Blooms Despite the Long Dry Season

I am already late posting this for GBBD in June, i have the risk that only very few will open my link! But i warn you, all of this you will miss if you will ignore my lateness, haha! Come and let's join appreciating my addiction that someone refers to as a disease. Can you imagine that....a disease! And i can relate to its being very contagious. This disease is very virulent. I warned you, huh!

These are some of my hoya collection. Some are already ongoing bloomers, but most are first timers. So they are really mostly expected and it indeed is very exciting for the buds to bloom. Remember i am living in the big city and go home only about 2 weekends a month, so it is timely if i can see them still open, or already open.

 This is one of my two Hoya obscura. This one is more reddish than the other one. Even at this still bud stage, it is already enticing, don't you think so?

This is just partially open flowers of the top plant. They are so lovely indeed. However, i was not able to wait for them to fully open. I hope i can see that stage next time.

This is my second Hoya obscura. The flowers are more yellow-orange than red compared to the first plant. It is a very prolific bloomer with a lot of umbels per plant. The scent is also overwhelmingly loud, not bad but if lessened a bit will be more irrepressible. 

 This is the fully open flowers of the 2nd Hoya obscura. Don't you think it's perfect!

 This Hoya incrassata/crassicaulis has been blooming intermittently for the last 2 years. The umbels are mostly so thick that the habit of the flowers to reflex cannot happen anymore. Those colored corollas remains open showing the brightly colored edges, that make them more amazing and beautiful.

 An amazing serendipity also occurred with my 2nd plant of Hoya incrassata/crassicaulis. You might not believe this, but the above plant came from the same mother plant as the former Hoya incrassata/crassicaulis. The latter is purely yellow without the brownish corolla edges. If you ask me why, i can just surmise that this is one of the cases for chimera. It rarely happens, but in ornamentals it is very much favored. Anything unusual or not following the normal patterns are more favored in flowers.

 Hoya meliflua is into its first blooming, but there are several umbels that opened either simultaneously or staggeredly. The above one is at the optimum stage of blooming, while that below is already at the more advanced stage.

 This is more dull and with less nectar than the previous photo. Insects sipping the nectar are absent also. In 2-3 days the flowers will already abscise.

 Above is Hoya pubicalyx. it also has very big umbels compact umbels. Unfortunate of most unfortunates, they are either still closed or already spent when i go home. The lovely thing though is that my niece and nephew send me the blooming photo whenever they open. How wonderful serendipity that can be, and the sent photo to me is below.

This is the Hoya pubicalyx when fully in bloom. I have at 5 plants like this but only 3 are growing peduncles and buds at present. It might already be very common, but its beauty cannot be lessened with that.

 This last 3 photos are of Hoya fungii, the two are still closed and the last one already at the height of its fullness. This is the biggest umbel among my blooming hoyas at present. The open stage is around 11 cm.

It doesn't look so big in diameter in this photo, but it left only a small space open  near the stem.

Bees and ants are its common visitors. They cannot resist the fragrance, and when they tasted the nectar, they just opted to stay there. Can you blame them!

 Hoya 'Iris Marie', in its 2nd umbel bloom. The first time aborted most of the flowers leaving only two in the umbel. I was not able to see that previous 2 flower blooms, but they sent me the photos. This time it opened exactly the afternoon i just arrived. It was a grand consolation to appease my tiring trip home. And when you come closer, the scent is comparable to a very subtle ladies' perfume, but don't ask me which one, as i think there is none concocted from it yet. I am sure you will love it the moment you smell that fragrance. I assure you, trust me!

There goes my Hoya parade. I hope you can still open my link at GBBD. Please see other posts in that site by Carol at Maydream's Garden.

NF-Blo-Ma

Floral Friday Fotos

Fertilizer Friday

Heat and Sweet Overdose

Even our blooms add heat to our already hot climate. Warm colors arise in our hot environment! What would you feel if you are in our place? I hope the Great Creator will not get mad at me for saying i get bored sometimes with these colors. In my heart is written i just miss the blues and violets. 

But these certainly alleviate the stress of seeing continuously dry landscapes, brown, wilted and dead. At least there is some remaining wonder from my plants.  A little simple water recycling can do magic for them. 

 This Hoya obscura is bright orange at this bud stages, specially when directly exposed to the sun. However, they are just yellow when fully open.

Kitchen-used water is saved in big basins to water our small plants like this Crossandra infundibuliformis. Those not regularly watered already wilted and died. We are sorry for them, as clean water is not enough for all of us to continue life. Those nearest the kitchen or nearest to our hearts have the priority.

 Despite the heat, papaya plants still continue fruiting. However, people compete with the birds specially the crow. They almost do not leave the vicinity of the papaya plants. When the crows go out and maybe look for water, the yellow vented bulbuls and the Asian magpie robin take their chances too. They cannot pick the big fruit to a place of safety, so just eat them on the plant. That is my advantage as i can even pick the fruit still at a green stage just to get ahead of them. It looks like survival of the fittest between me and the birds. My discards will then go to the chickens.

I tell you, tree-ripened papayas are the best, very sweet and fresh. It cannot be surpassed by those you found in the supermarkets, which are picked at breaker stages and allowed to ripen at the store. Now you will understand when i say, "I just eat papayas from our own trees"! That is a fact, at least in my case! I wish i can convince you of the quality from the tree. With a hedonic rating of 1-9, ours is 8 while the supermarket papaya might be at 6. Now, do you agree! haha! I won with the birds and you.

Floral Friday Fotos

Fertilizer Friday

Orange You Glad It's Friday

Today's Flowers

Wildflowers in the hot tropics

Here are some grasses in our property that attracted my attention. I am looking for butterflies, but in these chaotic weed growth it is difficult to photograph butterflies. Even if they alight on some plants for a few minutes, it is still difficult to maneuver myself through the growths, so i would rather wait for them again to come near me in the clearing.

