State of the Balcony update

I recently did a mini-clean up of my plants in the balcony because hubby has been complaining that I have too much plants *sob*. While my ampalaya plant has been growing with lush leaves, it was not producing fruits anymore so I decided to uproot it. I might do the same to the okra plant which is barely living which means I no longer have vegetable plants. 

I've decided that I will just get flowering plants instead. I ordered a dwarf kalachuchi plant and a small sampaguita plant. The kalachuchi arrived with one flower and while it is still alive, it has not bloomed again. Yikes.

I was a tad worried if the sampaguita will survive because the balcony only gets maybe two hours of direct morning sun. It is still alive though and has bloomed several flowers that I pluck, smell, and place in our tiny altar.

Before the monsoon rains, my trailing plants had a blast growing and showing off. I've made cuttings and propagated them.

I also bought African turtle vine which are the ones hanging from the railing and I shall photo them up close some other time. I think they stopped growing when it was raining all the time. They like the sun too much.

Finally, here's a bonus shot of the sitting area with the solar lights I bought from Lazada. 😀

 

 

 

On Fittonias

Since I titled this blog “Plantita Mom”, it should probably have plant posts, right? Way before everyone started buying (or hoarding) plants, I had a mild interest in growing plants. We have a terrace which gets adequate morning sun so I dabbled in buying plants. However, most plants used to die on me. I managed to kill cacti and euphorbia plants (which are basically cacti also). 

When the pandemic started, my MIL was with us. She has a great green thumb and had a vast garden in the province. I knew she was bored in our tiny unit so I started buying plants, pots, seeds, and soil so she could start sprucing up our balcony. And she did! 

This was our balcony in June 2020:

 Of the (numerous) plants I bought, I was drawn to fittonias because I read they were diva-like: they hate the direct sun, they wilt when thirsty, and perk up when watered. They also have dark green leaves that have white, pink or red veins running through them. I was curious, and I was challenged to keep them alive.

 This was the very first fittonia I bought. I think it was around P650.00.