Delivery of Water Hyacinth

I posted about my Water Hyacinth the last time; mozemoua asked if she could have some. There is only so much that I could take inside with me during the winter months, and this water floating plant spread so fast that you only need a couple and it’ll grow overnight.

When I promised her that I’d give, I really didn’t know how I would ship this since we live in different states, but we were able to work out the detail that I’d give this to her with no charge, and she offered to pay for the freight, so UPS ground seems like a perfect solution for us. I choose to ship on a Monday so that it will have plenty of time to get there, I’d hate for it to get stuck somewhere over the weekend. UPS has not updated their tracking yet, but I think it’d take about 1 or 2 days to get there UPS has updated their tracking information, and it is scheduled for delivery on 10/08/2008, so it’ll take 2 days to deliver to her area.

I checked to see if it’s legal to ship Water Hyacinth to her state, and it is, many places in her area actually use it for waste water treatment. I picked out the Water Hyacinth yesterday and mostly young ones so that I can give her more. I put them in my large vase/pond that I used as my water lily and fish pond before I made this bigger pond in my backyard, that way by Monday afternoon, I would have them ready to pack and ship.

I’ve never shipped any living things before, but had seen how they shipped Orchid plant, one of our customers shipped Orchid to one of my co-workers in the past, and it was lots of shredded newspaper and I thought that I would try the same with the Water Hyacinth. I wrapped the roots with wet paper towels, and put it in a sandwich bag to keep it from wetting the box. The Water Hyacinth look comfortable in there, all covered with shredded newspaper, so we’ll see in a couple of days if they made it to their new home okay.

Updated 10/8/2008: mozemoua received the Water Hyacinth yesterday at 2:29 PM delivered to her front door but she didn’t return home until late yesterday, these are photos from her blog posting, I’m very happy that they are in great condition, one even has a flower.

Water Hyacinth Take Over

• Diamond Sun by Glass Tiger

My fish pond or is it water hyacinth pond?

I can’t say that too much of anything is a good thing, I’d never have thought that I would have a problem with the Water Hyacinth, this water floating plant is spreading at a very fast pace, practically taken over my pond. Water hyacinth are free-floating perennial aquatic plants native to tropical South America. One of the fastest growing plants known, water hyacinth reproduces primarily by way of runners or stolons, which eventually form daughter plants. They provide a food source for gold fish when used in man-made ponds, also help to keep water clean, and provide oxygen.

Water Hyacinth

Although I do have to say that the flowers are beautiful but usually last only a day or so, and the leaves are glossy green, the air pockets in the bulbous areas keep the plant afloat. I think the problem is that my pond is too small and this is spreading too fast, I gave some of them to my second sister but hers are not doing well at all, they’re yellowish and her fish apparently ate all the roots. My roots are still intact, and the long thick black roots provide spawning and hiding places for my fish, I now have at least 6 to 7 new baby fish. Of course another benefit is the nutrient absorbing qualities of the plant, they help to control the algae in the water.

Koi fish, gold fish, and baby fish

Baby fish

In some areas, these are used as cattle food and in biogas production. Recently, they have also begun to be used in wastewater treatment due to their fast growth and ability to tolerate high levels of pollution. Parts of the plant are also used in the production of traditional handicrafts in Southeast Asia, some samples of mats, baskets, and sofa below.

Water Hyacinth Mat, this is natural flooring water hyacinth rug / mat / carpet with plaited style. It makes your room warm and nice looking. Made in Vietnam.

Small Garden in Mid July

This post is for my oldest sister. It has been raining a lot lately, but mostly passing storms that bring welcoming rain to Dad’s garden, see his garden now in comparison to my last post. One of the reasons that Dad’s garden is looking very good is because his land used to be a horse farm. The owner of this farm sold part of the plot, and now it’s a subdivision, but part of the horse farm is still there, right in front of Dad’s house. I’m very fortunate today to see the horses outside; one walked right up to me and strikes a post.

Small Garden in Late June

This post is for my oldest sister. This is my last post before you’ll finally get to see Dad’s garden next week; everything is looking very good, as always. I think dad takes good care of his garden, everything is blooming or bearing fruits comparing to 10 days ago.

My second sister has 2 water lilies in bloom, one in pink, which she has not seen this one herself because it only blooms at noontime, and she was at work.

I also have one in my pond that is real pretty.

The rest of Dad’s garden,

Small Garden in Mid June

This post is for my oldest sister. Dad’s garden is looking very good, comparing to last week, this week many of his vegetables are in bloom, and some even bear fruits or should it be called vegetables.

A Perfect Little Spot

Gazebo, fish pond by SpecFin

I used to think that if I have a gazebo next to my fishpond, then this little spot of mine would be perfect. I often imagine myself being out there, reading books on the weekend, or in the evening watching my fish swimming, and hearing the sounds of the water flowing, birds chirping is very relaxing.

