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Monday, April 14, 2014

Heat Tolerant Blooms of April


Our rains stopped since early March, most annuals already died, and those left alive have scorched leaves and dwindling existence. But in our garden, a few flowers are still fighting for dear life. And my mother and sister try their best to at least supply water as ration. We are so sorry for those that are farther away, they watched and hear the watering but they didn't get any share. Again we are so sorry!

This plant is flowering nicely because it is under the shades of the hoyas, and receive the drips from hoya watering. It looks so happy that way!

Lantana camara shows symptoms of dehydration, umbels get very small and begin to produce ripe fruits, but still it is providing some nectar to visiting insects. It is not only drought tolerant, it is drought resistant, never mind the invasiveness as long as there is some food for the butterflies.


This marigold is also getting drip shares from the hoyas, and is also shaded by the fruit trees shading them. At least these left over heads will provide some seeds for the next rainy season.

This might not be a flower, but the color variegations provide wonderful color contrasts even lovelier than some flowers. It is only in one pot but provide a good accent to a dull corner in the patch. Again it is sharing the nich below the hoyas, getting the shelter and the spill-over water.

This impatiens is very susceptible to heat. It curls and wilts at noontime, yet watering them again after sunset revives them in a few minutes, and they are turgid again in the morning ready for another hot war! The only caution is not to forget watering every morning and evening, forgetting it once will totally decimate them.

This might not be the most beautiful Hoya diversifolia bloom, but it came from the stalk that is being rooted through marcotting. It is a stem only as big as 3mm in diameter, so this umbel size is already a treasure. Besides, there are 3 umbels in the 3-node stem.

Another diligent bloomer is our Hoya crassicaulis. The plant used a half-coke bottle as its home, you can even see the red bottle cover. It has 6 umbels that never stop blooming, producing new buds again after the blooms dehisce. The half bottle provides a very good humidity control mechanism to the plant. The bottom part is inserted above such that the part with the cover is inside the other half. Can you visualize what i meant. Only the container with plant has small holes, and the cover can be tightened or loosened for the desired water in the media. The drips are also contained in the other bottom half to provide more humidity. 

With the performance of this plant, i conclude that my container is a good one for hoya. As a consequence, i am pooling the discarded coke bottles just for this purpose. We are happy and my hoyas are happy too! And to show that this hoya is happy, wait till you see the present characteristics of the flowers. Please see below!

There are so plenty of individual flowers, that didn't allow room for the corolas to recurve back. And all the six umbels showed the same characteristics in this present blooming. It is a very welcome abnormality because the bloom seems different than the real one! What more can i ask for!

17 comments:

  1. Such wonderful blossoms! The last one is my favorite - a fascinating beauty!

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    1. Thanks Mary for the visit. I hope your area gets warmer so the garden will push to full bloom. Happy Easter!

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  2. Lovely to see your colourful flowers. As yours are struggling with the heat and lack of water ours are just starting to develop leaves and flowers. The nicest time of year over here - so full of promise.

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    1. Yes Nick, i can see all the healthy sprouting spring crocuses, hellebores, hyacinths, daffodils, snowdrops from your parts of the world. I love them too, as they dont grow here! Happy Easter.

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  3. well those hoyas are just superb Andrea and it's the same here with impatiens they need plenty of water and a bit of shade from hot sun to survive the summer here.

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    1. At the height of our place's water problem, we resort to recycling some water from bath rinse and dishwashing rinse. The impatiens gets the bigger share as they provide a ready smile! Happy Easter.

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  4. Happy GBBD Andrea! It is interesting to see a garden making it’s way through heat when at the same time we have a late snowfall on our own. You mention the invasive character of Lantana camara, while here it is a summer annual. In both locations it seems to provide food for pollinators. Also, that last hoya shot is wonderful.

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    1. Hi Jane, thanks for coming by. I always read on posts about the long winter or extra cold in the other side of the world, just our opposite in terms of temps. I am very familiar with the invasiveness of Lantana camara, but this one i actually got from a far away island during my travels, as we don't have this color. I don't mind its invasiveness, as long as the butterflies love them. Happy Easter!

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  5. I can see why you are so enamoured of the hoyas. The last photo shows how amazing it is - a stunning pompom.

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  6. Hi Kalantikan, I enjoyed seeing what you have blooming. I like to grow lantanas for the butterflies. Do you have butterflies there in the Philippines that like the lantanas? Thanks for stopping by my blog. I hope you get through your hot season OK.

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    1. Hi Sue, I am also Andrea, we've long been exchanging visits in the past in my other blogsite. Yes of course our butterflies like lantanas, as I said in the post I planted it just for them even if they are invasive.

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  7. I find your Hoyas fascinating! It must be frustrating to have the dry season last so long. Lantanas, Marigolds, and Impatiens are some of my favorite "annual" plants here. They love our hot summers, but of course they don't survive the cold winters. Lovely bright blooms you have there!

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    1. Your hot summers are still so cold for us, if we can only have a semblance of your summers much loner then it would be more fun!

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  8. Your hoyas are as spectacular as ever! It can’t be easy taking care of plants during your dry season, completely different challengers than we are facing – our dry summers are rather short, if we have any at all.

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    1. Yes you're right Helene! If you build heated greenhouses for winter, we cover our gardens with black nets during our dry seasons, if we want our plants to stay alive!

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  9. Love seeing the oranges of theses fiery blooms...I will see some of these blooms in summer here.

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  10. Hi There, I enjoyed seeing your hardy flowers ---still making it even through the heat and drought.... What are your hottest months? Spring (April-May) is usually our nicest months here --with summer being HOT (especially late summer --like August/Sept.).....

    I love spring --but do not care for the heat of summer.

    Hugs,
    Betsy

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