Sunday, March 12, 2017

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, March 2017

March is an awkward month of the year in this country. It is when the "cold" easterlies stop and replaced by the hot winds. Literally, the air suddenly gets hot, it didn't even pass by warm! Temperatures will now all be above 31C which will still go up to about 37 or 38C. The other night i suddenly woke up feeling the perspiration on my head and neck. It is the start of the dry-hot season, the difficulty going outside the building, the plants drying up, and the soaring of electric bills from continuous airconditioning units. 

AT least we still have lots of flowers. Of course, we actually don't loose the flowers, but many of what we have now will also die the following months. 

I would like to show you my flowers grouped into colors.

REDS

Above and below: Episcia



a rose bud

milkweed, Asclepias curassavica

I am very much fascinated by those ladylike structures of the flowers with their flowing red gowns. But this milkweed is not commonly growing in our lowlands. In fact this is growing with me for the first time, flowering for the first time, which excites me a lot. I got the seeds from the cold uplands before Christmas. I know this is the host for the monarch and we also have a Philippine monarch species, so i am hoping they will eventually find their way to my milkweed. If the monarchs in Mexico can travel the distance to the US, then i am hoping wherever our native monarchs are will finally show up to eat my milkweeds. Let us see, i am hoping!

 It is amazing that there are stages in maturity showing at the same time in one plant. Despite my going home only on some weekends, at least i will always see them at the open stages. They are so lovely.

 The plants are not as tall as those in the cold uplands in Baguio City, but they also grow luxuriously and looking healthy in my garden. I just realized they mature fast in hotter climes. Nothing is eating its leaves yet. The monarchs are nowhere to be seen.

WHITES

Clitoria ternatea

I planted the seeds of this, thinking i am planting the common blue butterfly pea. Only 1 plant germinated, and eventually a white flower emerges instead of the blue. It could be disappointing, but it actually is beautiful that also fascinates me. Although of course, i will not be able to produce blue rice, and blue juices. Nevertheless, i love the white one.

 Hoya multiflora

My bloom day will not be complete if i will not be including some hoyas. There are always a few of them blooming in my garden.They sustain my lust for flowers every weekend when i go home. They say "food satisfies the body, but flowers sooth the soul". Nothing is more apt than that. 

 Hoya celata

Not many hoya species are white. There are a few more but mine is not yet flowering, except for this Hoya celata. 


VIOLETS

I realized i have more violets blooming now. I wonder why they suddenly opened at the same time to make me have some conclusions about them. That i have actually lots of violet flowers in my garden. I didn't intend to have all those, but they are already there, so get the most out of them. 

Hoya pubicorolla ssp. anthracina

This started as black or almost black, in fact, its original commercial name is Hoya pubicalyx 'Black Dragon'. But hoya flowers being mostly anthocyanins change color with different conditions. This is one of them that responds well with changes in the environment including its media. 

Hoya pubicalyx

This is one of the remnants of the orchids i once owned. They were neglected, and just left on their own 'instinct' to live, to perpetuate the species. They are watered only by the rain and not fertilized at all in their lifetime. I guess it just got to become tolerant or resistant of the unwelcome conditions in my garden. Definitely, an orchid is always loved when it suddenly showed up. 

Image may contain: plant, flower, tree, outdoor and nature
Duranta erecta, is one of the most durable plants in my garden. It gets stressed and yellow during the very hot dry season, but it never fails to show some flowers. I planted it for the butterflies, and it never disappoints.

a single flower of Impatiens balsamina, 

If i didn't take a picture of a single flower, i wouldn't realize it is very beautiful and elegant. They grow in droves, get a bit invasive and thrive so fast so easily. That is the reason i fail to see it like above. 
Image may contain: plant, flower, outdoor and nature
The single plant

The above group is not planted intentionally. They are the seeds from the previous growths and suddenly emerged that plenty. The original has peach, purple, whites, but the peach didn't show up in this generation and only a few white plants are growing. 

