Early morning finds

I woke up early last Sunday to look for whatever i can find in the garden. I roam around, took advantage of the light, insects still inactive,  as well as the dew on leaves still at lower rate of evaporation. Somehow i found some things i haven't seen as close. They were normally very ordinary and considered non-essential till i peered through the close-up lens.

This is a very common sight on our streets when a tamarind tree is nearby. Those are the fallen flowers carpeting the ground. This only happens once a year at the beginning of the rainy season, and the fruits are ready during the dry months. 

 This is one of the petals of a flower, about 1.5cm in length. The veination is dark maroon on a yellow background making it attractive at close-up.

 the already wilted flower

 it seems like that side of the heliconia flower is sweet, because most of the flowers are occupied by those small black ants in that same location

this is the almost spent flowers of blood lily, Scadoxus multiflorus

a female praying mantis under the hoya leaves, abdomen is full of eggs 

a dart moth which is exceptional, as it is active during the day unlike most of the moths

I still have lots of finds this last Sunday morning, but i hoard my photos for next posts. Thank you for dropping by and leaving some comments.

Ruby Tuesday Too

Our World Tuesday

Hoya meliflua is my Ruby Today!

I am looking for any structure for Ruby Tuesday. But my files are all mostly full of my hoyas! I cannot search in my other external drive as i normally leave that old one at home. So a newly photographed Hoya meliflua is handy for this meme. I hope you will enjoy this as not many garden bloggers are familiar with hoyas.

 Hoya meliflua is native to the Philippines, a prolific bloomer and not really very difficult to grow. It normally flowers during our hot dry season, which enduce it to produce lots of umbels. This is the 3rd year that my plant is blooming.

The red color is actually the stain of the nectar flowing on the velvety corolla. Upon opening the color is a bit pale, but immediately produce the red color a few hours after as nectar production is immediate. Of course, insects love sipping the nectar too. The above bee cannot easily leave because of the lure of the nectar. 

I stayed a few minutes taking a lot of shots of the bee. I am not disappointed in my purpose, as i am trying to find an insect with hoya pollinarium carried by their feet. This bee accidentally got the pollinarium because its feet has small hooks that stepped on the spot where the pollinaria are located. There are always 2 pollinaria in one socket, and this bee got one. If ever it injected the pollinarium to the stigma of another flower, cross pollination happens and will produce a natural hybrid. That is a wonderful outcome for a hoya grower if that happens. I hope this bee alights on more flowers of another species, to possibly pollinate them. Oh how i wish, i will say a few prayers! LOL.

Ruby Tuesday Too

Our World Tuesday
Outdoor Wednesday
Image-in-ing
Floral Friday Fotos

Would you like my Rubies?

I have not been joining the Ruby Tuesday meme lately, as i always find it late. I only use the meme list at meme-aholics by Gemma Weisman, and the list always elude me. Most hosts open the link the day before the actual day, i am not blaming them, just saying a fact. Ruby Tuesday is listed on Tuesday, but it opens on Monday. Whenever i open it on Tuesday there are already lots of linkers, and maybe nobody will open my post anymore.

That happens also with other memes, that i join normally. I am sorry about that folks, as maybe my memory is not functioning that efficiently anymore! I tend to forget those in the short term memory now, and when there are urgent work in the office i sacrifice blogging. That is not my choice, of course, just the necessity. But i will still try to join and i hope you will still find my post. hehehe

 I hope you will consider this as ruby. I am sure you will notice the individual flower's semblance to a tiffany ring or an earing. I found them lovely. And if you smell it, oh you will savor it more. It is Hoya lucardenasiana. I specially wanted to grow it because the namesake is a batchmate in college who unfortunately neglected her plant and die in her possession. What a shame, i told her, but she has more work than me i suppose.

