aloe

Yesterday was excited to notice a nub coming out at the bottom of aloe

and one from the center

will need to remember to bring aloe indoors this winter...
 

before and after

back in March aloe looked like this
 

now...

not sure what happened but I’m pretty happy aloe is green now and I think it is getting bigger

confirmed

the other day, I confirmed that the feathery one...
 

comes to check on the bugs

though I also think it might be one of our ancestors in another form...

aloe

Remember the aloe I brought back from Shimoda

Well, it hasn't rooted...

So I tried putting it in some water

Barely touching because that is what a lot of people said online..
 

amazingly a day later, little nubs! 

I hope these turn into roots...crossing fingers...

next day, the nubs looked longer

went to the 100 yen shop to buy the right soil for succulents & cactus

When it comes to my plants, I am so frugal, I don't want to spend a lot of money on it if possible...and I didn't want to buy a big bag of soil, luckily the 100 yen shop had the right one

Take 2: hoping this time it will grow.

on the lanai

New leaves coming in on the Blood Orange (as well as the freesia bulbs that are in this pot)...

Cyclamen's leaves are coming in too

As well as freesia...

Relieved to see that freesia and cyclamen have started to have leaves, it has been quite warm so I was a little worried...

The temperature is supposed to drop 10 degrees later today...eep!

update

Thought I’d show you the blood orange tree.

Last year 

This year

Was looking online and hope our new friends are not invasive butterflies 

I also changed their home to this flower vase because it looks like they are getting bigger.

I put the stocking thingy on top because I don't have a cover for the vase and don't want them to be crawling all over the place.

new friend(s)

I brought my plants indoors to ride out typhoon #10 (Shanshan).

Oh and as of today, we are still waiting for the typhoon to weaken and get downgraded...

Anyway, when I brought in the blood orange, I noticed teeny caterpillars eating the leaves.
 

I think there were only 3 and I had them in the furikake bottle on the right, until I noticed one crawling on the lip of the bottle!

So I put them into the jar with a lid...

Will see what they turn into...hopefully it will be butterflies and not moths...

on the lanai

thankful the cyclamen is blooming this year.

was scared it wouldn’t recover after the building renovation the other year

we'll have freesia in a couple of weeks too
 

on the lanai

cyclamen leaves coming in

hopefully it will flower next March 

blood orange looks to be doing well, I think there were also some freesia bulbs left in the soil when I planted the blood orange, so there is a freesia plant coming up

the freesia in these planters are doing well

Gajimaru (banyan) (really skinny), ti plant & philodendron selloum.

I keep these, especially the gajimaru in this basket because the wind always knocks it over.

Plus it is an easy way to bring them in whenever a typhoon is approaching.

Gajimaru and philodendron are from the 100 yen shop many many moons ago and the ti plant was in an arrangement that I took a chance and planted.

gonna jinx myself by saying it is FINALLY getting cooler!

this and that

Tuesday, the weather was rainy and windy.

So windy, I thought we were in the midst of a typhoon.

Wednesday was Hinamatsuri (Girl's Day).

You could see many dolls displayed here and there.

Huge jinchoge (daphne) bush (left) and jade plant (right) in front of someone's home.

I love the fragrance of daphne, it is kind of strong like tuberose.

I passed by this door and window shop and they had this homemade door made from all sorts of pieces of wood.

I bought us some sakura mochi from Okuniya for Girl's Day.

The "bumpy" looking one is made from Domyoji-ko and is Kansai style (West Japan).

The smooth looking one is Kanto style (East Japan).

I've written about this before here.

Dinner was sushi...I bought these temarizushi (balls of sushi).

It looks like Tokyo's state of emergency will be extended since our numbers have not gone lower than 300.

The temperature has flip-flopped from very warm to very fahreezing.

Stay safe and have a nice weekend.

bogor pineapple

About 2 years ago, we tried snack pine.

The other day, I bought another one called Bogor Pineapple, which was grown in Okinawa.

This time I followed the directions on the package.

Cut off the bottom and pick off the "nubs".

The fruit was overripe in places.

Still, there was quite a bit to eat.

After picking off the nubs, the center "shaft" that is left can be sliced and eaten.

I'm glad we tried this, it was also super sweet.

By the way, here's the snack pine that I planted 2 years ago...pretty big.

on the other hand, I think "someone"'s bonsai is dead...

update

Satoshi's bonsai looks to be doing well.

He keeps asking me if I watered it when I water my plants, but I keep telling him that it is his responsibility to take care of it...

So of course he waters it whenever he remembers...

Hopefully it'll get strong enough to flower.

hiiragi nanten

Hiiragi Nanten (Mahonia japonica) is a plant that we have in front of our apartment building.

The yellow flowers have a fragrance that kind of remind me of orange blossoms.

I read online that the plant has thorns and looking at the leaves, they look like holly which is "hiiragi" in Japanese.

The plant in front of our building is rather short, but online I have seen them quite tall.

Do you have something similar where you live?

on the lanai

So far, these are the only plants left on my lanai.

The tropical ones...because we get the afternoon sun and it was blazing this summer...

At least the ti plant has babies...

And the pineapple looks like it is getting big.

I will need to dispose of the other plants, not sure if the freesia survived, will find out after winter.

Hopefully the cyclamen is okay too...for now though these are the only ones that are still alive...sigh.

bummer

Dahlia not doing too well.

With the funky weather, hot cold muggy...the plants seem to have dried up...

Hope both will revive...but it doesn't look good.

hydroponics

When I hear the word hydroponics, usually lettuce comes to mind.

So, I was pleasantly surprised to find hydroponic blueberries at the market.

The berries are tiny! but firm and delicious.

Apparently they grow all sorts of fruits using this method.

Exciting!

Are farmers growing exciting things using hydroponics where you are?

on the lanai

So glad the weather dude's forecast turned out to be wrong.

Looks like we'll have some sun until the end of the week and part of the weekend...whoo!

Just wanted to show you the progress of the dahlia on the lanai.

3 plants total...hope they will flower.