Garden Care Simplified: Practical Tips for Healthy Growing Plants in Terrace Garden

5.9.11

Practical Tips for Healthy Growing Plants in Terrace Garden

Purple Queen/Purple Leaf Plant

The purple queen or purple leafed plant is a bright coloured plant and very good addition to any garden or patio. Since the leaves are purple and feathery , velvet like when we go closer we can see the tiny hair covering each leaf. The plant was kept in direct sunlight but showed many signs of leaf burns and dried leaves. There seem to bloom tiny pink or lilac flowers at the end of each leaf.It looks very nice when grown in hanging pots and is very easily propagated with small cuttings of the original plant.

After shifting it to a place with partial sunlight it seems very happy. To note some difference I just had to post the beauty in the rains. The plant looks bathed and beautiful in heavy rains and a maroon colour has developed due to less exposure of sunlight.
I had also noticed that if the plant does not get enough sunlight or more sunlight it also changes colour to green! With wonder that I am getting green leaves and have lost the purple colour I immediately took action and shifted this into a comfortable position where it could get just right sunlight and shade.
With experience and losing many plants due to trial and error I have come upon some tips for growing healthy plants- select healthy plants because if you select weak ones they may or may not survive and even if they do their growth is usually stunted!
Each plant is different and even if the species is same each plant has individually different requirements and preferences. No two plants will have same water requirements and feeding requirements. So talk to your plansta nd treat them with individual identity. Doesn't mean very different but if they are not growing healthy all these points come up, if they can carru along well and good.
Try to plant similar growth requirement plants if you do not get enough sunlight or everyone is working at your home and you cannot give more time to your terrace garden plants. Don't make busy schedule an excuse for avoiding gardening and growing healthy plants.
Indoor plants does not mean they do not require any sunlight. All plants require sunlight for healthy growth. You must try to give your plants some sunlight at any part of the day.

I have tried and tried and sometimes very hard to save a plant, well if its time has come it will just go! You have to learn to let go if a plant is not surviving. it may be weak, it may already be diseased or it may have become older, I do not know the reason but I have learned to not put excess energy if the effort is not giving results. I had purchased this weak plant, it looked different and beautiful white leaves with shading of green colour.After planting it in a pot it showed some growth but again the leaves dropped. After shifting the plant to a different place it showed some growth and then the leaves burned and fell. I was an amateur gardener and did not know much about plant care and plant diseases then, the plant was such that it did not grow also and did not die also, so I was stuck up with this tall lanky plant with few leaves !It would drop from the pot again and again and on close observation I saw that even after a year it had not rooted well and thus I just moved the plant to a corner and let it be till the last when all the leaves dropped and the whole stem dried over time! I knew I had lost it but still the stem is planted in a pot with other plants who knows it may come up!I have also lost a beautiful rose bush which I tried very hard to save!and the history is long , so I have learned to let go and move on!

I had this mogra plant which would always be attacked by red bugs and ants. I tried planting it it so many pots differently and placed it in different places in the garden. The plant would just not recover and then I left it in a very bright sunny spot, let it burn! and viola it started fresh green leaves and also though less leaves had come up it flowered very well!