Blooms in Rainy September

 August/September is the height of our rainy months. Our Rainy Season is also the typhoon months, when the letters of the alphabet are not enough to name them. We repeat the alphabet letters when approaching the end of the year. Last July we already finished 10 letters for the typhoons that passed our Philippine Area of Responsibility. At the moment there is a looming Super Typhoon with the strength of Yolanda looming at the Pacific Ocean. It is said to be at our Philippine Area of Responsibility thip afternoon. Those in Northern Philippines are already preparing, classes are already suspended there, but still we are praying for it to divert its path away from our PAR!

Low Pressure Areas (LPA) are common with us. These LPAs strongly attracts the Southwest Monsoon rains that eventually got many areas to flooding situations. Until now there still are flooded low-lying areas even if the rains happened weeks ago. It is a big problem for health and sanitation. Fortunately, our area in the province is in the uplands, and my area in the city is the same as well. At least going home from the office is not at bad as others experience, as in going through floodied streets. '

Plants in the province are now luxuriously growing, blooming as much as they can to produce seeds before the dry season comes again.

 One of the lilies that started blooming in July still has some scapes till now. This Crinum zeylanicum gives a strongly sweet scent that serves as air freshener near the gate.

The hoyas are confined in an enclosure near the terrace, and early afternoons are laden with scents that nobody will ignore. Even just an opening umbel from one plant will already get your attention. Imagine the fragrance from the lots of umbels of different species in my garden! A visitor will just say OMG or Whew! A scent will prod a visitor to locate where that is coming from, and they will learn the characteristics of that hoya! Sometimes they really get hooked! HUH.

 Hoya celata (formerly called Hoya pubicalyx White Dragon) is a prolific bloomer whenever it starts blooming. New buds immediately develop as the previous buds drop. 

 Another form of Hoya pubicalyx but is not as famous as the common one. This has longer internodes and roundish, clear green leaves. The chimera flowers look like that of the 'Royal Hawaiian Purple', but the umbels are bigger. It now has 4 umbels at different stages of maturity.

 Hoya buotii (purple) is also a floriferous species. A bigger plant produces a lot of umbels that bloom at almost the same time making a wonderful sight. Once-in-a while it produces some flowers with 6 corollas, and that makes us hoya hobbyists very glad. Can you see it at the rightmost side?

 Hoya mariae grows profusely with vines facing everywhere, that you need immediate attention. A week you forgot to guide the shoots and you will end up with a very difficult situation, it will deliberately embrace a nearby stem to cling on. Removing twining stems often break the younger portions that earlier attention to unwind them will be better.

 Hoya buotii (yellow) 

Hoya multiflora is known for its floriferousness, sometimes with an umbel in every node. However, mine is not growing nicely and suffered much during last dry season. It needs a good Relative Humidity in the surrounding air to grow healthily.

 Hoya ilagiorum, also flowers consecutively after every flower drop, but vegetative growth is not as fast as other species. My plant is a bit lanky with lesser leaves.

This Hoya pubicorolla ssp. anthracina is producing a few umbels, and they are all big and beautiful. Can you visualize it. 

 Hoya lacunosa is one of the small-umbelled hoyas, with also small leaves. But the size is compensated with the very lovely sweet scent, which everybody likes.  Sometimes it has a lot of simultaneous umbels open at the same time. 

Please bear with me in posting a lot of hoyas, i am a hoya addict, i confess! I always tell new hobbyists that it is addictive and contagious, so they must decide immediately before they are hooked. They are what use most of my time in the province during my weekends, the reason i always go home on Saturdays. I am sure you will understand. And i also warn you, if you are just starting to appreciate them, or starting to buy the first one! 

The most loyal orchid in my garden, despite neglect it still produce flowers looking very elegant and standing high among the rest of them, a Vanda orchid. It really is the Queen of the Flowering Plants!

And another loyal and self-supporting orchid with very subtle, cool color is this vanda.

 A lavender Pentas lanceolata is much loved by this Common Mormon. We have lots of butterflies, but this one never forgets to visit this pentas. 

 Another nectar plant in my garden is this Ixora javanica. It actually becomes a tall bush, like a small tree. It suffered setback because the original tree was killed to give way to the garage. This new plant is just starting, but already giving the characteristically very big umbels, also loved by butterflies.

 an introduced species, now relegated near the dump

Caladiums respond favorably to the wet environment. I already took the picture as more leaves enlarge because in a little while the hawkmoths will fully devour their leaves.

 This caladium variety is lovely too in that area with very thin topsoil. It covers the not so nice area there. I planted it there specifically because they produced so very big aand tall leaves when planted in richer soils. In this area they are shorter and narrower, producing more compact growth.

 Look at the caladium when planted in rich soil. That big leaf at the left is more than 2 ft wide. Other leaves are following that size. Eventually i will get some corms and plant them too in nutrient deprived soils to produce more compact growth.

Thunbergia erecta 

 Caesalpinia pulcherrima, planted at the edge of the property, as a hedge. It is also host for the yellow butterflies.

Lastly, the Queen of the Night, Epiphyllum oxypetalum was not able to wait for me before it bloomed. Some bloomed in July which i did not see also. I always go home a few days after their big event. They open before midnight with strong fragrance, and they are already closed in the morning. Last week they opened on Thursday while this picture was taken Saturday. There still are a lot of them in many stems. A bit disappointing but we don't seem to have very good communication lines. Or i was not able to send a very exact instruction. The next blooming season will still be next year, that seems to be a long time. 

GBBD

White Scented Flowers

African Crinum Lily, Crinum jagus

A friend gave me a crinum lily a few years ago, which i planted in a bigger pot. For the first year it flowered once but i did not see it in person. There was also an episode when it was fully defoliated by a lily caterpillar moth, eating all the leaves and leaf sheaths, leaving only the base trunk and the bulb. It didn't seem to be bothered as it produced more robust and healthier leaves than before. Afterwards it produced a scape with a few flowers. The good thing about this lily is the ability to produce more flowerings per year.

It even has a sweet scent discernible when you are near it. Ours is planted  near the terrace so a whif of that scent goes with the wind for some moments. The flowers though do not bloom at the same time, and droop always. I wonder if the flowers are so heavy while the neck are soft to carry them upright. Moreover, the flowers last only for one day. 

I was so curious once that i opened a still close bud like above to see the conditions of the pollen inside. 

 It turned out that pollens are already mature and ready for pollination even before opening the petals.

Curiosity got into me the past week so i pollinated it with some hippeastrum pollens,  because a few hippeastrum are simultaneously blooming with it. I checked after a few days and i guess it did not succeed. Intergeneric breeding might not be possible with it, or there are factors which hindered the fertilization. Those however are very difficult to answer with just a few pollinations i did, which i also did not vary any conditions as maturity of pollen and stigma, conditions of the day, etc. 

The pollens immediately become black a few hours after opening. The stigma stalk also curved upwards which to me signals stigma receptivity for fertilization. I should also consider this factor when i do crossing next time.

However, i searched the net and nothing of the sort has been done yet. But there was a dissertation in Australia showing the factors that impede fertilization, once before and once after. However the actual study succeding fertilization of crinum with hippeastrum is still not available. With that, i will not do it again next time. Just let them BE!

Floral Friday Fotos