My other 5th Floor Residents

     

Hoya buotii given by a new acquaintance at the last horticulture show. She gave me two plants and this one has some flower buttons already. This is endemic to the Philippines and is actually named after one of the UP Los Baños university professors now dean of the UP Open University, Dr Buot. Out of the more than 300 species of hoya, about 115 are endemic to the Philippines. The sad part is, many of them are not found anymore in the country, but in the gardens of foreigner collectors. The foreigners are now selling them in prices we are not able to pay! How humiliating for us now, to have allowed such loss.  

My single tomato plant flowered, but it developed only three fruits because of the leaf miners infecting the leaves. Besides, the birds seem to have the habit of cutting the leaves without eating them. They just leave them on the ledge.

A basil plant already flowered and seeded. I already topcut this and planted some new cuttings. The flowers are so dainty and elegantly white.

 

The left photo above is ampalaya or bitter gourd joined in the pot by ashitaba or cholesterol plant. I've harvested lots of ampalaya leaves already for mixing with mungbean stew. However, no matter how good the advertisements for ashitaba, i have not been keen in eating it, but it grows so profusely even with less water. At the right is an ampalaya flower. 

Who says my garden is small! It can accommodate even a praying mantis. However, i saw this only for a day, maybe the birds ate it. Those are already the fruits of the Ipomoea aquatica. Some already ripened which I've germinated again, and they are now growing (below).  The birds are my competitors in growing them. 

My newly planted 2nd generation of kangkong.

The green onions are very prolific and giving me lots of leaves. I left some plants and just get the leaves whenever i cook, the plant don't seem to mind. They have been growing already for almost a year now!