Cosmos... sun on earth!

Cosmos sulphureus (bolted and dwarfed!)

I have bought Cosmos seed packets from Swallowtail Garden Seeds. I think they operate from California and have their seed bank there. I have had successes and failures in growing the Cosmos from the seeds I bought. I have bought so many other seeds from them and I like their hassle-free service and cheaper quality seeds. I have seeds from the year 2008 (I keep the seeds refrigerated), that still germinates but unfortunately the plants bolts! I don't think the seeds themselves have problem, but I feel the seeds are not suited to extreme tropical heat and humidity. Although Cosmos thrives in hot weather, but probably not for the seeds harvested from temperate climates. I think they have their bio-clocks programmed for the seasons their predecessors grew in. The seedlings will stay 6" tall and start flowering a five cents coin size flower. It really makes me annoyed. I have tried pinching off the buds to keep the plant growing, but the delay is only temporary. They all eventually flower and die... the sun on earth disappears.

Amazing orange Cosmos as cut flowers

Nevertheless, not all Cosmos seeds actually do this. Some had grown to 3ft high and flowered abundantly and self-seeded until my mom killed the plants by over-fertilizing. She loved the flowers and thought that Cosmos needs more fertilizers to flower profusely. I think they have been genetically programmed to flower profusely, without anything much fed to them!

Yellow Cosmos 4ft High with saucer like flowers

One day as I was driving around my neighbourhood, I came across a Cosmos "shrub" outside someone's house. Obviously, I pulled over my car and was really excited to see beautiful yellow Cosmos flowers, so bright and moving side to side blown by the wind, like some Monarch butterflies just congregated on a tree. I called out the owner, but no one was around (a bit nervous though). So I plucked some dried seeds and just said "thank you" loudly by the gate and drove off. That seed lied in a packet for some weeks before I found the right place for it. The mother plant was probably 2 ft high, but my Cosmos grew into a 4 ft giant. I overdosed guano fertilizers as the Cosmos shared a pot with the Night-flowering Jasmine a.k.a. Nycthantes arbor-tristis (for such a beautifully named flower deserves a blog entry on its own). I was so upset, because generally Cosmos will start flowering within 6 weeks and are typically thin plants. My Cosmos is about 1" thick plant and had no signs of flower buds above 3 ft high plant!!

Well, that upset was balanced by a delightful surprise after I came back ten days later from a climbing trip. The plant has borne yellow flowers of 3" in size, almost twice the size of its mother plant's flower. I felt so happy and contented and I adore the giant! The mosquito bees love the flowers and so do I!! They busily hum and bum around the stamens looking for whatever they need...

"Giant" Cosmos (accidentally!)

Semi-double (?) Cosmos from another "giant" plant

The best part is that the flowers form a downside cup as the sun sets. The flowers are actually opened until the last streak of sunlight! I have never seen this behaviour on the Cosmos flowers I have had. The next day, when the sun rises, the flowers will
slowly open and follow the sun's path and repeat the same behaviour again. They are a joy to watch, especially their peculiar behaviour, which I have never seen or read about specifically with Cosmos!

The cupped "giant" Cosmos at night, like upside tulips!

This blooming and "withering" takes place about 3 full nights until the petals fall off and seed head becomes visible.  Now, I am waiting for the seeds to mature and dry out. I have deadheaded the side flowers and only left the first top blooms to form seed. This I believe is the most viable and strongest seed that could possibly repeat the same growth pattern of the Cosmos. I shall put these for test. I also have collected seeds from the orange Cosmos that I bought as 1 ft potted plant. I want to test the seeds with some guano fertilizer in a large pot and see how that turns out.

Potted 1ft orange Cosmos (at the back)

My other Cosmos bipinnatus seeds from Swallowtail have never been a joy. I bought the seeds while being influenced by seed shopping madness! I am a lot more controlled now. But I keep trying to grow the seeds. It's nothing wrong with the seeds, perhaps just not suited to our weather or possibly my timing of sowing the seeds. Maybe one fine month, the weather will help them to form the "first" progeny that grows to suit Malaysian maritime weather... genetically suited! Anything is possible in this mad climate era!

