Dry Season Blooms

The start of the year has not been conducive to my blogging, again. It happened before and this year the same is repeated. A lot of things have been going on simultaneously, personal, official, hobbies, etc, etc, the list goes on and on! But blogging has always been a part of my life for several years now, in fact i am here for 10 years! It helped me convey my feelings and enthusiasm about so many things. It is an avenue for me to post my pictures of so many subjects, objects, travels, and a lot more too. It helped me use my spare time or my time has helped me to do blogging. Whatever, it is already a part of my adult life, and i am not stopping, a month or 2 of absence is just like a school recess. And my recess is finished, i am again into the normal flow of things. We have officially into our Dry Season and it is already hot, leaves are already starting to be scorched but some plants reached their reproductive stage.

What else will i be posting but what is handy! Therefore i will start with the Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. I have been linking with it for many years, it is already a habit for many of us. So while our Dry Season has just started and the hot temperature starts to soar, here are my blooms.

I have a tree of this Indian Beads, it was in a pot placed on the ground, rooted and become a tree. It was like a Christmas tree full of hanging white lanterns. 

 My few bulbs are blooming also, although only one scape of this Eucharis grandiflora rose this month. I hope the rest will follow. 

 Eucharis grandiflora or Amazon lily

 Four of my hippeastrum bloomed as a result of my flower induction. Normally they flower at the start of the rainy season. I induced dormancy for their earlier blooming.

 Unfortunately, they are all gifts from a friend 2 years ago, and they didn't have their 

ID.

I just put them on top of the water to induce blooming.

 

 A few red cosmos are still alive, but they are drying up so quickly.despite watering.

Red Pentas lanceolata is a favorite of one butterfly, Scarlet Mormon. It is continuously blooming, but the butterfly is nowhere to be found. these days. I guess its host plant is also drying up.

lavender Pentas

 purple Vanda loves the heat and intense sunlight

 a few hoyas have blooms, but the rest prefer the rainy season, Hoya buotii (yellow)

 Hoya buotii (yellow)

Hoya nakarensis

Hoya diversifolia

 Hoya diversifolia on top of lanzones trees. They love it there. This hasn't stopped flowering since September last year. Sorry for the very bright picture as this was to high up from the ground.

And the star of my hoyas being a first time bloomer, Hoya macgillivrayi. The blooms lasted for 8 days. It is not endemic nor native here but from Northern Australia. 

Thank you so much for your time looking at my posts. 

I appreciate much your comments, which are the life of my blogs.

GBBD

November Blooms

I am maybe biased to flowers that cater to butterflies. That is my disclaimer because most of the plants you will see in this post are nectar plants, loved by butterflies, which in turn i love too!

 

 Asystasia intrusa can be invasive, but i always have them for, of course you know what! But if isolated in numbers in plates like the above, they can be beautiful too.

 Pentas lanceolata are favored by the Scarlet Mormon. They favor those in umbels because they will not leave the area for another flower, just insert their proboscis in the next flower within the umbel. Butterflies know energy conservation too.

another Pentas lanceolata color form, favored by the tigers

 This hippeastrum is the only species that bloom more than once a year. In fact this is its 4th bloom. When under the net protection it produced 6 flowers in one scape. 

 This is my first time to see the flowers of Curcuma longa or turmeric.  Actually, above are the bracts, the flowers already gone. Those almost rotten debris at the axils of the bracts are the decomposing flowers.

top view of the Curcuma longa bracts

 This is only a leaf, but it is as lovely as a bloom. It is one of the colorful caladiums. 

Hoya pubicalyx 'Black Dragon' syn. Hoya pubicorolla

 My Garden Bloggers Blooms post is not complete without the hoyas. They are the special flowers in my garden with their own enclosure and get more attention from me and my sister at home. I just go home on weekends and i only do some jobs and taking their pictures. I confess my bias is fully with them together with butterflies!