These are invasive weeds species. They tag on clothes whenever you come near them. When they happen to touch your skin, there will surely be scratches, and they are painful when taking a bath. They also tag along the hairs of goats, cattle and horses. That is their way of colonizing and spreading the species.

 This is an invasive introduction to the country, Chromolaena odorata. They have strong and deep roots that can withstand our long dry season, and they will be the first one to grow when the heavy rains come. They easily cover an area when left uncultivated. The sad thing about this is its  poisonous effects with ruminants.

This is another introduced species, flowers not as lovely as the previous one, and also quite invasive. However, i still don't know the name, probably this is Mikania micrantha.

 This is Wedelia trilobata, or Singapore daisy. I wonder if it came from Singapore to have that name. But it is used as groundcovers before, so might have escaped cultivation and invaded the marginal sidestreets. This is easy to eradicate, so i love it. Besides, the butterflies love nectaring on their flowers.

I found this single petal Clitoria ternatea in a second growth forest when we passed to the other side of the ravine. I very well know it being used favorably these days in Edible Landscaping. There is a multipetal of this too. They are used in salads and also source of color for making blue rice, while the blended juice is also a good colorful thirst quencher. There are resorts and restaurants that cultivate this for their commercial business.

 This is also a bushy weed, but i am not familiar with the identity. It lends beautifully through a macro lens, but the flowers are just 1 cm long, not very attractive to humans, but lovely for butterflies and other insects. The stem has a high tensile strength enabling goats to be tied on them when grazing. I guess this is of the Malvaceae family.

This Ipomoea pes-caprae is a cousin of the sweet potato . It is covering the smaller bushy weeds near the roadside. I wonder if maybe some butterfly larvae are eating the leaves. If time allows, i will observe them for longer periods.At the moment, i can only take its photo.

Wildflower Wednesday

Floral Friday Fotos

Fertilizer Friday

Hoya is my Current Passion

I have been telling my friends in blogs and in FB that I am currently hooked on hoyas. It started last year and at the moment continues to go strong. When i realized that most of them are endemic here in the Philippines, the enthusiasm is even aggravated. I attend exhibits, garden shows, lectures, plant exchanges, and more, and even if i am not trying to buy every species for my collection, i realized they are already plenty.In the beginning, i chose only those with bright colors and easy to care for, then i looked for those with bigger umbels. I again realized that even those with small umbels are so beautiful, they are attractive on their own, specially when they are managed as hanging plants with profuse flowering. 

The trend with me might be different if i am staying at home, where they are maintained. My sister and nephew, and my 84 yrs old mother water them, care for them. I only see them occassionally on some weekends i have time for the province.  They are still small, so only a few of them flowers, and not simultaneously yet. 

I bought this one already as a mature mother plant. After a few weeks it showed an umbel, in time I am home for the Christmas holidays. I am so ecstatic. I watch it when i wake up, tend to the plant, and visit it many times during the day. I almost see the flower change size. For a hoya lover, even just the beginning of a new growth is wonderful enough, much more the blooming of the flowers! It took almost 2 weeks before the whole umbel bloom.

I realized it is more amazing if viewed through a photograph. My sister was thoroughly awed when she saw this picture and also that below. The minute hairs on the corolla are very visible, as well as the fine lines longitudinal to the lobes. The details of the corona are also obvious.

 Here i changed the white balance, and the color becomes more wonderful. Nobody will say they do not like this. It looks so spectacular.

 This color is more like the real thing, more near the truth. But it isn't the color that matters. It also depends on the size of the umbel. Yes it has a lot of flowers in an umbel, and it has a slight scent, but do you know the size of this umbel? I will tell you later.

 This is the whole umbel at another angle. Do you still love it?

And this is how it looked during its last day, 4 days specifically from opening, before the flowers drop. It still looks nice, do you agree?

But if i tell you that the umbel diameter is just 1.0 inch, would you still like it?

My sister actually laughed when she saw the photographs, because the actual flowers are difficult to see when with the mother plant. She wasn't able to see it unless i showed it to her, i actually waved off the leaves for her to see the flowers! Can you beat that? I now envision a hanging plant with many developing umbels, by that time, am sure my sister will appreciate it more fully. And by that time, i will also not have a second thought in appreciating this species, Hoya camphorifolia.

Macro Monday 2

Our World Tuesday

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

Floral Friday Foto

Fertilizer Friday

November Blooms as Gift to the Other Side!

The times are bad in some portions of our country. Lives, properties, and some hopes were gone. I and my family are spared from the devastation, but friends are in the midst of the drama unfolding before our eyes. We cannot do much but pray, send our loving kindness. After four days, we are slowly getting some news about our friends, as makeshift communication systems are installed, and mobile phones start to be used again. Television channels around the world are full of news about us; relief goods, services and fund donations keep pouring in, and i hope these will fuel our indomitable spirits, and we will move on and be alive again!

I am offering these blooms for those who have transcended to the other dimension. Let their experiences and lost lives be gifts of sacrifices for the living and the world to learn.. These are blooms from our own garden during this month of sorrow!

a firespike, Odontonema strictum

  a rose as a symbol of love

 Ixora, locally called 'santan'

zinnia

marigold

 cat whiskers

Eucharis grandiflora

a white Dendrobium orchid

a lily

 Impatiens balsamina

 hedge of Ixora

Dracaena surcolosa or Florida beauty

 fortune plant or Dracaena fragrans

Fertilizer Friday

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day

Red-orange or Orangy-red!

 Ixora coccincinensis

Chrysothemis pulchelia 

 Bougainvillea sp.

Fertilizer Friday

Orange You Glad It's Friday