Revival Post

My last post here was in November 2014 for GBBD. Basically, I was out for 2 months from Pure Oxygen Generators. The story might be longer than that, full of not only excitement and delight, but also disgust and worry. The excitement and delight were from my travels to Australia and New Zealand, while disgust and worry came from my hoya collections. I am tempted to tell you the whole story, and burst my feelings here but that will totally cover the page, so i would rather not!

Two months after my last post, i am now trying again to weave some new thoughts and photos to rekindle my enthusiasm in blogging. I have just been out of the country for a month, and yet it seems like already a long time. I attended a conference in Sydney, Australia and from then on went into a long hop-on-hop-off the plane, bus, train, boats escapade.

I will be posting most of those experiences in the other blogsite Andrea in this Lifetime. As for this site, i will be continuing with my home oxygen generators, with occassional oxygen consumers! It is the end of the rainy season and plants are also almost at the end of their lives.

 Our adopted plant, gaillardia, is doing well and has not died for 3 yrs now. It just stopped flowering after the rainy season, just stay alive vegetatively to maintain the species and flowers again come rainy season. In effect it has a seasonal once a year blooming. Despite its dwindling growth compared to its sisters in its country of origin, it acclimatized here, and never fails to give me a few beautiful blooms. It is also a very photogenic subject, and i love it very much.

 Hippeastrum reticulatum var Striatifolium 'Mrs Garfield' gave me 2 blooms this year at 4 flowers/scape. It is just its 3rd year with me, not bad! At least it waited for me to go home before opening fully. It took more than a week from the emergence of the scape to the opening of the 1st flower. It can go dormant for the dry season, and i am relieved.

 The lovely striations never fail to give delight to us in the house. And the staggered opening of the flowers in the scape let us see it for a longer duration.

 This rose amazes me. It has been almost dying in a corner pot, but gained our full attention with these few flowers. There are differences in hue even in just one flower. The bloom at right hand side is more prominent, with very dark pink on top and light pink below. Isn't that amazing! It will be given more attention and preference from now on. I even gave it some fertilizers.

 This plant is lovely for the variegated leaves growing profusely. But the dainty, minute bluish flowers converging in an inflorescense are also cute, and lends nicely for macro shots. Unfortunately, my lens is in the service shop now.

 Red Pentas lanceolata, planted in a discarded iron kettle is giving a positive lift to this bare tree base. You will notice at its right the base of profusely growing Hoya diversifolia, whose stems conquered the top of the tree and showing their flowers high up there. I've shown them in previous posts.

 The red salvia might not be too abundant but they give positive aura in its corner.  Bees love them.

 Asystasia intrusa is invasive here, but it covers a wall with its cascading growth! Butterflies love going there too.

Some of my hoyas are passing through a stressful phase maybe, so i changed a few media, dismantled a few plants and cut the stems into many pieces. It will take 1-2 years again for them to flower, but at least i was able to save the species if they will decide to root again. Only this Hoya obscura is showing some buds yet. 

 In the absense of other blooms, this Impatiens balsamina never fails to provide some beauty. I only have purple (below) and lavender in the beginning, but 2nd generation seedlings produced the whites from their inter alliances. The recessive trait brings the color white, but who cares, it is lovely.

 A few cascading chrysanthemum are still giving some joy especially to the butterflies.

 My garden is not all at the positive side. I've already mentioned the hoyas I have dismantled and cut to pieces. This Hoya kerii is already a big plant growing nicely for 3 years. I was curious why it was not blooming yet, the leaves seem pathetic so i scrutinized the base. I was correct, the roots are rotten and the bases are trying to heal again. I found some very minute snails with lenght of just half a centimeter at maturity. I crushed the visible ones and disinfested the soil I hope the cuttings will grow soonest. I got 13 new cuttings from this plant.

The sad fate of this Hoya kerii is to be cut to pieces even prior to blooming. I am sorry but it didn't give me a choice, i had to give the last verdict.

GBBD for February 2015

Floral Friday Fotos