This one is Hoya mindorensis, also endemic in the country. It is scented too, but not as sweet as the first. It has rather a strong scent, maybe more of the male preference. The background is yellowish because it is so hot here today at 36°C with Heat Index of 40°C. It is killing me, but these hoyas love the heat, as long as they are watered in the evenings after their roots rested from the heat.

I am trying to post for more, but i decided to keep them for next week. But i promise i still have a lot more rubies....that is if i will remember. Thanks everyone.

Ruby Tuesday Too
Our World Tuesday
Outdoor Wednesday
Floral Friday Fotos

Hoya imperialis

Hoya imperialis is a bit difficult for me to know well. It has been with me for almost 2 years and yet i still cannot understand what it fully wants to perform fully. I am aware that it hasn't received its full needs, there are three umbels that always start with many buds. Many of the buds abort at different stages of growth. But at least there still are a few flowers that continue to open. I guess it doesn't  like water more than it needs, at the same time it doesn't want to experience even a short dryness at all. In other words, it is difficult, just difficult.

But when it opens, even just only a flower will get your heart, and it really is awesome! Moreover, it stays there for 8 days. My sister says it looks so mysterious, to the brink of a bit scary at night because it is different-looking among most of the hoyas. The diameter is around 2 inches without stretching those corollas. For me, it just is other-worldly!

Macro Monday 2

Today's Flowers

Ruby Tuesday Too

Floral Friday Fotos

For the Memes

I would like to show you some flowers found in my garden in the province this time of the year. They are mostly around during the wet season. I posted them for joining most of the memes. They are all shots this October, when we are entering the colder part of our weather. As most countries enter the Winter we get some temperature spillage from them, giving us the most comfortable in terms of temperatures.

This is the end of our rainy season, but that doesn't mean we are free from strong typhoons, especially now that our climate is trully changing for the worst. Today a very strong typhoon just wrecked havoc in the northern part of Luzon, with a lot of areas suffering from floods, thousands of families rescued from their water-laden homes, some lives sacrificed. I was in the province last weekend with fortunately weaker winds. I came back to Manila last Sunday night (last night). We in Metro Manila got only Signal No. 2, which also gave lots of water/flooding, causing closure of classes in all levels. My plants outside the 5th Floor Window are now in quarantine inside the room, as the winds might still blow them away.

 Jasminum sambac gives wonderful scent in the garden

 a hoya flower 

Hoya buotii purple corona inner lobes for Ruby Tuesday 

Hoya ilagiorum for Ruby Tuesday

a bitter gourd leaf, Momordica charantia

a butterfly on Duranta repens, its favorite nectar plant in my garden

Macro Monday Too 

Ruby Tuesday Too

Nature Notes

Our World Tuesday 

A White Moth

I chanced upon this moth on the wall. It is about 2 cm in length, and because it's daytime it maybe is sleeping. Its feet are firmly anchored on the wall though. I tried to pry it away from the wall, but it didn't budge. I also tried to scare it so it gets defensive and might open its wings, however it didn't allow me to see its wonderfully colored body.

I love how it mimicked those 2 black eyes, which are only decoys for their predator as if it is very big.

 That is the full stance of this white moth, which didn't give me the privilege to see the red body. Most insects are said to be poisonous when they have very bright colors, and some butterflies mimic the red color to give a wrong impression to predators.

That is the color of its whole body, bright red. The hind wings even have those dramatic black dots, which complete the design to look big. Unfortunately, this one succumbed to its death, and the ants are their to get a share of it as their food. I wonder if this is the mate of the other one above which is still alive.

I've posted this in a lepidoptera group in FB and an authority identified it as Red Costate Tiger Moth, Aloa lactinea (Erebidae: Arctiinae).

I Heart Macro

Macro Monday 2

Ruby Tuesday Too

Macro without the lens

Hippeastrum roseum

Macro Monday 2

Ruby Tuesday Too
I Heart Macro
Floral Friday Fotos

Natural Leaf Calligraphy

I am taking photos of my hippeastrum which sent a scape so early even if the dry season has just started. It normally flowers after the first heavy rains in May or if it has suffered a long dry season and got a little watering. I asked my sister if she watered it, and yes she did.

