Revival and Recuperation

As I mentioned in one of my early blogs, many of my plants had had a hard time earlier this year when they were forced to stay inside the house against their will for several weeks while renovation work was done on our building. Some looked near the end and others got hit by disease causing leaf loss and deformity. However, with my chilli spray and an excellent organic fertiliser leaf spray they've bounced back with a vengence!

Firtly, my Golden Pseuderanthemum. When she went back out onto the balcony, she was barely one stick and a couple of leaves. But within a month, she'd put out leaves and even a little spray of flowers. Now she's beautiful and bushy. She's very happy in her corner. She likes the sun, but not too much and now she's florishing!

Another one that has suffered has been my purple heart. I love this plant with its deep purple leaves. Sadly, it suffered a lot from something - I honestly don't know what! Its leaves lost their colour, but it looked like the colour had been stripped from the leaves, not faded and its leaves and stalks were growing in deformed shapes. There didn't appear to be any insects, but I couldn't find anything online about purple heart diseases. All that was mentioned was that they were hardy plants! Then I read that they don't like soaking roots and to let them dry out a little before the next watering. So, what did I do? I let them dry out too much and any shoots I had died! Determined not to give up, I watered it again anyway and sprayed the soil with the new organic spray. Two weeks ago, I was rewarded with little purple shoots and now I've got some little purple plantlets reaching for the sky.

A third one that had a hard time was my bird's nest fern. It got burned by my chilli spray when I put too much garlic in it. Old leaves and new shoots were all affected. I didn't prune it back immediately, thinking that it would still need to photosynthesise for any new shoots. It took a bit longer to spring back than the others, but I finally got to prune all the affected leaves off last week and the new ones are looking so beautiful and fresh.

The final one for today was my spider lily. It'd been hit hard by the white bug which was proving ridiculously hard to get rid of. I'd even taken the bulbs out and washed them in conventional insecticide. Then I started using my chilli-garlic spray and it just loved it. The white bugs were just starting to multiply again when I made my first batch of insecticide and I sprayed all my plants weekly for over a month. My spider lily just lapped it up and wasn't even burned by the strong batch. Since then I haven't seen hide nor hair of any white bug and my spider lily is an abundnace of leaves. Then last week, I got the best gift of a spray of flowers. The scent was delightful and not a hint of chilli nor garlic. ;)

Learning moment with chilli and garlic

As you probably know, I've been spraying my plants with the chilli and garlic pesticide and it's been working fabulously. In the last three weeks I've only seen one large white pest, which I dealt with swiftly, otherwise nothing. All was going well until I saw brown patches on my bird's nest fern. The chilli or garlic had burnt it! I felt devastated. As I mentioned in my last blog, my fern was just recuperating from being moved about, new swirls were coming through and here I go and burn it.
I checked all my other plants and they're fine. They actually seem to be thriving on it. So it's just the fern. I won't be spraying it again.

As it is, I can be thankful for two things:

1. The bird's nest fern is quite pest resistant anyway with broad leaves that can easily be wiped (which she likes).

2. All the other plants, which are far more prone to pests, love it.

Poor thing
You can even see the trails from the liquid.

The hibiscus on the other hand is reaching for the sky. No blemishes whatsoever.

Tradescantia pallida 'Purple Heart'

One of my favourite plants with its dark purple leaves, light pink flowers and trailing vines, Purple Heart has been a wonderful variation in colour on my balcony. Much to my distress though, in the last six months it's been struggling with some kind of infestation of either a type of fungi or a parasite. If it's the latter, I can't see it, but the colour of the leaves has been stripped to a pale green and the leaves are curling and growing crooked. It's always loved direct sunlight and doesn't like to be too wet. I've managed to confirm that in my research, which also tells me that it's relatively disease and problem free! And for the last six years it has been. Its long vines flowing down the sides of the pot earned it the nickname, Rapunzel.
Normally, with an infestation I just cut the plant right back and it usually works. This time it just comes back the same. Two weeks ago, when I started spraying my plants with my homemade chilly spray, I sprayed Rapunzel too and it seems to be working!! So here's keeping our fingers crossed.

Rapunzel at her worst

Getting better - so here's hoping.

Wee flowers on a shrub I got from the Genting Highlands Botanical gardens shop. It came with a weird parasite that took a year to eradicate. But she's all free of it now. I mainly took them off by hand and pruned back any infestations. Thankfully, it was never interested in any of the other plants which made it easier to deal with.

My Bird's Nest fern's new shoots.

She is very fussy and reacts strongly if moved to a spot she doesn't like. She hated being stuck in the house while the building was being painted a few months back. It wasn't until she was back in her favourite spot did she put out more shoots to replace the leaves I'd pruned way back in November last year.

Here's a peek at my friend's balcony which I hope to feature soon.

We had wanted to get some evening pictures in the warm light of sinking sun, but it decided to rain instead. So hopefully next time.