March plant diary

I know someone whose vocabulary bank is thin and he’d struggle to find the right words. We get his intention before he struggles to complete his sentence. When one has rich vocabulary, even if one starts a sentence ‘on the back foot’, to use a Cricket metaphor, one can come around and complete it well. But that person does not have that benefit.

Mine is also not rich when it comes to knowing names of plants, fruits, and animals. So, let me call this flower plant as Christmas flower. I wonder if that is the name. Last year, it bloomed during Christmas and gladdened our hearts. This year, we are planning to grow it even more. So, this was what we did when I went home for the weekend.

But let us first go further back to November 2013. It (Pic 1) was starting to bloom by late November.

Pic 1: November 27, 2013

On Christmas day, it was in full bloom (Pic 2). This was clicked by my brother as I was in the village to celebrate Christmas with parents. During Christmas, it becomes too cold for parents to come to Pfutsero. So, we'd split every year and someone will go to village to be with parents while some will stay at Pfutsero with aunty. Obviously Pfutsero is the preferred place; one reason is this flower.

Pic 2: December 25, 2013

Friends came by after church service with two brothers (Pic 3). The flower can be seen on the right corner of the photo.

And they had a good time (Pic 4).

Pic 4: Christmas 2013

So, this was what we did last weekend, my aunty and I. We pruned the plants, cut the dead branches (Pic 5). It should have been done in February actually.

Pic 5: Pruning

And we cut what we needed for next Christmas (Pic 6).

Pic 6: Pruned

We used black soil from around the house. Nothing special and no manure/fertilizer (pic 7)

Pic 7: Soil

Aunty had dug pits (Pic 8) to plant the flowers later. Unnecessary at the moment. But as always, she's ahead of schedule.

Pic 8: Pit

And this was how it looked like (Pic 9).

Pic 9: Nursery

Not to worry if the pot isn't handsome or the plants are too close. They will be transplanted when the rain starts.

The one in the bottom (Pic 9) is not Christmas flower. We observed that during March, there aren't many flowers. So, we decided to plant more evergreen plants for the 'lean' season. So, bottom pot is from this plant (Pic 10).

Pic 10: an evergreen plant

There are some flowers though, in March (Pic 11)

Pic 11: Flowers in March

This will be the hard thing to do till the rains come: watering (Pic 12)

Pic 12: Watering

And the sun set over the Japfu mountain range (Pic 13)

Pic 13: Sunset, 15th March 2014, 05:00 PM

 
Aunty and I, some moons ago (Pic 14)