Roselle Harvest and Drink

In one harvest I usually get more the thirty fruits. Many a times, I've given them away.

Sometimes, I will make a drink from this .... that's the easiest thing to do. Boil a pot of water ... I use 2 litres and peel the bracts out of thirty roselle fruits as shown below. Then after the water has boiled turn off the fire and dump the entire fruits together with the peeled calyx. Cover the pot and wait for about 15-20 minutes. The water will turn blood red. The taste is tangy and I like it, so I drink it straight without adding any sugar. It is especially refreshing if it's chilled.

Marigold Blooms

Marigolds are blooming full scale for a couple of plants in the CG. I have to trim them back and also stake them upright cos' they are getting too heavy at the top. Whenever there is rain and wind they tend to bend over low. What do I do with those branches which I cut off? I gave them to my fellow CGer .... this aunty loves the fragrance of the Marigold plants. See how happy she is to receive them from me :-)

Marigold Giants

These Marigolds were planted in the centre of each vegetable planter. Now after so many months of downing chix poo and compost from the nearby vegetable feeds, they have grown to my chest level. I was pretty surprised to see Marigolds this tall.

Recently I was voicing out my frustration to a friend who visited the CG ...... about these tall growing Marigolds and was wondering how to make them flower since they have been enjoying the chix poo meals regularly which make them grow leaves and make them grow taller only.
My friend suggested to me to foliar feed them with diluted coca cola! LOL I did not .... but I did foliar feed them with phostrogen and I see positive flowering results. But phostrogen is expensive. Maybe will try it with diluted coke next :-)
I will definitely get their flowering pics in the next couple of days.

Here are their flowering pics .... and they will bloom more in the following days to come.

Galega offinalis (Goat's Rue)

Tentatively this plant in the CG has been identified as the above which is actually a weed. This was planted by a CG volunteer for its medicinal property. The plant is supposedly used to combat SARS. How it is used I do not know cos' the person who planted them has left them 'orphaned'.

Cassia alata

This tree was grown from a seed given to me by a kind GCS member and it has grown as tall as I am since last Nov. The leaves of this tree are used to treat ezema skin conditions. I also find a certain kind of butterflies also like to lay eggs on the leaves. This plant also attract butterflies.

Orthosiphon aristatus (Cat's Whiskers)

This is grown in the CG and I've ever tasted a tea made with it's leaves and Marigold flowers when I visited my GCS friend's office garden. As it was my first time drinking such a tea, the taste was rather special and I really won't mind drinking the concoction again except with a little bit of sugar this time round :-)
Here's the link for it's medicinal uses ...

http://www.herbsarespecial.com.au/free-herb-information/cats-whiskers.html

Justicia betonica (White Shrimp Plant)

Cooking Gingers

At the shadiest part of the CG, I've decided to grow some gingers cos I heard that they tend to grow well there. So here's yellow ginger planted and the leaves took quite sometime to appear. Although I have planted more than ten rhizomes, not all of them grew leaves.

Below is the row of 'tom yum' ginger. I bought the rhizomes from 'Little Thailand'. That row grew leaves in no time. They seem to be the easiest to grow here and the ginger is sort of whitish in color.

Here is the lovely leaf from the tumeric ginger. The rhizome was also from 'Little Thailand'. They grow oh so slowly.

Below is the 'blue ginger' which I got from a GCS member when I first joined the CG. It was actually delivered to me by another GCS member. Such a generous community of forumers who helped one another.

I was looking at the three ginger plants and I think they all sort of look alike in appearance.

Now maybe gotto look forward to them flowering to see their differences.

Hibiscus sabdariffa / A Row of Roselle

The row of Roselle is looking good. One of the plant even has a branch growing outwards while the others are just shooting upwards. The stems are red and this is an indication that the plants are receiving enough sunlight to grow well.

Roselle Calyxes

The row of Roselle plants are fruiting with these lovely red calyxes. I havn't tried making a drink with them cos' I heard that they are pretty tangy sour. I know anything that's sour has lots of Vitamin C. I will collect one to try soon. I also heard that the leaves can be eaten in a salad and they taste a bit tangy too. Now wait till I make my salad first.

Here's Wilson's article about the Roselle Plant also called the Ribena Plant .....

http://gardeningwithwilson.com/2009/04/30/ribena-plant/

Mulberry's Growing

These are grown from cuttings of the first pruning in the CG. They are growing more leaves. The smaller ones are also catching up. Stay tune for flowers and fruits update.

White Mirabilis

This was found outside the garden gate where my neighbour planted the extra Mirabils. I thought I germinated some orange ones and yellow ones ..... I can't recall how the white got there. It could be the GCS member who gave me some yellow Mirabilis seeds to germinate also gave me a white seed without knowing. This is indeed a nice surprise.

Marigold Beauty

I am happy regarding the Marigold. Even though only five plantlets survived they have grown healthy and are flowering now. I see a couple more buds and am waiting to collect the seeds too to grow more for the CG.

Mulberry in the Planter Bed

When I first pruned the mother mulberry I planted about ten cuttings in this planter bed. Along the way only these four cuttings managed to survive. About a month back the two smaller cuttings actually got fried one hot afternoon. I left them alone and some how they are survivors. New leaves began to grow again. I've been trimming them once in a while .... wanna make sure they don't grow too large here. No flowers nor fruits yet ......

Pink Mirabilis Row Attention!

The row of pink Mirabilis has materialised. They are flowering prettily and non-stop too. When I stand outside the CG and see the pinkies through the green fence, there is a sense of satisfaction.

I remember someone told me that the local Mirabilis grown in Singapore has no fragrance.

As the Mirabilis in the CG are flowering profusely and also seeding quite a lot too, I decided to gather the seeds to give away to visitors to my CG. I had to pluck out the seeds and literally put my nose into the flowering plants. I noticed a very nice and light fragrance that is coming from the flowers near my face. I can definitely confirm that the Mirabilis I have in the CG gives off a fragrance .... light and fresh!

Cassia alata (Seven Candle Stick Plant)

I got to know this plant through the GCS forum here .....

Seven Golden Candle Stick Plant

This plant has medicinal properties of helping to elevate a person's eczema condition.

Here's the website on it's medicinal properties ....

http://www.naturia.per.sg/buloh/plants/candlesticks.htm

I got some seeds from Herb Lover and germinated four of them successfully. There are three of them growing in the CG now. The leaves are huge. The last check on them .... I saw some leaves had some green caterpillar on them. I cut off the leaves that had the caterpillar and also cut the caterpillar into two. Have to check the plant carefully for caterpillar infestation.

Pruned Mulberry Bush

The Muberry mother plant is getting bushier by the day. And I spy many new fruits coming up too. Stay tune!

Mulberry Bush Pruned!

Hoping to grow bigger mulberry fruits, my neighbour and I trimmed and pruned the seven feet tall fella to three feet tall and almost botak the bush. That was about a week ago and now the branches are already forming new leaves. I planted some of the cuttings in the CG and gave some away to interested GCS members who wanted to plant the cuttings. Now we wait to see more leaves and flowers and hopefully bigger fruits.

Strobilanthes crispus (Black Face General)

I have this plant in the Cg and this bush was grown from stem cuttings a couple of months back.

Here's the write up from Wilson about the plant ....

http://www.greenculturesg.com/articles/jan06/blackfacegeneral.htm