Flowers around my house

I have kept few good, bright and unique flowers around my home. I have Rhododendron, Sanseivira, Croton, Scalchymus sp.(a type of cucurma with maroon flowers), bird nest and stag-horn fern.

Langkawi Island

I have just came back from Langkawi Island. It is situated to the north esat of Malaysia, which is northern of Penang Island .I had some work to do i.e to plant dragon fruits. While in Langkawi I shopped around and went to see some scenic places. I bought two sets of stonewares for 8 people. It is quite cheap where all the shops are duty free. The weather was sunny and hot. It has not been raining for the last two or three weeks. I would like to go the hills to get ride on the cable car and to see around the island.
I saw a lot tourists there enjoying the tropical sunlight with light and colourful clothes. They like to come to this place where the beaches are very clean and white.

Hydechyium

Today is a rainy day.It rains for about an hour. I have to go to the field to continue my heliconia planting.We planted another 5 varieties totalled up 10 varieties ; which we planted under 50% netting. We plan to plant another 10 varieties once we obatained from our order. I will be planting the same 20 varieties in the open field soon plus 10 varieties of canna. I hope every thing will be fine.

Later, I went to see my hedchyium plants that were grown under hydroponics system. It is quite big now.But I see some mutated plants - about 5 plants which looks like ginger plants.the leaves are very narrow and dark green Its stem is cylindrically small. I hope this is a new specie.However my colleague argues that the plants are not strong enough to live. I dont have any idea. Wait till it grows bigger. We grow the plants in cocofibre with 8 hour- interval water cycle.

Heliconia Planting

This morning I will be planting heliconias. The weather is fine and sunny. These including tall heliconia varieties like H.charteace (my favourite)- scarlet; tempress; H. carribea; H pupurea; H colliasiana; H Black Magic; H.rauliania; H.borgeana pedro oritz; H.barbados flat. Later I will be panting Siam Tulip (3 varieties).

Initially I have planted 4 heliconias and 2 gingers . These include H. charteace; H.nickerensis; H . jamaican dwarf; H.orthoctrica -She and Eden. They are starting to flowers now. The gingers include red ginger and hydechium are flowering. One of the good point is that the hydechium has very good and sweet smell from its flowers.

Recently I have done fertigation on Hydechium coronarium which is very succesful through tissue culture. We have modified MS solution and these explants are planted in controlled environment.

I will be adding somemore exotic varieties including H.mutisiana; H.emerald (Green heliconia); Prince of Darkness (POD); Globba winitti etc.

My observations was that insect attacks are more prone to heliconias than gingers. Heliconias have bigger leaves than gingers. I have discussed with my fellow friends to extract these ginger chemicals to make bioinsecticides through extraction method.

I have written a paper in Bahasa Malaysia TANAMAN HELIKONIA DAN SEKUTU NYA DIDALAM PERLANDSKAPAN or "Heliconias and its allies for landscaping' Its abstract is here.
Heliconias are one of the fastest growing segments in the diversified horticulture industry in Malaysia. The presence of heliconia and its allies adds up flower diversity and distribution in a landscape area. H. psittacorum cultivars are very popular in the landscape industry due its fast growing, bloom all year round and low maintenance. Some general cultural practices pertaining to heliconia growing such as propagation, irrigation, fertilization and shade requirement are being discussed. Related heliconias and its allied species potential for landscaping are suggested.

Research Collaboration Malaysia-New Zealand

Today I have discussed with my DG about the possibility of arranging research collaboration with NZ research organization.However, they should have a platform to discuss concerning the areas and disciplines that needed to be emphasized. My friend Mr.Zahir Schroder have gone back to NZ and approached HortResearch NZ. They have made further correseponding with us. There are alot of research areas between Malaysia and New Zealand particularly in the agriculture sector needed to be worked out. Malaysia has now engaged agriculture as the 3rd engine of growth so it is very timely that I could make contributions by matching NZ and Malaysian Agricultural Research Institutions.

My hope is that Malaysia could export lot more products to New Zealand and Australia particularly agricultural products because we import a lot from them milk, meat, fruits etc.I dont know what is the trade like but I am pretty sure we are in deficit.

So with this collaboration we try to know each other's country needs and regulations so that trade between the enhanced to the highest level.

Finally; I hope one day I can visit New Zealand to see their agricultural productions as well to see beautiful and scenic places there.