stupid bugs ...

sigh ... now my chilli plants are infested with whiteflies ... going to blast them one more them tonight with soapy water ... my plants dun seem to be able to take the commercial bug spray ...

i found 2 mealy bugs on my kalachoe baby plants so i blasted the plants with the bug spray then took a tissue paper to squash them to death (just in case the bug spray didn't work) ... I also poured boiling water over the "infested" soil where i suspected them to be hiding ... maybe i should do that 1 more time tonight in case the bugs managed to escape the first time ... maybe i'm excessive but these bugs do nothing but suck life out of my plants ... parasites!

my japanese roses are blooming very nicely ... the single petals plants i have yellow, pink and orange ... beautiful! now am waiting for them to grow stronger (somehow i noticed the plants with orange/ salmon colored flowers are the most aggressive growers) and hopefully will provide me with some relief of colors on my balcony!

my climber ...Mandevilla x amoena 'Alice du Pont' but one pet name for it is pink allamanda ... it's suppose to be a PROLIFIC flowering climber but look at mine and it's BARE ... so i nip off the shoots for 2 reasons ... to stop the plant from concentrating all its resources on producing more leaves so that it can put some for flowers ... and also to make the plant branch out ... now i have 4 vertical shoots growing parallel ... it's not really covering my net that i've put up for it ... I've tried threatening it by saying if i don't see any flowers, i'll grow morning glories instead!

According to http://www.floridata.com/ref/m/mandev.cfm,

Mandevilla is a tender woody vine much beloved by gardeners in warmer climates. It provides a nonstop bounty of huge pink trumpet shaped flowers shown off against attractive evergreen foliage. The very showy flowers have white and gold throats and are up to 4 in (10 cm) across and arranged in racemes (flower clusters). Mandevilla blooms heaviest in summer and sporadically throughout the rest of the year. This vine's fuzzy young stems twine around supports, eventually scrambling to heights up to 10 ft (3 m). The handsome leathery leaves are dark green, up to 8 in (20 cm) long and 3-4 in (7.6-10 cm) wide. Given adequate care, mandevilla is pest free and fast growing.

So what am i doing wrong *cry* ....

Morning glory? the purple one? nope ... actually it's not even morning glory ... according to this malaysia website, it's called "Railway Creeper". A twining herb, very common in Malaysia, establishing itself on railway embankments, roadside and other similar places. The leaf is cut into five pointed lobes. The flowers have a purplish tinge. Grown from seeds.

Morning Glory come in an array of colors and while looking similar, looks like this

grows fast, flowers fast and die fast ... good for committment phobic like me ... found this cool site that shows the opening and closing of the flower ... short life!
http://sunflower.bio.indiana.edu/~rhangart/plantmotion/flowers/morningglory/morningglory.html