Showing posts with label seven stars needle plant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label seven stars needle plant. Show all posts

Wednesday 3 April 2024

Jesus Changes Everything

 

The Banner reads "Jesus Changes Everything"

I was cycling back to home from 888 Plaza and I saw the banner that reads "Jesus Changes Everything" outside Woodlands Evangelical Free Church.  It makes me ponder.  Indeed Jesus had made everything different for me now.  In my past, everyday was like the same to me, nothing new everyday, waking up, do blogging, do housework, went to work and so on.  

But after I had experienced the miracles of transcendence and life changes (the miraculous water bath) after Jesus came to me everyday is different to me.  Everyday is new and everyday experiencing changes.  



Life is so blissful watching my plants growing well, my children growing well, my cat staying close to me everyday and my mother is healthy.  

 

Video of mass at church of st mary of the angels, singing I am the bread of life

This easter sunday I recorded the hymn sang at the mass, a meaningful song that Jesus had told me "I am the bread of life".  

Buy Peace Tea

Wednesday 27 March 2024

Gardening

 

My Seven Stars Needle Plant or Rose Cactus Plant

Gardening is my hobby.  Every day when I walk to my garden and see flowers at my plants, I feel so happy.  Besides the above Seven Stars Needle Plant, I also have curry leaves plant (Murraya koenigii), money plant, Mexican petunia or Ruellia simplex, ferns (Nephrolepis exaltata), Money plant (Epipremnum Aureum), Basket/ Corn plant (Dracaena fragrans), Arrowhead (Syngonium Prodophyllum), Mother of thousands or Mexican hat plant (Bryophyllum daigremontianum), Water Jasmine (Wrightia Religiosa), Plyscias Balfouriana, Oyster plant (Tradescantia spathacea), bougainvillea, chilli plant, butterfly pea plant, Papaya plant, clover (Oxalis corniculata), cactus, cotton plant and Adenium obesum (福贵花).

Recently I sold some plants and this give me more motivation to grow and propagate more plants.  I bought lots of soil from Shopee and Lazada.  When the buyer wanted to buy my plants, I gave them the good nice ones.  If they are not so healthy, I gave them a cheaper rate.  When I sell them my plants, I gave them pots with so much soil as compared to the nurseries, where they gave half pot of soil or sometimes three quarter of soil.  

 Potting Soil that I purchased from Shopee


Garden Soil that I purchased from Shopee

Good soil is so important for the plants.  It gave them the good nutrients to thrive in the environment.  So when the soil I ordered came, I need to mix the soil before repotting my plants.  

Picture of the containers I used to mix the soil

I mostly do my gardening at night, where it would be not too hot.  At night the plants would not lose much water content too.  

If you want to buy soil in bulk, Shopee is selling a bundle of 3 at $13, a bundle of 5 at $25.  These prices are for the potting soil on the above photograph.  Yesterday I ordered 10 packets of  potting soil from Shopee!  As for the other photograph of the garden soil, Shopee is selling at 1 packet $6.80 (5 Litres).  There are so many varieties of medium you can used for your plants at Shopee.  Buying in bulk saves money and you do not need to carry them too.  

Thursday 21 April 2022

Seven-stars Needle Plant (七星针)

 

Rose cactus blooming in my garden

Went to my garden just now and saw the buds of the rose cactus had fully opened!!  Three beautiful rose cactus flowers!  I quickly grabbed my handphone and capture the beautiful flowers -- photographs and video.  At the same time I took a video of the birds in the bird's nest.  I saw two babies opening their mouth and chirping.  How beautiful that was. 

I saw on Lazada a pot of Pereskia bleo/ Seven stars needle plant or the rose cactus plant cost about $20, just a short plant.  Mine would cost a lot!  I first got the plant from a parent plant found under a tree.  Someone had thrown the plant away.  One man's trash is another man's treasure!  I saw that it was flowering and it was a nice plant.  However the one that was being thrown the plant was not in the perfect shape.  It was like the height of a person so I think no one took it.  I wondered if it can be propagated via stem cutting.  So I tried.  I pluck down 2 branches and I went home to plant it.  

The beginning was hard.  I put the plants in the soil and it survived.  For many years now, about 11 years now, it had prospered well.  It had blooms many times and I had seen its fruits twice -- one rippened (yellow fruit), and one more green fruit (unripe), as can see from the picture below: 

The green unripe fruit of the rose cactus plant

A closer look at the flower of the rose cactus

It is said that this plant is a medicinal plant.  It is known to act against cancer and helps in the gut.  I had never tried the leaves or flowers or fruit even though people said it is edible.  When Ah Wai came to my house and saw the fruit, he loved it so much.  Mum plucked the fruit and gave it to him to eat.  That was a yellow fruit, the one and only one in 10 years of growing the plant.  Now I have another fruit, but it is green for so long.  And it takes time to grow so big!  Good things or good fruit need to wait!

I don't know how the fruit or the whole plant taste like.  But base on hearsay, the plants can be boiled, chewed on and ate it raw.  I never wanted to try as yet.  

This plant is like the cactus because it has many sharp thorns on its stem/branches.  Every time when the plant grew out of shape or get in the way, I would trim the plant, cut it off and replant it again.  That is how I get so many rose cactus plants in my garden.