

Our Okra plants have started bearing fruits in this rainy season.


Although typically added in vegetable dishes, it's not unusual for us to eat the vegetable steamed. We simply top it on the steamed rice in the rice cooker. Add a little bagoong and a few drops of calamansi and you've got a dish.

Deadheading for More Flowers

Deadheading spent blooms tricks the plant to induce more flowers.

from gardening.about.com:
Most flowers benefit from having their spent flowers removed. This is called deadheading. Flowers that repeat bloom will often do so only if the old, dying flowers are removed. If they remain on the plant, they will go to seed and stop producing flowers. Even many flowers that bloom only once per season benefit from deadheading, because the plant puts its energy into strengthening itself instead of producing seed.