April Plants Fooled!

You might be misled with my title, but my plants hit me like for April Fools' Day! I will narrate to you the reasons. The heat here is already too much  scorching  our plants. Our Heat Index yesterday is 42.5°C. Grasses and weeds in the fields are already brown, and even agricultural crops dry due to dried-up irrigation water. Our garden is no exception, even the soil cracks and leaves of trees yellowed or had advance yellowing. However, my hoyas greeted me with lots of blooms and newly developing buds. They hit me like April Fools' Day.

Now i am wondering whether they really prefer the heat, or they are blooming more because they are dying, as a precautionary response to preserve the species.

At the left is a hoya plant which doesn't seem to be affected by the dry season. They are just covered with a single black net to lessen the direct impact of the bright sun. The net is left there even during the rainy season, rain or shine.

At the right above, is Cymbidium finlaysonianum, a native orchid that has most leaves yellowing due to the intense sunlight. The past years claimed many big plants in this clump, these few plants are just growing nicely because i put it under the hoya plants. There they got the water drippings, felt colder and were able to recover. But afternoon direct sun still turn the leaves yellow.

Red salvia also responds favorably to the intense heat. More flowers per inflorescence are produced.

At the right is Hippeastrum reticulatum, also a survivor.

These 2 above vanda orchids are blooming also well. They are directly exposed to the sun, so let us see if their leaves will be able to withstand the long dry and hot season.

Dischidiopsis parasitica, endemic to the Philippines, blooming profusely too. We don't water them.

 Of course the hoyas are blooming well. Above is Hoya pubicalyx 'Black Dragon', now renamed Hoya pubicorolla. It was more black during the first blooming, but gets lighter as time goes by. Anthocyanin pigments are known to be much affected by many environmental factors especially in its media.

Hoya halconensis has one of the biggest umbels in my collection, and it really gives back high return on investment, i.e. labor hours

 Hoya sp aff. camphorifolia. This means it doesn't have an exact ID yet but has affinity with the Hoya camphorifolia group. It belongs to the small hoyas. Can you see the larva munching on a bloom? I just saw it when i played back my shots, so i went back to the plant and removed the larva.

Hoya merrillii looks radiantly lovely. However,  the umbel is not as organized as most hoya umbels.

 Hoya carnosa red is very slow growing, but its flowers are so lovely that its worth the wait.

Hoya multiflora is exceptionally lovely too, with their flowers like arrows, making its common name as "shooting stars hoya". 

Look at other Hoya multiflora umbels, they promise a big turn-out.

 Hoya alwitriana blooms for the first time. But i failed to see the actual bloom, as i left before it does.

 This Hoya crassicaulis yellow is totally left in direct sun, planted on a drifwood vacated by vandas. The leaves got totally yellow which dry at the end of the season. However, stems inside the driftwood continue to live and grow again come rainy season.

 This cotton bug, Dysdercus cingulatus, doesn't leave the buds anymore! If i know, it is sipping the sap of those buds. They are so lovely, very colorful, but i sometimes kill some of them.

 This is a young umbel of the black hoya. One plant has 8 umbels at different stages of development, how lovely it would be if they bloom at the same time.

This is the more mature buds of the black hoya, Hoya pubicorolla. 

 very young buds of Hoya carnosa

another Hoya carnosa with a cotton bud resident

 You will surely love this black Hoya madulidii bloom. It is just its first blooming in a very long 3 yrs of growing. I've seen photos which are yellowish, but mine emerged as black. I am so amazed.

A few buds are waiting to bloom, but i left home while they are still tightly closed. This particular species love the full sun, so it has been growing outside the single black net. That cotton bug at the background, like me, seems patiently waiting for the buds to open. How i wish i am home when all of them opens almost simultaneously.

GBBD