Showing 1 - 10 of 13
There's a time and place
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 25/12/2016
» Merry Christmas! Today is a doubly auspicious day, for Christmas falls on a Sunday only once in seven years. Even in Buddhist Thailand, Christmas is a time for celebrations and for immersing one's self in the spirit of the season.
Time for cutbacks
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 29/05/2016
» We have had thunderstorms and rain this month. Hopefully the summer heat will soon be a thing of the past as the rainy season starts.
Why tamarind seems to keep a peeling
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 21/02/2016
» Regular reader Paul Schiller and his wife Beatrix are long-time residents of Khao Lak in Phangnga, where they seek warmth during the cold winter months in their home country, Austria. They were on holiday in Hua Hin recently when they saw an unfamiliar fruit. “Today in Hua Hin, nobody knows this, I got not even a Thai name,” Mr Schiller wrote in his email asking for help in identifying the said fruit.
From small seeds grow fig ideas
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 22/03/2015
» I know I promised I would not write about Chatuchak plant market again in a long while. But when reader Ian Windsor wrote to ask where one could find fig trees in Thailand, I felt obliged to find out.
The awesome avocado
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 23/11/2014
» Last Sunday's Green Fingers was about the leaves that my friend Julia gathers from her backyard and brews for tea. Soursop leaves, pandan and lemongrass all have medicinal properties, and as long as they get full sun all can be grown, even in a small space.
Leisurely look at nature
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 27/04/2014
» My family has made it a tradition to travel together, either to our country home near Loei or to my daughter Nalinee’s workplace in Phuket, at least once a year. It is our way of spending quality time together. Even when we are driving to her place, Nalinee flies into Bangkok to join us for the trip. Driving 900km to Cape Panwa in Phuket is not everybody’s idea of fun, but it was not as bad as it sounds as we made stops along the way when we went there during the long Songkran holiday recently.
Help the medicine go down
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 12/01/2014
» In Green Fingers last Sunday, we learned about how hybridisers developed new hibiscus cultivars. The procedure is easy to follow for gardeners who would like to meet the challenge of producing their own hybrids, but for those of us who do not have the time or perseverance to do so, new varieties are sold cheaply at Chatuchak's plant market and nurseries in and around Bangkok.
Pining for a colourful year ahead
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 29/12/2013
» How time flies! It seems it was only a few months ago when we were celebrating the arrival of the new year; now another year is about to begin. As we say goodbye to 2013, I would like to thank all readers who sent me emails during the course of the year. I have tried to answer your questions to the best of my ability, but for those who sent pictures of seedlings or trees for me to identify, I am very sorry if I have not given you a satisfactory answer. There are plants that one knows at first glance; for those I am not familiar with, I ask people who might know but even taxonomists like to see close-ups of the leaves, flowers and possibly fruit of unfamiliar trees before being confident of identifying them accurately.
They'll smell as sweet, But choose your roses wisely
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 23/06/2013
» Roy Beevor wrote to say that he had a piece of land in Nakhon Ratchasima's Wang Nam Khieo district and would like to grow roses there. "An article in the gardening supplement of the Financial Times Weekend recommended the apricot pink Abraham Darby, the deep pink Princess Alexandra of Kent and the copper-coloured Fortune's Yellow. I would be grateful for your comments/advice," he wrote.
Look at leaves on plants with no flower power
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 02/06/2013
» Some plants have beautiful leaves to compensate for their lack of flowers. Codiaeum variegatum, commonly called croton, is among the first that come to mind. Known in Thai as koson, they have leaves that are multi-coloured, or blotched and speckled in many different patterns.