Friday, November 11, 2016

Flowers Almost at End of Their Days

The colder days in the year are starting to be felt here. The Northeast Monsoon brings the colder winds from our neighboring countries that has the peak of winter in December.  Most of us are excited for these colder nights because we have been exasperated by the hot days throughout the year. Besides, it coincides with the Christmas Holidays, where our festivities start in September. We normally call these as "BER"months, to denote the months from September to December. But actually, colder temperatures are until February, when the dry season starts.

For ornamentals, these months coincide with their maturity and flowering starts to dwindle. Annuals produce seeds and the plants start to die. That way, the seeds are ready before the dry season starts to be too harsh for them. They are genotypically prepared for the continuity of the species.

This anthurium is pinkish red, but beautifully produce some variegation at maturity

anthurium flower stages

Dianella tasmanica produced lots of those minute flowers in November

Pentas lanceolata is a perennial but they love it better with colder nights. Butterflies also starts to be less, but they still love the pentas blooms.

Bougainvillea is also a floriferous perenial, never stops blooming

Marigold becomes scraggly these days, but the blooms are still lovely at old age, don't you agree?

We have some scentless roses too. I guess they are less palatable when scentless. No wonder they don't need to have thorns, so it is the Unscented Thornless Rose!

This is a lone chili pepper at the front of the house, delivered by birds. We let it grow there and it became like a small tree, about more than 6 ft. It was actually taller than me. The birds love the ripe fruits. We don't have much use for the fruits, and the birds monopolize the eating.

ready for harvesting, eh!

The blue duranta, well loved by the butterflies, now have few flowers left. The flower stems don't look nice anymore. In a little while, the green fruits will emerge concomittant with the dwindling numbers of butterflies. They are in-sync, don't you think so?

Even the caladium  gets scraggly, not looking good anymore at old age. Some are even eaten by the hawkmoth larvae turning serrated leaves.



Lantana camara and Ixora coccincinensis are both perennials, 
they are not bothered much by hot or colder temperatures. 

Look at the Impatiens balsamina, fruits are maturing, some even already dehisced busting them to the ground. I have also uprooted a lot of plants for the compost. 

Mussaenda blooms are maturing too, reaching the extent of blooming. 
A few more weeks and they are ready for prunning or beheading. 


Of all the plants we have, it is Hoya diversifolia that brings me so much excitement.  The vines outside the canopy, facing the bright sun produced umbels at every node, and they continue to bloom until January or February. They have been like that since September. I think you will agree with my enthusiasm. Other hoya growers don't experience the blooms i get from it. This is its 2nd year of blooming like that. 

Above is the close-up of some blooming stems near the tree main branch. The only disadvantage is the height of the tree, i need to go to the roof to take some photos. The first photo was taken on the ground, while above was on the roof. Can you blame me for giving more attention to the hoya?  I have made a post about it "In Focus" in the previous posts. 

24 comments:

  1. Beautiful flowers and thanks for all the information You know a lot about them My favourite is the deep red Bougainvillea

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    1. Marja, i also appreciate your always coming by and giving comments. Thanks.

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  2. I see that we have a number of plants in common, including a favorite of mine, the duranta, a butterfly magnet. When you visited my blog, you asked where I'm located. I'm in southeast Texas, USA, zone 9a. Many tropical plants thrive here.

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    1. I purposely planted that duranta for the butterflies. I love it so much when most of them roam around it.

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  3. Your post reminds me how incredibly beautiful tropical plants are. I am able to grow bougainvillea, but I cannot get it to bloom as prolific as my neighbor's.

    Worth a Thousand Words

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    1. You can do it Maria, a little tinkering now and then will do wonders. Here, bougainvilleas can be left alone and still bloom profusely.

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  4. Beautiful blooms in your garden!

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  5. Ir's always such a pleasure to visit your garden and you hoya's fascinate me - beautiful!

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    1. Klara you should plant some hoyas around your orchids, or they can climb your frangipani. They like your weather.

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  6. These are so pretty - I love your bright tropical colors.

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  7. Your tropical (to me) plants and flowers are beautiful and exotic. Thank you for visiting my blog!

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  8. So lovely to see your anthurium. I had one growing indoors for many years but it recently got infected with a fungus and I had to put it in the trash after unsuccessful attempts to save it. I do have a hoya plant hanging in my kitchen that I purchased over 40 years ago. This it bloomed for several months filling the kitchen with sweet fragrance. I had no idea that a variety grew in tree form. Thanks for stopping by my blog.

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    1. Hi Denise, you should have read my caption in full. The hoya is not in tree form, it is a vine that i allowed to climb a tree. That is the characteristic they do in natural tropical forests like our forests. More than 100 species are indigenous to my country.

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    2. Got it. Mine just grows all over the kitchen blinds. It is hanging from the ceiling.

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  9. Lovely, insightful post this week. Have a nice week-end.

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  10. It was interesting to see what's flowering so far away on the other side of the world in your climate. I have a Hoya, but it's still small and right now it's inside the greenhouse for the winter. I hope some day to have such beautiful flowers on it.

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    1. A lot of successful hoya growers are in temperate countries like Canada, USA, Sweden, Norway. They are mostly indoors. I am actually awed by their zealousness in growing them. Here they are just left outside, left to normal chain of life. In fact, the foreign growers started them and we just realized lately that we should domesticate them too, as they are our own. Some species are already lost in our wild and already found in foreign nurseries, expensive and we can't afford to buy, hahaha.

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  11. All so pretty and that is a great shot of the butterfly

    Mollyxxx

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  12. I think autumn has its share of beautiful flowers, even if they are at the end of their life. The butterfly is so pretty.

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    1. I am sorry, but our country and other countries in this part of the world do not have Autumn. I have always been discussing that in my posts. These flowers exhibit the end of our dry season. Thanks for the visit.

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  13. Some great shots there, the bougainvillia just brightens things up doesnt it?

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  14. How lovely especially as it is snowing here...I love your happy photos...Michelle

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  15. Still beautiful flowers, and a fascinating chili tree!

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