 Hoya alwitriana starting to open. This is one of the very few hoyas that blooms in the morning, most of them opens in the late afternoon.

 Hoya pubicalyx

 Hoya odorata

Hoya bifunda ssp. integra

Hoya nakarensis

GBBD

October Blooms and More

October is a crucial month with us in the Philippines. It is still within the rainy season, but the rains seem to be already subsiding. The intense heat of the sun is early for the season. Even at 7 o'clock in the morning it is already hot, you can imagine how it is at noon! Yes what you are thinking is correct, the heat at noon is very unfriendly to both humans and plants. We were joking that we are already at the height of the dry season because of the intense heat. We are already waiting for the typhoon because it comes always with rains, decreasing the heat and refilling our dams for our water in Metro Manila and irrigation water for our major crops like irrigated rice. I hope the cloud formation yesterday is an indication that there will still be incoming rains.

Gardening at home in the province last Sunday morning is already difficult due to the intense sun. I did not go out for butterflies as it is so hot. I already have the wide hat, but still the heat penetrates the head. I did not wear long sleeves, so my arms and hands got darker! Oh how wonderful to be just in the office in an airconditioned room. I said that because i am now already in the office in the big city, very tired but have to work.

Now i am trying to compile some pictures of the blooms and colors i was able to take yesterday. I almost forgot again the date and GBBD.

 Most of our colors come from the ornamental foliage like the Coleus blumei. I have 3 varieties and they give wonderful colors to our front yard. Above is the most lively. Can you see the very small tin can at the bottom? That is just where mother planted it, but some stems rooted on the ground, giving the full and wide clump arising from just one plant.

 This above 2nd variety of Coleus blumei, mayana in our dialect, is a bit darker with more erect growth habit. It gives more subtle color but definitely gives contrast to otherwise all green surroundings.

 The 3rd Coleus blumei variety is totally mauve in color, very dark but lovely too. The contrast against green is very drastic. It is not as prolific as the 1st because the container is much smaller and its other stems did not touch the ground for more roots.

Bothe above and below are from the same plant, just that the top picture are growing on the top portion receiving more direct sunlight. Picture below receives lesser direct light.

 This is an ornamental pineapple, which has been growing for 2 yrs now but still not yet fruiting. But it is lovely with just the leaves, so it is more fun.

 An Aglaonema hybrid also growing luxuriantly at a slightly shaded area.

 Alocasia sp. 

 Thunbergia erecta, growing inside the hoya house

My post will not be complete if hoyas are not included. They are always there with us giving lots of blooms. Above is Hoya diversifolia i let to climb the lanzones tree. Flowering season started last month and now is the profusion of the blooms. I went to the roof to get a better perspective of them.

 This is the lowest portion of the vines of Hoya diversifolia, almost reaching the fence of the hoya house. Some vines reached the top of the canopy and the flowering vines are on the top left side, with their blue sky background.

close-up of the blooms

Hoya blashernaezii

 Hoya buotii purple

 Hoya bifunda ssp. integra

 Hoya nakarensis, a cute little hoya, but floriferous with lots of umbels now

 If you think only flowers are blooming in my area, think again. Even a mushroom looks like a flower. It is growing at the growing point area of a coconut. That pointed shoot is the shoot primordia of the young coconut seedling. I shared this with you as i am very fascinated with an unusual mushroom to unusually grow in a very unusual area! LOL

The lanzones tree being conquered by the hoya blooms will not allow itself not be recognized and given attention. Its fruits are now ripening and in  1 - 2 weeks they are ready for human consumption. Can you see some hoya umbels at the small branch at the center of the picture, on top! I guess they are cohabiting in an ecological term called "commensalism", or they are called "commensal symbionts". Hoya benefits from the lanzones, which is not affected or benefitting from it at all. 

I hope you enjoyed my colors this October. You cannot feel our intense heat, but at least you can join me in appreciating our garden colors. Thank you so much. 

GBBD

Nature Notes

Floral Friday Fotos