Orange Cosmos seeds

The Lemon and other casts

A song for my Lemon tree...

"I'm sitting here in the boring room
It's just another rainy Sunday afternoon
I'm wasting my time
I got nothing to do
I'm hanging around
I'm waiting for you
But nothing ever happens and I wonder

I'm driving around in my car
I'm driving too fast
I'm driving too far
I'd like to change my point of view
I feel so lonely
I'm waiting for you
But nothing ever happens and I wonder

I wonder how
I wonder why
Yesterday you told me 'bout the blue blue sky
And all that I can see is just a yellow lemon-tree
I'm turning my head up and down
I'm turning turning turning turning turning around
And all that I can see is just another lemon-tree

I'm sitting here
I miss the power
I'd like to go out taking a shower
But there's a heavy cloud inside my head
I feel so tired
Put myself into bed
While nothing ever happens and I wonder

Isolation is not good for me
Isolation I don't want to sit on the lemon-tree

I'm steppin' around in the desert of joy
Baby anyhow I'll get another toy
And everything will happen and you wonder

I wonder how
I wonder why
Yesterday you told me 'bout the blue blue sky
And all that I can see is just another lemon-tree
I'm turning my head up and down
I'm turning turning turning turning turning around
And all that I can see is just a yellow lemon-tree
And I wonder, wonder

I wonder how
I wonder why
Yesterday you told me 'bout the blue blue sky
And all that I can see, and all that I can see, and all that I can see
Is just a yellow lemon-tree" 

By Fools Garden - Lemon Tree

Yellow Lemon (not ripe)

Yellow Lemon Tree (about 4 ft)

My lemon tree is inspiring on any day. I foresee of it bearing citrus scented blossoms and yellow lemons in time to come. It may not be tomorrow, but it will surely be another day some day. When I view the morning sun from the bedroom window, my lemon tree greets me with its green foliage. Lemon, sweet smelling yellow lemon, with sweetly scented green foliage!

Next to it by the window sill is Lemon Balm grown from seeds, with its citronella scent. Rough leaves, growing towards the sun, quietly sitting in a corner, but as soon as the leaves are brushed, the sweet scent of citronella feels the air...

Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis)

 If the Lemon Balm and Lemon tree decides to keep out of the limelight, then the Cinnamon Basil (also from seeds) with its strong cinnamon wafts does its magic. I love the invigorating scents coming from the leaves of the Cinnamon Basil. The leaves retain the strong scent for a while after being crushed, but eventually the aroma disappears and is displaced by green leafy scent. The leaves when juiced with orange, gives a very distinctive mild spicy flavour and scent to the drink. Excellent drink after a good meal!

Cinnamon Basil

The spearmint has been thriving well, but for some reason it started drying up. I suspect I over fertilized it with large amount of organic probiotic booster. The leaves and the stolons turned brown. The plant is still alive, but I feel bad. It had very strong mint scent and I loved the mix of Cinnamon Basil and Spearmint leaves. Wonderful combination as potpouri.

Where to begin...

Over thirty years of planting this and that, but with very little success, yet not an inch of giving up this passionate therapeutic hobby...

Gardening is very close to my heart and soul. I love the trees, the streams, the hills, mountains, forest and all that living in it. I adore mother nature, and love the smell of earth mixed with rotting bark and leaves. It is the most fresh earthy scent one can find I think; the colour, the texture, the moist mixture, as one holds it in ones own palms. It has always fascinated me, how a tiny seed can grow so enormously into a beautiful tree over a lifetime once the "right" earth covers it. The same tree that gives shade, bears flowers and edible fruits, medicinal leaves and roots and at the same time provide safe haven for creatures to make a home for themselves. That tiny seed that never failed to mirror its predecessors and lives for decades or centuries noting terrestrial history, when most human beings are just a passer by on this earth.

