When I saw this Hamelia stem, I was totally totally disgusted and it gave me goose bumps. Just look at the mass of scale insects lining the entire stem as if it was part of the plant. The smaller ones were slowly covering the leaf petioles and were extending onto the leaf blade. At that moment, I felt like throwing away my Hamelia patens but I took control of my emotions. Eventually, I traced it back to the stem and prune it off to prevent its spread. Sometimes I hate the ants because they love to culture the mealy bugs and scales.
In the last photo, the Curcuma longa is growing well even though I didn't purchase it. It was a stowaway on the Afgekia sericea that I bought from Ang Mo Kio Flora.
