Saturday, November 20, 2010

Beyond Gardening 2!

Echinodorus Cordifolius Ovalis
Wow, the name is a mouthful! I love this plant. It is very easy to grow, I did not use any fertiliser, I guess they get it from the natural organic fish fertiliser in the little mini pond! This plant can be found in most nurseries. 

One of my 'mini-pond' with some goldfish

"Echinodorus cordifolius "Ovalis" is a small, orbiculate "sword" plant whose low, wide growth makes it suitable for small aquariums. A nutritious bottom promotes growth, and if the leaves turn light this indicates a shortage of micro-nutrients. The plant forms stems which (unlike most other "sword" plants) bend down towards the bottom and form their own adventive plants. It is hardy and easy for both beginners and the more experienced". That is the description I got from the internet.


But to me this is not a small plant, it can grow as high as about 5 feet and I really like the flowers. The flowers are about the size of a 50cent coin, white in colour, papery thin and extremely dainty and lovely! But these flowers are short-lived, they can last about 2 days and will wilt and dry off. The flowers grow along the long stem that grows from the centre of the plant.  There can be many 'tiers' of flowers along this long stem.  Plantlets (new small daughter plants) will develop from the nodes of this 'tier', and can be propagated by cutting just below the plantlets. However when grown permanently submersed in the aquarium, most species will not flower. 


I have two of this plants outside my house and two small ones in the aquarium which I posted here, earlier on.
I got one small plantlet from my neighbour several years ago and it has been growing well and flourish and over the years I have given many small plantlets to my sisters and friends. If you have a pond in your garden, this would be the ideal plant.


Another one of the 'mini-pond' with some Guppies and Red Mollies.


Close-up picture of the leaves.

The tip of the long stem with flower buds


The beautiful, white and dainty flowers fully bloomed


Another photo of the lovely flower


More pictures!


More pictures!


The small plantlet. The flowers has wilted and new leaves are growing. To propagate, just cut below the plantlets.


Some cute Goldfish


Another picture of the 'mini-pond' with Guppies and Red Mollies.


Guppies and Red Mollies


A heavily pregnant Guppy!


This post is for Stephanie of Steph's Green Space, who has asked me before about this plant. (Stephanie, I was waiting for the flowers to grow and bloom to show you the beauty of the flowers!) and also to Autumn Belle of My Nice Garden. Autumn Belle, there were four pregnant guppies, one has already given birth, now waiting for the other three. The picture above shows one of the pregnant guppy. When you buy guppies, make sure you buy more females than males!)

Happy Gardening !

14 comments:

  1. Thanks for revealing only when the plant is in bloom. The flowers are so pretty! It's definitely an ideal water plant. Love your mini pond design. That little teapot is so cute. Enjoy your beautiful garden!

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  2. Those fish are good to prevent mosquito from breeding. A very cute flower. I wish I can grow plants in the water as well but it is so dry here I will make it painful to grow one. I wonder if you have read my message to your yahoo email. Have a nice weekend.

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  3. Those delicate white flowers are a pretty sight. I keep guppies too with my water plants and do not have to worry about breeding mosquitoes.

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  4. The layman name for this plant is water orchids. I love the plant because of the dainty white flowers along the long stem. I wish my camera can take mircro shots ot the flowers like yours, beautiful photos! And your little guppies are so cute.

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  5. the flower is very nice, a pure white with wavy edges. I got to pay attention to flowering plants now, not only vegetables.. haha. ~bangchik

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  6. Hi Stephanie,
    I love the flowers! I was waiting for the stems to have buds and later the flowers at full bloom!

    Hi Diana,
    Yes, I have replied to your email! Thank you so much!

    Hi Keats The Sunshine Girl,
    The flowers are lovely. Thanks for stopping by!

    Hi p3chandan,
    Water orchids! Thank you! I was looking for the other common name for this, but have no idea! The flowers are pure virginal white, delicate and dainty, and extremely pretty! My camera is the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS6, I have never been interested in holding the camera until I started blogging! And I still a green-horn when it comes to camera!

    Hi Bangchik,
    Can't wait to see your vegetable garden! Flowers among the vegetables really sounds interesting!
    You are such an experienced gardener, anything you grow would always turned out great! Happy Gardening!

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  7. You have beautiful water garden! The goldfish look so cute!

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  8. I haven;t been to this blog in so long! some catching up to do~ love the fish and pregnant one!

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  9. Beautiful little garden and pond...Really like that. Can't wait to have one in my orchid garden.

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  10. Hi, Your goldfish are really cute. You are very good with fishes. Mine always die. So I actually got rid of my water lily and this water orchid last year because I stopped replacing fishes and stopped changing location for my pots. Didn't want to breed mosquitoes. Now that I am growing lotus, I still have the problem with fishes. I think it is the heat.

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  11. Thank you very much for this great post!

    You are really good at growing water plants and keeping fishes. The water features are very vibrant and refreshing. Now I know who to look for when I want to grow water plants. I have this plant but it is much smaller than yours in terms of leaf and flower size. I am using abate to keep away the mosquitoes. I tried putting guppies but all of them disappeared to don't know where, so I had to forget about growing lily and lotus plants :(

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  12. Actually I hate to have fish for my pet as I hate to clean her aquarium. Well, maybe I suit with ground plants only.

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  13. assalamualaikum.saya nak tanya.dekat mana ye nak dapat pokok ni dekat kedai? dekat area mana je ye?

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    Replies
    1. Hi Nurasikin,
      Sorry, ya, ambil masa yang lama untuk reply. Pokok ni saya dapat dari jiran saya. Dan boleh didapati di mana-mana nurseri bunga.

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