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(❁´▽`❁) hi there!! welcome to my nature blog! • living in sunny/sweltering Singapore, trying to get along and make sure my plants survive • search "my plants" to see my personal plants!

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I brought some succulents to my university dorm! This Haworthia is looking really happy

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Plant update: here are most of my current succulents and cacti :-)

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(10/07/18)

Some of the succulents I saw at my neighbourhood plant shop! They all look so gorgeous and healthy.

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(10/07/18) Got some new plants today! Will be updating on my existing plants soon, with accompanying photos and everything.

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(23/06/2018) Some cute little growth! I picked this fallen pad off the ground of a plant nursery a couple months ago and I'm very surprised to see that roots are actually growing out beneath (the surface that is in contact with the soil) and there is actual new growth!

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(11/06/2018)

This little thimble cactus is doing well too!

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(11/06/2018)

Repotted my haworthias in to this cute little pot; the little guy (second picture) seems to be coming along quite well! The offshoots are cute as heck.

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(10/06/2018) My longest surviving succulent seems to be doing well

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(10/06/18) Succulent update! Haworthias (and aloe) are still going strong :-) in fact I've realised that they are beginning to crowd the pot and that's pretty great tbh. And they seem quite healthy, other than the fact that the leaves were quite thin and they seem to have been a bit water starved when I was away travelling.

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23/04/2018

Yesterday, I did some deep watering for one of my haworthias (the one on the right!) by soaking the pot for a couple of hours. Even till today, the pot feels quite heavy - meaning there’s still a lot of water in the soil medium. I won’t be watering it for quite a while, but hopefully the little plant will be quenched!

Feat. the little cat figurines my boyfriend got me

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19/04/2018 The haworthias seem to be doing quite well! The one on the left seems to be getting a bit dry, and it's leaves seem to have lost some of it's plumpness. Not exactly sure what's wrong, but am still erring on the side of underwatering just in case.

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(08/04/2018)

Repotted some of the Haworthias and the lone aloe into a long-ish pot!

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(08/04/2018)

I repotted my thimble cactus! As you can see, there is now more allowance in this new pot - hopefully this will result in a healthier, happier cactus. I also used my own potting mix (see the previous post!) So hopefully this means better drying of the soil. I realise that bigger the pot, the more soil it keeps, consequently resulting in more moisture being retained. It’s therefore very important to ensure that the water drains well.

I’m hoping that my potting mix is good enough! Now, I need to resist over watering it… Need to let it settle in for a good week or so before I try deep watering.

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MY POTTING MIX

Confession time: previously when I bought cacti and succulents, I never really bothered to mix my own potting soil; even though I did know that it would be better to mix in some perlite and sand, but honestly it was a bit difficult going to procure the necessary ‘ingredients’… So I just went with the normal potting soil.

This time though, I made sure to add in some small pebbles (the white ones, I’m not really sure if they’re perlite. The nursery I got them from just sold them in unlabeled packs) as well as coarse sand. Previously, I really noticed that the soil was retaining a lot of water and wasn’t fast drying at all. Hopefully now that I’ve mixed in some other stones and sand it will be much better.

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(08/04/2018) The new succulents that I got! They are pretty tiny actually, but I'm excited to see how they'll grow. I read that Haworthias are relatively slow growing so.... We'll see I suppose (ㆁωㆁ*)

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(08/04/2018)

One of the plants I got was a rosemary plant! My mum actually tried growing rosemary plants before (a few times actually) but they all didn’t survive long. After doing some research online, especially reading articles from gardeners based in Singapore, I feel a bit more well-equipped in terms of knowing what (and what not) to do.

A summary of what I’ve seen online:

The soil need to be super aerated and gritty so that the water can drain out asap after watering, because rosemary plants hate having their roots wet.

Lots of sun! They are truly sun-loving plants and it is highly encouraged to either place them somewhere where they can have direct sunlight, or at least right next to a window that receives ample sun.

Watering: best to practice deep watering, that is, watering your plant less frequently but soaking it thoroughly with each watering. Do note, this means that the soil mixture has to be very well draining or else it’ll just retain the moisture and will remain sopping wet.

As you can see, I’m in the middle of repotting my rosemary - and the soil is dripping wet. Probably because it was raining all evening yesterday, and the soil hasn’t had time to dry off. It’s creating a little puddle of water on the newspaper I’m drying it on. Will definitely leave it to dry a little before repotting it into a slightly bigger pot, with more well-draining soil.

If you’re interested in learning more about rosemary care, do check out the links below:

Littlegreendot - growing herbs for beginners

Preparedness Mama - how to grow, harvest & use rosemary

Sgstrawberries - growing rosemary well (in Singapore) and propagating them

Do let me know if any of you have experience growing rosemary successfully!