The birth of a hobby

     Hello, it's been a week since I created this site. Last week, I posted about cooking. This time, I'd like to talk about how I became interested in plants.

      When I was a child, my mother used to grow a lot of crotons and flowering plants around our house while my father and grandmother had their own vegetable gardens. I used to water the plants from our deep well but I never really learned to keep my own plants until 2003 when I had to take my parents from my hometown to live with my family in the city. Unlike Noah who brought along male and female animals into the ark, I had to pack some cuttings and seedlings in boxes which we carried with us to our residence in Manila. I believed that bringing along some plants would not make it very difficult for my then 79 year-old mother to adjust to city life.   

    The fondness to gardening came as a surprise only when I discovered that, like her, all the cuttings and seedlings I planted would grow easily without any hassle.  And that's how gardening came about as my hobby.

      I did some research on crotons and learned that what my mother had mostly in her garden are called San Francisco Plant (Codiaeum Variegatum Pictum). It’s also called Fire Croton, Garden Croton, Croton Petra or Autumn Plant, the most popular croton variety among indoor and outdoor ornamental plants. They belong to the Euphorbiaceae family. They are evergreen shrubs that can grow up to 10-12 feet tall. The various colors of his plant give a great autumn impact. 

       I had no photos of my mother’s garden so I made a collage of images I googled. Here... looking at these makes me miss my childhood.

Codiaeum variegatum pictum petra croton (Source: Google)

      Take note of the rainbow-colored leaves. They all look very nice together. I grew up with these plants around our house in my hometown.
     I wish I could share about the plants I have in my coming posts.
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