Eau de Cologne Mint

Grandma would have loved this mint. She used to have bottles of the 4711 Eau de Cologne and would let me splash some on as a treat. When I first heard of this mint, I thought it had an unusual name. Even when a friend gave me a couple of cuttings, I still had no inkling [...]

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Outstanding Otacanthus Caeruleus

I love the blues. Well, those in the garden, that is. There is something irresistible about blue flowers. So as you can imagine, I have been collecting quite a few. But there is one that stands out from the rest – the Otacanthus Caeruleus. It gives a vivid splash of blue to liven up the [...]

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Plumbago auriculata

The plumbago brings back memories of the Mediterranean Cote Azur where this plant thrives. Imagine azure coloured blooms adorning the doorways of stone buildings along the French Riviera. Simply charming. It’s a blessing that the plumbago does well in tropical climes too and is perpetually blooming. Needless to say, it is one of my favorite garden plants. [...]

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Chocolate Mint

I love mints and the fact that there are so many types besides the more familiar spearmint we can get from the wet market. There is something alluring about names like eu de cologne mint, ginger mint, variegated apple mint, chocolate mint, swiss mint, old fashioned mint … but they remained out of reach. Until recently, I [...]

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Clitoria ternatea

Clitoria ternatea or butterfly pea brings to mind the yummy nyonya blue glutinous rice cakes one of my aunts  make. Hers is speckled with vividly dyed royal blue rice grains and served with an equally delicious homemade egg-coconut jam. Ahhh, food … but I’m getting side-tracked. The clitoria ternatea vine will grow and bloom happily [...]

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Jasminum Sambac Grand Duke of Tuscany

I love it when the Grand Duke of Tuscany blooms. The perfume is just incredible and I can’t get enough of it. So when it flowers, I either look like a besotted idiot or a hopeless flower addict. The first jasminum I planted was the one gran had – the single-petalled variety which yielded lots [...]

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Gomphrena globosa

  Gomphrena globosa, globe amaranth, bachelor’s buttons. I like the last of those names best but while I understand where ‘buttons’ come from, I can’t figure out the ‘bachelor’s’ bit.     The gomphrena was one of the first plants I could grow successfully as a kid, and I’ve never grown tired of its button-like flowers [...]

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Trying to growing raspberries

“My raspberries are sweet and thornless,” my aunt said. “Do you want try planting some?” No prizes for guessing my response. Before long, I was looking at some root cuttings. I filled two pots with mixed soil and perlite, planted the cuttings and hoped for the best.   I watched over them like a mother [...]

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Drosera Pygmy Lake Badgerup

My friends were getting some drosera pygmy gemmae and asked me if I wanted a share. “Gemmae? What’s that?” I wondered aloud. This word wasn’t in my vocabulary then. “A gemma isn’t a seed, but acts like one,” they explained to this new kid on the block. “It pops off from the crown of the pygmy and [...]

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Venus fly traps

“See, don’t touch!” I read the terse notice. “What a killjoy. What antisocial behavior,” I thought. That was during my pre-carnivorous plant days. Now I am tempted to stick a similar notice for my VFTs. When I read that a Dionaea muscipula (VFT) trap turns black once it’s closed 3 or 4 times, I paled. Have I ever [...]

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