It’s December and normally I would be sitting in front of my fireplace with a cup of warm earl gray tea, two layers of socks, slippers, pants and two or three sweaters on. Yes, we did have central heating, but the cold seemed to chill me to my bones no matter what. Now I don’t have a fireplace and just the thought of putting on socks makes me hot. It’s still in the 30’s (celsius) here, the all year summer I dreamed of since my childhood.

Another thing I longed for in moving to Indonesia, is green plants all year long. I love love love to garden and was very sad about leaving my gardens and moving into an apartment building. So, one of my first priorities has been to add green life to our home and fill up my balcony.

I started with a little spiky guy, I don’t even know what his name is, but he was fun.

Then I adopted a sickly snake plant when I purchased my pots. It’s still recovering on the balcony.

Ikea didn’t disappoint and I came home with a couple of plants from there.

Then I discovered a beautiful little cafe with their own garden and I bought a couple of herbs, a fun plant that reminded me of sedum, and an aloe plant.

I was also able to snag a few from one of the gardeners here, thanks to a friend’s helper.

But my favourite place is at a nursery and I finally made it to one. There are many of these along the streets in Jakarta, stalls about 10 feet wide with a different seller for each space. They have their own collections and I’m sure jack up the prices when they see this white lady walk over.

One day, a friend and I went on an adventure to find one of these streets. I jumped right in, finding something I wanted right away, but then realized there was a whole street of plants and I should play it cool for a while. So we wandered up and down, taking in what there was, finding so many beautiful things. I had a hard time deciding, especially when they started getting pushy and showing me things like hydrangeas! I’m sure I didn’t haggle very well either, but I paid less than what I would have in Canada and that was a deal enough for me.

On this visit, I only bought a few plants, mostly because the rain started and I wasn’t sure how much I could fit in a taxi. But now I know where to go and I will be sure to return. 

I’m excited to get some big planters and put these beauties into a pot that they can flourish in on my balcony.

I’ve snagged plants from anywhere I can get them and I’m sure to continue collecting. I don’t seem to be very good at indoor plants, so I’ll probably rotate them from their slow death inside to the balcony where they can recover.