An Eco-friendly Garden

When Mrs. Anne Low called the office and asked if we would like to see her worm farm, we were very excited, as we have been looking into worm composting. Her address is in Semenyih; an area where there are a number of small eco-tourism resorts situated in the foothills of the water catchment areas around the reservoir. I was expecting a nursery and was pleasantly surprised to find a terrace house, a corner lot, probably the only one in the block that was shrouded with plants.

Anne planted her garden with all sorts of plants, trees and creepers, with mainly edible varieties, but the most amazing plant she had was the passiflora. Passion fruits or buah Makisa, locally known to be grown in the highland stations in the country, seldom fruit in the lowlands. Maybe I might have been planting the wrong variety but I have never got mine to ever fruit! I believe it must be due to whatever she has been feeding them with. Worm compost!

How Plants Are Named

In volume 29 of Garden Asia our writer Cik Siti Mariam wrote on the science of naming plants for the benefit of our ardent readers and the layperson. Besides common names, which may refer to the same or different species, scientific names are more specific and are coined based on many factors such as region, habitat, the plant’s morphology or even famous personalities. However the words that are created to make up a scientific name of a plant all has a meaning. To quote a few, they may be Latin or latinized words or sometimes the old Roman name for a particular plant.
As promised previously, we will, from this issue onwards introduce a section known as “How plants are named” and we will begin by introducing four plants namely, Acalypha hispida, Adenium obesum, Aechmea chantinii and Agave sp.

The Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens

Established on the slopes beside River Derwent in 1818, it thrives on a 13.5 hectare site with 6500 species and varieties of plants with 400 of them being Tasmanian plants. Entering the main gates we came across the Auther Wall, which could be internally heated to keep exotic plants growing during the cold season. Now in front of this garden is a herb garden, a semi formal garden constructed from sandstone blocks.

We started our tour of the gardens with the Botanical Discovery Centre that has interactive displays about Tasmanian Flora. A stroll to discover the fascinating Wollemi Pine and its relatives made us cover most of the garden’s features. The Wollemi pine, Wollemia nobilis, belongs to an ancient conifer family with three genera: Agathis, Araucaria and Wollemia. The Wollemia pine was only discovered in 1994, growing at the base of a sandstone canyon in the Wollemi National Park of New South Wales. It is believed that the Wollemi pine is a survivor from the dinosaur era, as Wollemi-like fossil pollens were known to exist 94 million years ago with the last fossil pollens dated 2 million years ago.

Care of Scented Plants

We have many scented plants in the tropics, ranging from climbers, to shrubs and trees. Practically all are sun loving plants and many have white flowers. These plants are popular as home garden plants and traditionally in Asian countries, it is a must to plant some of these plants as they have functions in culture and traditional practices.