Of course, in reality, it’s not as easy, gazebo cost quiet a bit, even if I do it myself, I’m looking close to $1,000. As I was out there this morning cleaning the bridge, there were lots of bird poops, and the white stains stood out against the red bridge and brown wooden floor. I don’t mind doing this because it’s nice and sunny outside, and the cool breeze is refreshing, then all of a sudden it hits me, I see something that I’ve never seen before. The bridge itself is better than any gazebo, it is above the water, great view of the fish, the woods, and plenty of room for me to sit and relax, and I’m wondering why I’ve never seen this before.

Small Garden in Late May

This post is for my oldest sister. Things are a lot bigger since the last time I posted photos of Dad’s Small Garden, and second sister’s fish pond is doing really well, her water lilies look healthy, and the leaves are big, unlike mine that barely made it to the top, I’m thinking that it’s because my pond is a lot deeper than hers.

This is her fishpond.

This is mine.

Dad’s garden,

Small Garden

This post is for my oldest sister. In case you’re wondering, this is what they’ve been doing…busy in the garden, but first let me show you my second sister’s water lilies, she called me last night to tell me if I get there by noontime, they should be in full bloom.

Updated photos on 5/18/2008: The weather is nice and his vegetables seem a bit bigger today, so I decided to update new photos instead of writing a new post, here is Dad’s garden. The water lily below is from my pond, it blooms today.

Updating Fish Pond in May

This post is for my oldest sister in NYC, I finally had a chance to clean my fish pond, the water is a lot clearer now as you can see, having fish pond is a lot of work but the rewards are ten-fold.

Also, my second sister’s fish are a lot bigger, her pond is smaller than mine and not as deep, but she sure does have lots of fish.

Spring is Here

I think spring is here, as for me it’s obvious, a mother bird, a robin I think, built her nest on top of the pillar in my front porch. I’m not sure what to do at the moment, some people told me to leave it alone, and that it’s a Feng-shui house, which I’m not so sure about that, might be lots of bird poop in the near future. I guess if it’s a Red Cardinal, then it might be a different story because red is considered Feng-shui, as in red front door, which mine is black, but black front door is equally as good as a red front door, it has its place in Feng-shui. I’ll just have to wait and see the latest member(s) of my family.

Flower is another sign, I’m not sure what this one is called, but it’s a perennial flower that comes up every year around this time.

Water Lily/Fish Pond on a Deck

I visited my younger sister yesterday because I saw her last week and she mentioned about my GI Joe sister is into raising Pee Heih (ghost) now a day, and I wanted to see what it looks like, my GI Joe sister lives right next to my younger sister. I also want to see my younger sister fish ponds, her latest one that I’ve not seen is the one on her deck, she said that she purchased a water tub that’s used for horse feeding, and it looks real pretty sitting on her deck, the view from her window looking from the inside is amazing, this I’ve got to see for myself.

When I got to her house, something in her hallway caught my attention, it was her Buddha alter and made me think of K who recently thought about getting a Buddha statue for his flat. This is a Japanese Buddha statue, you can tell by the shape of the face and round head. Thai or Lao Buddha statue has a more pointy-head to signify brightness, pointy meaning ‘Lamh’ (sharp); this was once explained to me by a local monk.

This is her pond on her deck.

Update On My Sister’s Fish Pond

This post is for my oldest sister in NYC, this is her finished project, big improvement from her previous fish pond.

Update On My Fish Pond

I came home for lunch today and my water lily is in bloom, the only time that it’d bloom for me is during the noontime, if I wait until evening, it’d have been closed. I got lucky today and couldn’t resist showing it off.

I’m happy as to how the pond looks now, but it has not been this way in the past, more like pea soup color, I was a bit depressed at first. At one point, I drained out half of the water and refilled it with new water, and dropped all kinds of chemical in there to make it clearer, but nothing seemed to work. Then I visited my second sister, she told me that it was supposed to be like that for the first couple of weeks until the ecosystem of the pond balance itself, at this point I feel a bit stupid, but at the same time relief that there’s hope for my pond.

The water lily plant seems to help make the pond water clearer; I read that when you introduce desirable aquatic plants into your water garden, they compete with pond algae for the available nutrition, and if there are enough plants, they’ll naturally minimize the available nutrition and in the process, they’ll control pond algae for you naturally. I think my Koi fish also eat the algae. Below are photos taken today

Fish Ponds

This is one of my sisters’ fish/lily pond, which she wanted my oldest sister in NYC to see. The lily pads and fishes were very small when you last saw them over a month ago; see how big they are now.

Lily Pond Summer of 2006