GREENS

anthurium

You might think that there is no green flower, sometimes there are! This is actually a pink anthurium. I intentionally touched that spadix when the minute flowers are still open, trying to pollinate them. A few of those bulges in the spadix are the anthurium seeds, which are more plenty at the base. I learned that the upper portion is the male part, however there are also a few bulges there, which means some seeds are developing there too. Anthurium seeds mature in almost a year, so if i will really be interested to get those seeds i need to wait for a lot more months. However, i will not wait for that, as i am not really getting the seeds from its selfing.  My curiosity just got the better of me during that time, just needed to see some green anthurium spadix.

30 comments:

  1. Interesting selection of flowers. I hope your plants survive the hot season. We have a few flowers starting to come out. Hopefully the frosts have finished, but sometimes we get a surprise frost later in March!

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    1. Oh so your cold will end up soon, that's nice to hear. Re-my flowers< oh most of them will dry this coming dry months most specially because water is also a big problem in my province home. Even here in the city where i live on weekdays, the heat suddenly rose in a few days. Even at 8:00am it is hard for bare skin!

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  2. What lovelies you have growing in your gardens. Our hot, humid weather will be here before we know it, all too soon. We barely had any winter weather. It has been beautiful though, so I'll enjoy the nice weather while it's here.

    May your flowers survive your summer weather ~ FlowerLady

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    1. We just started but it feels like we are already at its peak!

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  3. Such beautiful, vibrant tropical colors! Although living at my elevation I always laugh when you talk about "cold uplands" :)

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    1. Hahaha yes of course, it really will be funny for people in temperate countries. The more you will laugh if you know that we only have a mountain range that has "colder temps", meaning compared to what we have here at above 30C. When temps get to 20C, that is already cold in our standards. LOL

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  4. Beautiful pictures! Red can be problematical, and you nailed it in your pictures. The other colors as well! :)

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    1. Thank you so much Bill, yes i have difficulties shooting the red. Ah sometimes i just give up on them! Sometimes i take lots of shots and still cannot get the way i want it.

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  5. Hello, beautiful plants and lovely blooms. The white hoya is beautiful and I love the orchids. Enjoy your day and the week ahead!

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  6. Lovely flower shots and such vibrant reds!

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  7. Lovely! I still think the hoya is my favourite, they are so different than anything else.

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    1. Oh yes Amy, that is the reason i cannot completely dissociate hoya from any GBBD post! Besides, hoya is my addiction.

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  8. Pretty flowers, especially the Milkweed! Hope the butterflies come to it
    Happy Garden Bloggers Bloom Day!

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  9. You have beautiful blooms in your garden! I've also grown a Duranta erecta, though I believe it froze during one of our freezes this past winter, as there are no signs of life. Enjoy your beautiful blooms!

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  10. Hi! It looks very warm in your country. You have many beautiful flowers, I felt as if I were reading a botanical picture book. I looked Hoya celata flowers in a southern island in Japan.

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    1. Hi Minoru, thanks for your visit and kind words. It actually is not only warm here, it is very hot, haha!

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  11. Gorgeous blooms and gorgeous photography. Happy Bloom Day.

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    1. Thanks Dorothy for your visit and your kind words.

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  12. I enjoyed looking at all of your beautiful blooms! That Duranta erecta is lovely :)

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    1. Oh yes and the butterflies love it. However, it is very hot now so the butterflies are gone.

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  13. You have such lovely colors and shapes in your garden!

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  14. Oh you have milkweed too...I enjoyed all the blooms...it is so cold and snowy here...Michelle

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    1. My first time to try milkweed as i saw it in our colder highlands. It is now very very hot at 31C here in the lowlands.

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  15. Your Asclepias curassavica is wonderful with all the orange and red! I am growing one of the desert milkweeds now (A. subulata), also hoping the Monarchs will enjoy it. But bloom time is later and flowers are a simple white. All of your flowers are beautiful... :) And I am very much admiring your lovely Hoyas!

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    1. WE have our own monarch in our highlands, a few areas with colder temps, but maybe none in the lowlands. If they were able to reach US from Mexico, i hope they will also try our lowlands, the paths are shorter.

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  16. We live on the Texas Gulf Coast and Spring is just exploding around us. We will get our hot humid weather starting in about a month.
    Lovely flowers! Great photos.

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    1. You are just starting spring, we are starting our hot dry season, only starting but already seems like at the end of it.

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