BROMELIADS: GUZMANIA LINGULATA AND TILLANDSIA CYANEA

 by: MisS VictoriA DaviD

It all started when I was looking for something colourful and enticing...

I can appreciate the shade of the foliage but my personality could never hide my eagerness for more radiant and gleeful plants. On the other hand, as if I was born with a green thumb like my dear Nanay (mother) who could plant a seed and after a few days, it's already coming into life and developing leaves. Then, weeks after it's either pullulating with refreshing flowers or scrumptious fruits. What an inspiring picturesque recollection of mine!

I don't forgo very easily unless there is a need to, especially when the consequential outcome will be pointless. Why would I waste my precious time. Will you? Heretofore, I put up with the idea that only aloe veras, cacti, etc. would survive the test of suffocating atmosphere indoors. However, I was very wrong when I finally stepped-up and bought my first Bromeliad called Guzmania Lingulata. A plant that has the entire flower head, when viewed from above, in the shape of a star and it's been given a more easily identifiable name as Scarlet Star. Its leaves are hardy, long and umbrella out from the central stalk. When this plant blooms, only once in its life, the bloom lasts about 5 months.

My optimistic personality of tender, love and care overcame my idea that it wouldn't survive. Or, my negative thoughts that planting colourful plants inside the flat would end in their not thriving. That is why, I was very delighted and awed when seedlings emerged unexpectedly and my great happiness resonated in four corners of the flat. Now I know how my mother felt when her well-loved plants flourished and yielded blossoms.

 

For the past weeks of taking good care of my Bromeliads, they have given me enriching incentives, gleefulness and pride especially when I stare at them. They transpired the hundrum colour of the window sill board to a more interesting and charming framework. Naturally, it has that green house effect which I dearly love very much.

Genuinely, it is not just the Guzmania Lingulata that cheers me up everyday; as they all do. More so, when the mostly cultivated Bromeliad Tilladsia Cyanea surprised me with a purple flower. As far as I can remember, the blitheness in my eyes was beyond words which induced me to take pictures of the unexpected bloom emanated from its pink bract. Essentially, the bract of this Pink Quill Air Plant produces flowers for 1 to 3 months and after that, new seedlings/ offsets will sprout from the base of its stem. 

 

They, Guzmania Lingulata and Tilladsia Cyanea, were repotted twice because of their unstoppable and thriving growth. Both are sources of my radiant bliss in the morning and every time I behold them; they remind me that I am a green-fingered lady after all.

QUEEN VICTORIA'S COOKED BROWN RICE

by: MisS VictoriA DaviD
 

Asian's staple food that cannot be replaced in their daily lives is rice. A cereal grain from a monocot plant, Oryza sativa. The seeds of the rice are first milled using a rice huller to remove the chaff (the outer husks of the grain) and then the bran (hard outer layer of grain).

Are you one of these Asians whose daily meal is always complemented with cups of cooked rice or just having it on your table occasionally?

If you like this staple food of us, why not add more flavour into it when cooking. I am sure it will give an interesting sensation in your mouth.

This was just my experiment but the taste of the rice turned very appetising on my taste buds. Here are my ingredients before turning-on the rice cooker.

You will need 2 stalks of spring onions and cut according to your preference. Then, add the sliced spring onions into the rice with the additional ingredients, 2 tbsps. of olive oil, 1 tsp. of mixed herbs and spinach (frozen/fresh). On the other hand, to give it a spicy strength just sprinkle ground pepper/cayenne peper before mixing all ingredients. Cook and don't forget to stir before serving.

You will appreciate not just the aromatic smell but more importantly, the herbal flavour. I highly recommend the use of brown rice for weight conscious people or to those creating/adhering a strict diet regime!