Maybe it is an innate interest I was born with that kept me close to nature although my profession is one that totally works polluting it! I should have been a botanist, but that would have been a different story...

I have tried growing plants from seeds since I was probably eight years old and I am in my early forties now. I had always wanted to grow apple trees, grape vines, strawberries, oranges etc from seeds. I loved the scent of Granny Smith Apples my dad used to buy when he gets his salary every month. It comes in a carton, wrapped with other groceries. Well, apples were not everyday fruit for most people many decades back unless one comes from wealthy family. The grapes used to be so juicy and hard to get. Maybe this were the driving factors for my passion to grow these plants. Perhaps the greatest thing most gardeners want are some plants that they cannot grow naturally but still insist and persist to grow and compete with nature against the odds! I fall in this category, and I am still trying to find that euphoric moment. Well, success is still far from sight but I think I would eventually taste it, if I live long enough.

Many of my apple seedlings died off (almost every other years I tried), due to high humidity and heat. Most succumbed to root rot and damping off. My strawberries from seeds did not survive after two sets of true leaves. I still have a few growing (will post pictures later). I may change my strategies eventually, once I get a better control of the micro-climate. I keep learning but not consistent with my technical observations.

Grape vine cutting (grafted) from Thailand - Perished!

None of the grape seeds germinated, so eventually I bought grafted grape vine after I started my working life. I had also gained more knowledge about certain seeds and their limitations. Getting paid via other means helps to complement gardening passion. To each, the Universe (and perhaps the One) gives his/her own needed experiences ... Due to lack of "surveillance" the vines died from powdery fungal attack (surely not mildew) after growing more than five feet high. Lovely vines which gave lots of heartache upon their demise instead of sweet succulent grapes! Recently I bought another grape vine, after many years from the last heart-aching experience. Planted it in a 10" terracotta, and keeping a close eye on it. Already killed more than one mealybugs! I know it will take at least a year to bear berries, since this one comes with a 2" mature stick. The nursery owner mentioned that it bears purple berries. If it does not, at least I will have a vine that gives shade!


Nevertheless, my mandarin orange (or a tangerine?) had borne sweet succulent juicy oranges in the last three years. It was sold as a lemon tree but turned out as a sweet surprise. The miniature tree has been in a 10" pot for the last three years. I bought it as a small plant from a green fair in Penang. I adore the small tree and

Orange blossom

really didn't mind even if it does not bear any fruits. However it started flowering as soon as I transferred it into a 6" terracotta pot. For some reason, the fruit takes about 6-8 months to ripe from the moment it flowers. It has one fruit on the tree at the moment. Most of the flowers dropped off due to heavy rain during the flowering month. Sometimes, friends and family do laugh at me, because I wait for eight months for one or two mandarin oranges, while one can buy kilos of the fruit from stores. Well, no one really understands a gardener's heart and his thoughts.

Fruit setting: Stage 1

Almost Ripe Mandarin Orange (3.5" OD)

Recently I bought a lemon tree (key lime!!), which I potted immediately into a 10" terracotta pot. It grew in height by about 6" within a month. The miniature tree is about 4ft high now. There is one lemon (post-scribe: lime actually) on the tree, and it supposed to ripe into yellow oval lemon (strangely it looks round!). The tree is about four feet tall. I am waiting to see the lemon ripe (lime again!!) eventually, but not sure when. Excited as usual. 

Mulberries

My mulberry potted trees had borne several "bunches" of berries. Red and dark purple berries that taste a bit like blueberries. The only problem with these trees are that they get infested easily with mealybugs and the bugs infest the fruits too. I am the only one who eats the fruits, since everyone else finds it a bit "unusual" in its appearance. The clustered berries look like some hairy caterpillars! But they are delicious when fully ripe. However, the red berries are sour in taste.The tree fruits every time I trim it, so I kind of know how to get more fruits. Like any living organism, after procreating, one needs a resting period. Nature keeps it simple. No matter what, the tree needs to rest after fruiting, so don't overkill... what goes (energy) in comes out (energy)!

Mulberry plant and berries