Dry Season Tolerants or Tortured Plants

Our long dry season this year is extending beyond the month we are accustomed of experiencing.  In the past years since i remember, May is the start of our rainy season, a much awaited event as it pacifies the very hot environment; thirsty plants, cracking soils and impatient humans. With the very famous climate change and its accompanying famous actor El Nino, our temperature is now 36°C with a Heat Index of 40.2C. For temperate country dwellers you might not be able to relate to these conditions, so i will tell you it is definitely terrible, most specially because we have a high Relative Humidity. It is hellish to walk outside even at 8:00 in the morning. Heat doesn't dissipate at night much because of the cement jungle we have in the city. Use of airconditioning units is a must, but unfortunate of unfortunates, mine is out of order so i am just using electric fans. 

 Sansevieria trifasciata

Despite the above conditions plus the unavailable water for the plants, i still saw a few blooms. They bloom no matter what. This is not a distress situation to perpetuate the species, but it is their real time of blooming. They just suffer in the number of flowers per spike or the length of their bloom life. The above sansevieria never fails to produce the sweet scent at night, permeating through our windows. It however opens only for one night per spike, other spikes will bloom some other nights.

Dendrobium stuartiana

This Dendrobium normally has a lot of flowers in a long spike, producing also a very lovely sweet scent in the morning. This spike however was not able to lengthen much and only 1 bloom appeared. It stays for a few days though. 

 Dendrobium hybrid 

 Cosmos bipinnatum

Cosmos is very common, a lot of them blooming in the rainy season. This one only grows this dry season beneath the hoya plants, so it received some water drips from the hoyas. 

 Justicia

This Justicia is also under the hoya plants, so it can share with them some shade, gets some water drips and some cold.

 Dendrobium

This is my sisters plants, her house has water more available than ours, so she can water them luxuriously. It rewarded her with a lot of spikes.

 Hippeastrum roseum

It flowers only after a long dry season and a little water will induce it to bloom. Artificial watering was able to produce these flowers. 

 Gaillardia

This is an acclimatized gaillardia, has been with us for four years from the US. It is a bit dwindling for lack of water, but it still can produce a few blooms despite the lack. It is my favorite for photography, it always looks lovely in photos.

 Tagetes erecta 

This yellow marigold also tries hard to live in a very harsh environment. It however is very short  and has very few sickly leaves. Mealy bugs also infested it so much because they too need to eat. 

 a Vanda hybrid

This Vanda plant shows water dehydration in all its parts. Yet it still produce a few flowers despite the very sick and thirsty appearance. A single fruit fly in turn is feeding on the blooms surface.

 Ixora coccincinensis

This Ixora is one of the most drought tolerant plants. I produced lots of umbels no matter what. It can use a little water for nice growth, now its leaves are all yellowed but it will successfully survive this ordeal. It has been tortured like this yearly and always come out well.

 Heliconia rostrata

The same condition describes this Heliconia. The dry season is the culmination of its life cycle, producing a lot of those beautifully colored bracts. Then eventually they will dry and the rhizomes will start growing another plants when the rainy season starts. 

If i didn not consolidate these colors in single flower photos here, it is not easy to conclude that our dry season also brings out some pretty blooms. Looking at the totality of our garden, it just looks chaotic, weary, wanting and dead. Summing them up provides a very positive view, as if nothing bad is happening in the big picture. Can you relate to how our garden now looks like, with all of these blooms in isolated areas? I hope you do.

Post Script: This draft is made 2 weeks ago, but have been busy in between. Last weekend we already have the rains and rainy season just started. Our plants and land are already happy at the time of this writing.

Our World Tuesday

Floral Friday Fotos