And Nick and Mason brought me back a BNR32 from their China trip (that’s the 2nd I’ve gotten in a week as Khoa gifted me a Kyosho one last week!).

Hobby Zen Life x LB.

Calsonic! The inspiration behind my own R32 build.

Cardo’s GT-R.

Lambo Killer.

And Paul gifted me my 3rd BNR32 in the space of 2 weeks! What’s going on?!

Paul’s Vette.

DJ Stella X Puppy.

Untamed.

Dave, an old musician mate of mine just happened to be in traffic outside, saw the ZEN sign, and Cardo’s GT-R (thinking it was mine) and he though he’d drop in!

Nick, Mason and one very clean DC2R.

The Hobby Zen Life track.

We rallied whoever was left over for a group shot. Great vibes, great people!

Such a rad ZEN EOMM today. Super chill and very reminiscent of the ZEN Saturdaze we used to host at 12-4PM every Saturday at our old Leichhardt store.

Watching new leaves unfurl never gets old!

My Alocasia Longiloba just gave me a new leaf and it’s MASSIVE!

Just an update! All the plants survived the winter, but some are struggling now with the extreme heat when the sun hits my apartment in the afternoon. Some plants are definitely doing better than others. The Monstera Albo is doing especially well (2 new leaves!) and has become one of my fave plants.

Everything inside the cabinet is growing strong. Have yet to kill a plant and yet to have any sort of pests either. I’m still upset that I’ve lost the jungle vibe by removing plants that just got too big (they’re all doing great outside of the cabinet though despite it being winter in Sydney atm). It’s looking more like a grow out cabinet now than a true display, but hey, nothing much I can do about that!

I removed the Queen Anthurium from the cabinet though. Not because it got too big, just because it’s the one plant I’ve not ben able to grow right, and I got sick of looking at it’s imperfect leaves.

Queen of Hearts (Homalomena ‘Maggie’).

Alex from More Plants (my local plant store) is back from her 3 week trip overseas so I thought I’d drop by yesterday to say hello, and of-course, to buy some plants!

I ended up buying 2 plants I never thought I’d ever buy, and know very little about, but hey the cabinet is full of aroids and Mia is very much leaving all the plants outside of the cabinet alone, so I figured that A) I can add more plants to the lounge room where I spend most of my time and B) I can start looking into keeping plants other than aroids!

The Anthurium Dorayaki X that high school friend Fifi gave to me as a little baby late March has grown 3 new leaves and the latest leaf is absolutely MASSIVE!

5 months into the plant hobby and I’ve yet to kill a plant (this makes me happy!). I’m really unhappy with how the cabinet is looking though. It’s lost the jungle vibe as I’ve had to move my Alocasia Watsoniana, Longiloba and Frydek out as they’ve outgrew the cabinet.

The Queen Anthurium was my dream plant. I have 2 of them, one which I got as a baby and another which I bought with one large beaten up leaf. Both have grown new leaves but none of the new leaves are perfect. The large one has grown what would have been a much bigger new leaf, but for some reason the whole bottom half of the leaf is completely missing!

I’m aware that you’re not meant to touch new Queen Anthurium leaves as this can cause marks and imperfections when the leaf matures. I swear that I didn’t touch the new leaves at all, but the damage seems to have been done as the leaves were unfurling. Super upsetting and frustrating.

The cabinet was looking really empty so I moved a couple of cuttings into the cabinet; a Monstera Peru and Albo (which an old high school friend so generously gifted me!). Both had shown no new growth at all since I got them (about 2 months ago) but just a few weeks in the cabinet and amazingly the Peru is about to push out 2 new leaves and the Albo has a new leaf unfurling! I put it down to the cabinet having higher humidity and also warmer temperature (we’re heading into winter in Sydney Australia).

I also bought 3 more babies for the top shelf; a Philodendron El Choco Red, Gloriosum and a Thai Constellation. They’re still in moss at the moment but I’ll transfer them to leca (like all my other plants) when the roots develop a little more.

Whilst I’m upset that I’ve lost the jungle vibe of having huge leaves in the cabinet, it’s not all bad! The plants are all getting more light now (especially the plants at the bottom which were living in a lot of shade under the huge leaves of the Longiloba and Wastoniana), there’s more air flow in the cabinet and the plants that I moved out seem to be doing just fine outside of the cabinet (no new growth but no negative signs despite it much lower humidity and much colder temps).

From Western Australia with love.

I’ve decided to leave them in the sphagnum moss they arrived in (for now).

Philodendron El Choco Red already looking amazing!

2 of my fave show plants (Alocasia Watsoniana and Longiloba) have grown so large that they’re touching the light in my cabinet. Not good as A) the leaves will burn and B) they’re shading all the plants below. I’ve had to move both of them out and so far they’re doing just fine, but the cabinet is looking bare, and no longer has that lush jungle vibe I love so much.

I was watching a Sydney Plant Guy video where he featured a Philodendron El Choco Red he bought online from WA. I did some googling, found the site (Flora Magnifica Australia) and put an order in. I have all 3 babies on the top shelf atm and they’re doing well!