Saturday, February 14, 2015

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

26 comments:

  1. Hi Andrea. It's lovely to have you back. I have been missing your lovely pictures of tropical plants. So bright and colourful, particularly for me just now during our dull, grey winter! I am really surprised that you have roses growing there. They are more of a plant I would associate with our climate. The other flowers are so bright. Obviously I love the butterfly, too!!

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    1. Thanks for being with me again despite my long absence, i certainly appreciate it. Roses have tropical varieties too, and we have lots of them here as well as those in the temperate climes.

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  2. Oh, thank you for this hopeful, sunny post! We are having a cold snap, and I can only imagine the warmth. Sorry about the Hoyas. I hope you'll be able to bring some of them back.

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    1. Hello Beth, whenever winter is in the other side of our world, i always post our flowers with the hope of giving some warmth to them. I haven't experienced winter but i don't think i will be able to withstand it. Thanks for visiting again despite my long absence.

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  3. Am glad you are back with your blog! Am laying out the red carpet just for you! I miss your blog and your meticulous chronicles of the ups and downs of your plants and blooms! Plants get stressed, too, but I think the gardeners are certainly more stressed and that makes the whole scenario more stressful! Hahahaha! But, don't fret now because I know that under your tender loving care, they will bounce back in no time!

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    1. Thanks Evelyn to be always with me. I love your way of saying it and i am also sure that you can relate with me so well. It really is depressing and somehow i feel like just stopping completely with gardening. But because i love blogging too, i might not find subjects to blog if i will stop, so i healed my plants and some responded well.

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  4. Little by little Andrea:) It will all come back again. I know I know. You write this deep heart felt post and then decide after several hours of writing to delete most of it:) But that too is part of the process. I used to stress over the strangest things.....the plants here on my property certainly have felt the affects of my birding. BUT I have a lot of wonderful hardy plantings now around the property which include all varieties of cacti. That is exciting. Yesterday I added 3 new cuttings to our side garden. Happy weekend to you and hugs!

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    1. Chris, my friend Kreesh, you are back to support my blogging. You just don't know how i appreciate blogging friends who come back despite my long absence. Thank you so much. I know cacti needs less attention, but i tried them once and because i don't have many plants in my condo unit, i made the mistake of giving them more attention, so they died! Haha apparently i gave them more water than needed.

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  5. Great to see you posting Andrea and you plants look great, it's always a pleasure to visit your garden

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    1. Thanks Klara for coming here again. I am happy that you also visit gardens without orchids.

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  6. I am so elated and happy that even after leaving for a few months, you, my blogger friends are still here with me. You just don't know how i appreciate your visits and comments, and that you haven't forgotten me. Thanks very much

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  7. Beautiful blooms!
    Sorry about then Hoyas. Amazing that such tiny creatures as snails can do so much damage. Hope the cuttings will grow.
    Happy Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day!
    Lea

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    1. Thanks Lea for coming over, they are so inconspicuous so damage was done before i knew it.

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  8. I am happy you have returned. Life can throw us sometimes as we are busy and unpleasant things happen. Lots of lovely blooms especially that unusual Hippeastrum. Sorry to hear about the hoyas.

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    1. Am glad you are still here with me, haha. They are the very short lasting blooms, but glad to have them as well, specially in times of need.

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  9. I do hope you are able to save those Hoyas, such a shame. Snails can be so devastating. A pest here in my garden too.
    Lovely blooms, one and all and the butterflies are just gorgeous. Welcome back.

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    1. Thanks Angie, these snails are not the normal kind, if you read the post they are less than half centimeters at maturity. They are almost inconspicuous, contaminant of the media i bought i suppose.

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  10. I put in a comment here 2 days ago, has it been swallowed up by the big Internet monster? :)
    Anyway, what I said was sorry to hear about your hoyas, I so enjoy watching your photos so I hope you will manage to nurse your cuttings back to beautiful new plants.

    It is so frustrating to keep up with all the pests and diseases in the garden, I am battling Fuchsia Gall Mite at the moment and had to cut down ALL my 56 fuchsias to try to save them. I would have had many of them in flower, but as a result I have no flowers and probably won’t have until late summer. I won’t know until late autumn if I have managed to rescue them. It’s one issue after the other in the garden, we just have to deal with them right?

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    1. Oh yes Helene despite the frustrations we are encountering with our plants, we still go on don't we! They are part of the journey, as they say, and i guess we love the plant more after more hardships with them. The Rose of the Little Prince, hehe. Some of the hoyas died, but some made it, just had some delayed development. Thanks again for coming over.

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  11. Glad to hear you have taken up blogging again. I have been through the same process, having had a break of nearly a year. Your tiny blue flower is a Dianella. We have them growing rampant and they can become very persistent anf difficult to hold back.

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    1. Oh thanks Liz, the name was actually given to me already by an Australian when i first posted it, but i forget. It was said it came from Australia, and yes i found some as weeds in the wilds of Katoomba. Thanks also for visiting here.

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  12. I'm sorry about the snails. I hope your cuttings will grow. I love the amaryllis. It always make me think of Christmas. It's good to have you back, Andrea.

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    1. Thanks Funilla for the warm welcome, haha! And i hope what i salvaged from my hoya plants will live and be better than before!

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  13. Very lovely photos of the flowers.. The amaryllis is so beautiful. Have a nice Sunday

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    1. Thanks Ingmarie, that amaryllis flowers more often than other species or hybrids. It flowers more than once a year. Enjoy your week ahead as well.

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  14. Welcome back, Andrea. Lovely shots!
    Thanks for participating in Floral Fridays Fotos, I look forward to your next offering!

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