November Plants Showcase!

I almost forgot again the Plants Fiesta this month! OMG i almost panicked when i realized it is already the 17th of the month. I checked the GBBD Site at Maydreams Gardens and there still are places for linking. There is still a possibility that some people will see my post. Yes, i hope for that. Meantime, i still have to resize and put watermarks on them. Wow, i really am pressured.

I realized i have all the colors of the rainbow, ROYGBIV.

Red: Pentas lanceolata

 Reddish: Caesalpinia pulcherrima

Orange: Crossandra infundibuliformis

Orange: marigolds - Tagetes erecta

 Orange with purplish undersides: Vanda orchid

 Yellow: Chrysanthemum

Violet: Asystasia intrusa

Violet: Impatiens balsamina

Now my hoyas currently in bloom:

Orange: Hoya bifunda

 Yellow: Hoya buotii (yellow form)

Violet: Hoya buotii (purplish form)

If you are looking for Blue and Indigo, you will be disappointed like me, because they are seldom seen in the hot tropics. But we have the full blue sky, so that suffices our need for blue flowers, haha!

 This is not included in my Colors of the Rainbow, but i am sure you will be delighted too in seeing my Hoya diversifolia all blooming on top of our lanzones trees. The trees are more than 12 ft tall. Every side of the tree is covered and the flowers seem to be all smiling at all those who look up.

Do you know why they are smiling? Because to appreciate them, we get the risk of having stiff necks. Enjoy my friends.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

NF-Blo-Ma

Nature Notes

Outdoor Wednesday

Hoyas and Friends

You will not be surprised why my posts are mostly of hoyas. Even my FB photos are hoyas too. Maybe it is also a stage in my ornamental hobby escapade. When both blogging and FB were not yet "in", i was into orchids. Or let's say, that time even digital technologies are still being invented. So when the orchids craze left me, and literally they left me too, succumbed to virus, i changed to hoyas. That was only for the last 2-3 years. And space and time hasn't changed yet for me. I am still an absentee gardener, relegating all the maintenance to my sisters and nephew who are left at home where my hoyas are. I am in the big city, trying to be home only on occassional weekends. These past few weeks i try to go home weekly, even at these extreme heat, do you know why? The main reason is to tend to my hoyas and monitor what happens to their growth, observe the conditions most specially the first blooms. A few of them are already showing signs of flower buds, and a few already has blooms.

Of course, i will not let them pass without taking their photos. Even the smallest of buds or shots are recorded. Now, their visitors are recorded too, and i will be sharing them with you.

 First flowering of my Hoya fungii had 3 blooms opening in 3 consecutive days, so i can watch the 3 of them so delightfully. Moreover, the scent in the late afternoon to the early night is too strong that it catches a lot of attention, both humans and insects.

 The above cotton bug, Dysdercus cingulatus, is less than 2 cm in length. It has been there for 2 nights and 2 days. It is still there when i left for the city on Sunday afternoon. I wonder if it is still not drunk yet with all the nectar it has been sipping all those time. Its proboscis is always digging the nectar container.

 This bee also lingered for so long. But unlike the cotton bug, it leaves for a few minutes to go to other flowers. But the lure of the hoya nectar is maybe so overpowering, that it returns again and again.

 This ant maybe has other intentions other than sipping nectar. I guess it is eyeing some prey of smaller ants that frequent the flowers. I just wasn't able to watch them longer, but the dynamics of predatorship in my hoya plants are going on so healthy and active.

Maybe this is a sucker, as it has a long proboscis always pointing to the stem. I just don't want to alter their dynamics, so i let it be. It is less than 1 cm in lenght. This can be a hopper.

I wanted to record more of the residents of the hoya community, but i just have no enough time. I still have to tend to the bigger work of watering, making trellis, getting the long hoya shoots from embracing its neighbors, clipping them to their own pots.  Later on, i will do more of these records, by that time i will share with you more. I hope i can at least give you a few information.

Macro Monday 2

Ruby Tuesday Too

NF Blo-Ma

Flower Biography

Flower Biography, is there such a thing? 

Actually in plants we have such things as growth and development. And the following photos portray such processes in a flower. We cannot say that growth precedes development because from the point of view of the cell they are intertwined. Development will not proceed if there is no growth, and vice versa. Someone might say that a cell can increase in size without growth, yes that is right, but that is cell enlargement and not growth, nor is there development. These two processes are two very complex processes that we only normally appreciate as the flower becoming a brightly colored beautiful bloom. 

For us laymen, we just don't try understanding the processes happening within the plant, and the chemical or physiological stories within, let us leave that to the chemists, physiologists, botanists! I would just want to show you the life cycle of the marigold flower, Tagetes erecta. 

NF-BLO-MA

Nature Notes 

Rain Come Again!

It has always been fascinating to come out of the house after the rain, most specially here in the tropics. A lot of subjects look very different than what we are used to. But the raindrops are not as fascinating when the rain is intense. Of course it is worst when rains produced flooding, but that is another story.

 Our crinum mostly loves rain, in fact it blooms only at the middle of the rainy season. The scent is still heavenly, dry or wet.

 Blooms in an umbel open at different times, sothe scent lingers around it for a longer time, depending on the number of blooms on a stalk. This particular umbel stayed fragrant for more than a week.

 Raindrops on rose leaves

 I love the colors of young rose leaves, from maroon gradually turning pale until it becomes normal green, and eventually yellow at dehiscence. It is nice to have the raindrops on the individual points along the leaf margins. I guess this is very prominent in temperate climates during frost, but with us raindrops are enough to pacify us.

 Blades of grass seem so contented after each rain. 

Look at those blobs holding tightly and so firmly, fighting the force of gravity! It's incredible.

....and this Caladium got its share of the downpour by cupping its leaves. I just don't know if it provides some cooling effect to it. I have been thinking of the real advantage of getting water that way, as it does't seep through at all to the main plant. At the least, some mosquitoes will try to lay eggs on it which will not be advantageous at all to the caladium. Hmmm, this is something to search about. Will evolution have an answer?

Macro Monday 2

NF Blo-Ma