Potting plants

We shifted into our current flat nearly two years ago. Before the move, I'd re-potted my Indian rubber plant in a super big pot and placed a few of my small cacti at the base, along with the zig-zag. My rationale had been to make use of the moving service and save myself the hard labour of shifting a huge plant. It worked. My Indian rubber grew and it was really only a couple months ago that I realised it's supposed to be a tree. Very intelligent, I know. But since I'd also seen this plant in a nursery being shaped as a big "bonsai", I decided to saw off its branches the other day. I'm hoping it'll still thrive and I get to cultivate it as a home-plant. 

A picture of a baby bird we saved (which unfortunately didn't survive) with my bonsai as a backdrop. 

A restriction I set for myself when I shifted into the new pad was avoid making holes in the walls, no matter the purpose. But I am always tempted by those hanging, draping plants and was aware that orchids grow best when hung. Within months, I caved in and hammered a hook out on the balcony. I remembered it was the beginning of the year and the morning sun shone into the right of the apartment. I stupidly forgot that the location shifts as the year progresses and decided to place the hook in the rightmost corner, where I assumed the plant would be able to get max. morning shine. Within weeks, it shifted and the left of the balcony had most sun. My orchid (the white one I featured in a previous entry) grew really sad and withered. I've not placed any hanging plants there since and decided that I am not going to get any plants that need to be hung. 

I am glad that I had excess containers from IKEA that were under-utilised. I decided to make use of them to re-pot my dying herbs. They are so nifty and I can hang my plants virtually anywhere now, without making any holes in the wall. I've been posting pictures of these containers so I won't include one here. But do check my next entry on how I pot my plants in them.