Mama Miah!

This little gem is so cute and keeps on blooming almost all throughout the summer time. Portulaca Gilliesii is a drought-tolerant plant that thrives in dry, desert-like and well-drained soil. So basically, it is an easy plant to have with very minimal care.  A perfect succulent for first time collectors.

Portulaca Gilliesii loves the sun! I really love how it's leaves' colors turn from green to reddish-purple when you let them get a full sun exposure. When you left them in a shady corner and would not receive as much sunlight for a while, it's leaves will turn to green with a little red and purple shades, but not as much as when it is in full sun like in the photo above.

This doesn't receive much sunlight. Look at it's leaves and compare it to the photos above. :)

If you want to know how to care of your succulents, here's are the best-seller books about how to take care of your succulents.  This would surely help and guide you on how to properly take care for your plants.

Aloe Pepe is a hybrid between Aloe descoingsii and Aloe haworthioides (a.k.a Aloe descoingsii x haworthioides).

Hello everyone! My Mammillaria Beneckei a.k.a. Fish Hook Cactus has already bloomed and the color of it's flower is... Yellow! It's my first time to see it's beauty since I last blogged about it in year 2017. I've been waiting for my fishhook cactus to bloom and it took 2 years for it to mature and finally had its flower. Yay! :)

I can't help to stare at it for so long because it's beauty is captivating. It's flower didn't last long by the way, it only bloomed for one day... But I am thankful, I have seen its beauty, hopefully its offspring will also bloom soon. :)

By the way, here's my previous blog post about Mammillaria Beneckei a.k.a. Fish Hook Cactus.

Clitoria Ternatea has a lot of names, it also called Blue Ternatea, Butterfly Pea, Asian Pigeon Wings, Blue Bell Vine, Blue Pea, Cordofan Pea, and Darwin pea. It is an edible herbal plant that has a lot of benefits to our body. I've searched online for the benefits of Butterfly Pea and I was really amazed how this perennial plant has numerous benefits like memory enhancer, brain booster, improves eyesight, diuretic, analgesic, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, anti-diabetic, anti-asthmatic, anti-anxiety and depression. I think there are a lot more benefits and medicinal use if you do intensive research about the Clitoria Ternatea.

After knowing its benefits, I wanted to have my own Butterfly Pea plant. I am just lucky because my friend gave me some seeds last summer and I planted them in a big container. We made a DIY trellis made up of small water pipes and wires so the vines have more places to climb.

Growing Clitoria Ternatea plant is just easy, it doesn't require so much, just good soil and you're good to go. I planted them through seeds in our compost soil and in more than a week or two, there are already new sprouts. After almost two months, it started to have flowers already. Once it has started growing flowers, it will grow more every day. :)

I used organic fertilizer on my plants like:

• Crushed eggshells - rich in calcium which helps plants grow healthy and strong. It also reduces the acidity of the soil.
• Rabbit manure  - a great fertilizer that is rich in nitrogen and phosphorus, nutrients that plants need for healthy growth. 
• Banana peels - rich in potassium, phosphorus, and calcium. It also keeps the aphids away.
• Rice water - (yung pinaghugasan ng bigas bago iluto). I actually don't know what are the actual benefits of using rice water on plants but based on experience, my plants and vegetables grow well and produce more fruits and as for the Clitoria ternatea, it produces lots of flowers even some of my seedlings have started producing flowers in a month.

I've searched for the benefits of minerals our plants can get on rice water and I've found this post:
"Washing rice causes rice to lose up to 7% protein, 30% crude fiber, 15% free amino acids, 25% calcium (Ca), 47% total phosphorus (P), 47% iron (Fe), 11% zinc (Zn), 41% potassium (K), 59% thiamine, 26% riboflavin, and 60% niacin." [Source: http://www.christopherteh.com/blog/2017/11/washed-rice-water]


Today, it gives us a lot of flowers which is more than what we can consume. So, I give some to my friends and family and let them try it too. :) They were so eager to try it when they knew about its benefits. ;)

Clitoria Ternatea is commonly used as a tea, some call it Blue Tea as the natural color of its flower will fade when boiled or put on hot water. The tea doesn't taste that bad and you can make a refreshing juice when you add lemon or calamansi and honey to the extract that you collected from the flower.
 Here's a reference to a study made on Clitoria Ternatea and its benefits on its subject/s:

Clitoria ternatea , commonly known as Shankpushpi, is widely used in the traditional Indian system of medicine as a brain tonic and is believed to promote memory and intelligence. We examined the effectiveness of alcoholic extracts of aerial and root parts of C. ternatea at 300 and 500 mg/kg doses orally in rats in attenuating electroshock-induced amnesia. Extracts at 300 mg/kg dose produced significant memory retention, and the root parts were found to be more effective. [Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21214440]

 Photo Source: NCCC Hardwaremaxx 

Hello! I'm inviting everyone to come and visit NCCC Mall Hardwaremaxx Mother's Day Green Revolution event...

If you're looking for something different to give to your Moms on Mother's Day, a Cactus or Succulent would be a lovely idea especially for Moms who loves gardening and collect different variety of plants.

Our group, Cactus and Succulents Mindanao will be having a fund raising activity for our upcoming seminar/workshop. We will be selling cactus and succulents which will be displayed at "Thorns That Blooms" stall at the 2nd floor of NCCC Mall, just in front of Hardwaremaxx starting tomorrow, May 5 until May 31.

By the way, Harwaremaxx will also have a sale on selected gardening tools and supplies too. So, to those who are into gardening, better check them out starting tomorrow until the end of May.

We hope to see you there! ;)

If you have some tin cans on your home, you can use them as plant containers. We have a few tin cans from the luncheon meats that we bought at the grocery. So, I tried to recycle it. It's actually my first time to recycle a tin can and used it on my succulent plant. It turned out good and I am loving it!

You can use it as a table centerpiece or anywhere in your home or office, as long as it can get enough sunlight. It's also a great way to give as a gift to a succulent lover or use it as giveaways for parties or any events.

It was just easy doing this DIY recycled tin cans. If you already have the tin cans, the first thing you should do is remove the label, wash and clean it and let it dry.

When it's already dry, you can start making a few holes at the bottom of the tin cans. I used a hammer and nail on my recycled tin can.

Once it's done, you can start putting some little stones at the bottom for drainage. Then you can start adding the soil and your chosen succulents in it. You can also add some stones on the top soil as decorations. :)

You can make this DIY containers for any plants, I am so into cactus and succulents that's why I choose it on this container. If you are into cactus and succulents too and you live in Davao, you can join our group in Facebook which is Cactus and Succulents Davao and Cactus and Succulents Mindanao. :)

I just can't stop looking at these beautiful items that I found online and wanted to share this to everyone, especially those who loves Cactus and Succulents. If you're a cactus and succulent lover, like me, you know what I mean... These cactus and succulents items are really cute and it's good for home decorations, just like this Cactus Candles. Aren't they cute?