Showing 21 - 30 of 80
I heard it through the grapevine
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 13/12/2015
» When I was in grade school, my father tried to germinate seeds of grapes imported from California at our home in the rice growing region of Central Luzon in the Philippines. He did not expect the seeds to germinate, as he knew the fruit was grown in a climate so different from ours.
Getting cross about pollination
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 06/12/2015
» I was standing in the back yard when I noticed bees and other insects hovering over the flowers on my coconut tree. This part of my yard is cemented and the coconut tree was planted in a big, woven plastic container and placed in one corner to provide shade. After many years the plastic disintegrated and as the coconut had grown very big, we could not transplant it to another container.
Raising a peep
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 29/11/2015
» Grant Howlett is an Australian expatriate with a reasonable knowledge of things botanical in his home country. But when it comes to Asian plant life, “alas, I have lots to learn”, he wrote. “I did reside for many years in the tropics of northern Australia, and many plants there are also here, like the foxtail palm which is originally from Australia but now prolific here in Thailand, but when it comes to trees I am lost.”
The tree of life
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 08/11/2015
» I received an invitation to a symposium recently. Well, I thought that was what it was, for the invitation and the programme were in Vietnamese and there were only three words that I understood: Hanoi and Morinda citrifolia.
Standing in the shadows of giants
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 30/08/2015
» Small is beautiful, but giants are far more awe-inspiring. That I found out during a trip to northern Thailand recently.
The mother of all blooms
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 09/08/2015
» I used to give my mum a white rose on Mother’s Day, which is celebrated on the second Sunday of May in the Philippines, where I grew up. Now that I am a mother and grandmother, I get jasmine instead.
Toxic plants and rumours taking root
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 19/07/2015
» When will people ever learn? The warning on dieffenbachia, known in Thai as sao noi pra paeng, being a dangerous plant is going viral again. Apparently someone in India just read it and shared it with her friends, then people in the Philippines and Japan picked it up and now it is making the rounds on Facebook all over again.
Leave those trees alone
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 12/07/2015
» I was on my way to fetch my grandson from school last week when I passed by workmen busy trimming tamarind trees along Si Ayutthaya Road outside the Chitralada Palace compound. As branches cut from the trees fell to the ground, other workers picked them up and loaded them onto a lorry. They were still busy working on that particular stretch of road when I passed them on the way back.
How to play it cool
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 05/07/2015
» The severe heatwaves that gripped India and Pakistan in May and June, killing more than 4,000 people, must be a matter of grave concern for us in Thailand. With the Earth’s changing climate patterns, there might come a time when temperatures of up to 40-45C could sweep this country, too.
Have plants will travel
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 17/05/2015
» Mayeeda Choudhury said she first saw Millingtonia hortensis, commonly known as Indian cork tree, while visiting Bangkok two years ago. “I tried to look for it in Chatuchak plant market but as I did not know the Thai name, I could not communicate to the shopkeepers what I was looking for,” she wrote. “I travel to Bangkok quite often, so I will be very obliged if you can inform me where I can find saplings.”