The Plant Prince

Sharing these cute drawings. I had my artist friend draw these. You’ll probably see them in most of my posts and even in my videos. These are not AI-generated, they were 100% hand-drawn. The components, like the mouth, eyes, hands, and others, are separated, making them easy to combine, mix, and match.

Just random cute things I’ll be using while trying to build my brand again in the industry. Hopefully, you’ll like it.

These pesky bugs almost wiped out my entire collection. (𝘓𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥)

I just want to share what has been happening in my garden over the past year while I’ve been inactive. One of my biggest nightmares finally happened - my collection became heavily infested with armored scales. After years of collecting cacti, this was actually my first time encountering them. The reason? Before I took a hiatus and became busy with life, I purchased several cacti from different sellers. Unfortunately, I didn’t quarantine or isolate them.(𝘐 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘐’𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺, 𝘐 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦.) I simply potted them and placed them alongside my existing collection. Unknowingly, some of those plants may have already carried these armored scales.

As life became busier, I slowly lost time for my garden. It reached the point where I only visited once a month to water my plants. Then, during the rainy season last year, especially around June, I barely checked on them. Months passed without proper care. I didn’t water them for a long time, but because of the heavy rains and my damaged greenhouse roofing, they still received some water naturally.

Then in January 2026, I suddenly missed my cacti and succulents and decided to visit my garden again. What I found broke my heart. Many of my Astrophytums had succumbed to these armored scales. The weaker plants had already died, while many others were severely dehydrated and struggling to survive.

Honestly, I was very frustrated with myself. Seeing my collection in that condition was heartbreaking, and I blamed myself for neglecting them for so long.

I started by watering the cacti and giving them the care they needed. After they regained some strength, I began applying insecticides and started the long process of controlling the infestation.

Until now, I’m still treating my collection and trying to completely eliminate these armored scales. After months of hard work, I can finally see progress, and I feel that I’m getting closer to winning this battle. I’ve been documenting the whole process, and hopefully, I’ll be able to share a video about this soon, not only to show my journey, but also so others can learn from my mistakes.

Have you ever experienced a pest infestation in your garden? What pest do you hate the most, and how do you usually deal with it?