Bom Bom the Cacti: December 2010

Bom Bom the Cacti- An introduction

Hi, I am Cheryl from Singapore. I started to like cactus since I was in Primary School when I first brought a cactus- Echinopsis chanaecereus f. lueta during a school field trip because I just thought it looked like a Banana.

After that when I walked by a nursery beside a library which I go often, I brought more and more cactus and placed them outside my house. A grafted Parodia leninghausii was one of my collection. After buying it, I seperated the cactus from its graft and named it Bom Bom as it was so fat and round. I started to like it more and more.

Unfortunately, all of my collection was stolen one night and I was left with nothing. My fever for cactus died. However, it came back again when I was working for my school internship programme when I saw Bom Bom's imitation sitting on a windowstill and the cleaner aunty told me what this Parodia Leninghausii had went through.

I started to borrow books about cactus to learn more about it and saw the wonderful pictures. They were so beautiful and unique and I decided to start a collection of my own.

Friday, December 3, 2010

4 December 2010, Saturday

It has come to the month of December, unlike the Western countries, we do not experience the changing of the four seasons. Thus, in Singapore, it was almost summer all year through.

It do get colder in December, but the temperature never drop below 20 degree celsius even at night. As what you have seen in the picture, I live in a hight rise building, and my cactus were place on a 'lift up' tray to allow it to receive more light and better ventilation.

The weather was so unpredictable these few days, one moment there was a big sun and the next second, it started to rain. Luckily, I did not water my cactus much after the reporting, and they received some good drenching. But now I have to bring in them as it rain almost everyday. I wondered will I ever get to see it flower in this tropical environment?