Saturday, April 22, 2017

Camera Pets!

My niece always wants to pose for the camera since she was a kid. That hasn't diminished through the years. Because of the digital technology and the easy access to photos with celfones, she has lots of them. I wonder why these days the so called millenials are so fond of taking their own photos. It is almost like second thoughts to them to raise their fones, smile and click.

I am not fond of taking people's photos, only for special occassions, on trips as tourists to say we were there, or when obliged in group pictures. But i seldom stay in front, nor be prominently displayed in focus. I noticed that there are also older people who take their own photos seemingly like they are still young, or mimick the actions of the millenials. I laughed at the word selfie, groupie, and i chuckled at the words by an Indian blogger friend "doublefie". Oh how easy we are in coining words, they come with the times, but very functional.

Back to my niece. She knows i don't like to take much of her photos anymore. She already graduated from college and already working. So in the following pictures she took someone to go with her. She was able to oblige me even without words. There i am hooked to click!

 We have 2 mother goats, and they both have newly born pair of kids.

 they are pets and the kids come to the house when hungry

 They even smell better than dogs, even if they don't bathe. And look
 at those soft eyes, they are so lovable and endearing.

 my niece and nephew always hug them at this young age

These are the brown pair from Goat Mom One, and Goat Mom Two has a pair of blacks, the same style as the browns. One of them is purely black and the twin has white. 

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

GBBD for April 2017

Uploading garden photos on April Fools Day  anticipating the 15th for GBBD might be too early. But that is a lesson learned when i forego posting for some months in the past because i am just reminded when i see a few posts linked to FB. So since last month i already learned. I am smiling to myself because of this, but i also enjoy the fun. Don't worry that i might be posting those from last month because these flowers will still be there until maybe a few months more. Those that will dehisce sooner are anyway not posted yet for last month.

Even if we are already experiencing heat at above 30°C with Heat Index of 36°C, some of our plants don't seem to care. They love the heat and humidity.
Bougainvillea is a known hot and drought tolerant plant. They even florish at the height of the dry season here. It can be found everywhere here in the tropics, as if it is our national flower, though it isn't. Above is our share of it, planted near the street and allowed to go haywire. That is only one plant, been there for many years.

 Caladiums are rainy season plants in most gardens in the tropics. They normally go dormant during our dry season, but these two, above and below, are alive and growing well because their pots are placed in another container with  inch of water in . That inhibits their tendency to be dormant. So they remained colorful.


Impatiens balsamina is starting to dry as they are very succulent and matures fast during the dry season. The seeds are now scaterring and will voluntarily emerge again in May or June come rainy months.

 The 4 oçlock flower grows like crazy under slightly sheltered light under the avocado and jackfruit trees. They have the well developed storage organ at the base that prevent them from drying, and the primary root is deep that can get some moisture below the soil surface. A lot of seeds are also scaterred that makes it a bit invasive. I have already uprooted a lot of these plants to the garbage.

 close up of the flower of 4 o'clock or Mirabilis jalapa

This is the only hippeastrum which flowered on its own without dormancy, and flowers more than once per year. Others definitely becomes dormant and flowers only when watered or placed in refrigerated storage for sometime. I am not sure if this is H reticulatum var striatifolium or H reticulatum var striatifolium 'Mrs Garfield'

 A mini anthurium which delighted me with a very long flower bloom life. The oldest flower has been there for already 2 months and now 2 more followed and it is still there. It is a newly single plant. 

adeniums love the dry hot months, so this is expected

The butterfly pea just started flowering, i let it climb on the matting wire, and that was lovely. Actually, i thought i planted a blue one, but surprisingly it is white. Anyway, it is also lovely, 
and a few friends are already waiting for some seeds. Next rainy season 
i will not conceed without the blue Clitoria ternatea. 

 
Clitoria ternatea pods will mature this dry season, ready again for planting for the rainy months

 newly opening Hoya bicolensis

No GBBD from me will be posted without hoyas. Of course, they are the main characters in my garden, they just exchanged places in blooming.

 Hoya bicolensis a day after opening

Hoya lucardenasiana

 Hoya pubicorolla ssp anthracina - this has been flowering continuously for already a few months 

 Hoya buotii purple buds

Hoya lockii

 My hoyas are not really always doing great, flowering continuously without hassles. Hoya lockii above is its first flowering. It came from Thailand as a present from a friend who visited lately. I was so glad last week when i saw the buds, but they eventually aborted because of too much heat.

Hoya madulidii

The nodes of Hoya madulidii are almost all laden with buds, i was so expectant that there will be a lot of black flowers simultaneously blooming. But everytime i go home on weekends, the older buds are aborted. I am so disappointed, but what can we do, we really lack water in the province during this months of extremely hot weather. 

   The summary of my garden is this reflection. How do you like it?


Wednesday, April 5, 2017

The Famous Milkweed

I have long been hearing and reading things about milkweed for a long time. It is famous because it is the host for the even more famous monarch butterflies, Danaus plexippus, which comes to the US from Mexico for a very long dramatic urge for something they haven't yet known why! The genetic make up of this butterfly is so unique, i guess! 

Then this milkweed is also controversial because it is said to suffer extinction in a place bombarded by a GMO herbicide that is reported to be erradicationg all weeds. Others also do not like it for being almost invasive that becomes a dilemma for farmers. Then comes the other sector at the other side of the fence, conserving the milkweed for the balance of biodiversity that is threatened by so many "advance technology" chemicals and so called development. 

Being not familiar with this weed, i got curious. I thought it is only growing in temperate countries, where a lot of controversies lie. Eventually, when i got addicted to growing hoyas, i learned that they are in the same family, Aclepiadaceae. Oh that even heightens my curiosity more! Lo and behold, when i visited (highlands) Baguio City last December i saw it in the Botanical Garden. This is Asclepias curassavica, also a host for the monarchs found here, Danaus chrysippus & Danaus melanippus,  different species from the famous one. I got some seeds to try in our hot lowlands, and it thrive very well as you can see in the following photos. 

growth is healthy without any predator at all, our monarchs haven't seen it yet

 there are different stages of blooming maturity in one stem, so i can see flowers every weekend

it gave me lots of photography angles and each single one is lovely

those seemingly dancing ladies in their vivid red gowns are so attractive
 
 I can see the flower parts resembling that of the hoya, being in the same family. It has been flowering since February and hasn't stopped since then. 

 Last March it started to produce the fruits, i can already imagine the seeds inside those pods. In hoyas the fruits are technically called follicles, i just don't know how they call it in milkweeds. I am sure more pods will develop later on, and i will be able to distribute seeds to friends. Maybe i already have the premonition that even here in the tropics where it is alien, it will also become more invasive. So good luck to us.