I did not post the full photo as my my objective in posting is for the macro shot. I can make different figures from the outcome of the weeds below. Can you discern yours? To me it looks like some Chinese or Jappanese calligraphy, but because i don't know how to read any of them, i pass the reading to anyone of you who does.

Macro Monday Too

Nature Notes

Ruby Tuesday Too

I Heart Macro 

My rubies are coming back

These hippeastrum has not yet been flowering with me. I have only three bulbs from an exchange out of the country.  They have not been cared for well because we don't have the good place for them. We have animal pets around us that also sometimes walk on them like chickens, cats, dogs, goat kids.  Sometimes those bamboo fences are not enough barriers to keem them away. Moreover, we have shortage of water during the dry season that my plants have to sacrifice.

A few weeks back i just saw a broken scape emerging from the weeds. I don't know if a pet was there, or maybe mother was not able to see it when she went there sometimes. It reminded me that some bulbs are in those pots, forgotten for sometime. So i watched them during weekends i am home, and my sister put a trellis for the scape. She also watered them. And i was rewarded during the Holy Week Holidays, some are already spent, but some are still lovely.

 A bulb produced 3 scapes while the other got only 2, because one was cut and aborted earlier. Each scape have 4 blooms, and the 2 scapes bloomed simultaneously. I am so pleased.

 The third scape bloomed when the first 2 are almost spent. Their colors make a happy sight for a garden, mostly monopolized by the green background.

The throat is light green, radiating sidewards to the center of the petals. It gives a lovely color contrast too.

Even the back of the flowers are lovely too, the above looks like undulating and swaying with the winds.

Above are the reproductive parts of the flower; the stigma and style, the anther containing the pollen and the filament. I love how the stigma divides into 3 arms, purposely to easily capture the pollen. I wonder how the dark margin helps the anther, or if it has a physiological purpose.

This is the 3rd scape, developing after the 2 scapes are almost spent. So there will be the available red presence in the garden for a longer time. Next weekend they might not be there anymore, but i hope my pollinated flowers all get fertilized, so i can harvest some seeds in a few months. 

Ruby Tuesday Too

Macro Monday 2

Biggest of my Hoyas

Despite the many hoyas in my collection and the number of flowers blooming at the same time, it seems incomplete without this! If one is different, or getting too much of your time, or taking so much of your patience, it becomes very important. Just like the rose of The Little Prince, this hoya seems to be mine.

Its first blooming was in December when i was out of the country. It gets working at once and produced buds immediately after the first 3 blooms fell. That was the start of my weekly commute for home because these buds might open at my back. Unlike other hoyas in my collection, its progress seems so slow. Maybe that is because the buds are big, so they are very conspicuous. But i really felt more than 2 months from buds is very long enough.

corona of Hoya imperialis

I almost forget going home when my sister called saying i must go home now, as in NOW! Hoya imperialis already opened 1 flower. I suddenly went home last Saturday and 3 buds already opened when i got home.

 another angle of the corona

Will you not be enticed by this sight?  It is one of the biggest hoyas, and this originated from Papua New Guinea. The diameter of one flower is about 2 inches in that normally curved form. 

After taking a lot of photos, i can't seem to be satisfied that 2 of them remained tightly closed! I arrived home at 1:00pm and at 5:00pm those 2 buds are still very hesitant to open. My sister said they might be still due the following day. I can't agree on that, so i tried putting pressure to the center of the bud, and it cracked, even with a crackling sound. I repeated the process to the other one and it followed unhesitatingly. I jokingly said that it can do a "Caesarian section".

Here is the final picture of all the flowers fully open. You can see that right one still newly opening. But who will blame me for my impatience! They are so lovely impressing the onlookers as a group. I don't think someone will contradict me on that.

Macro Monday 2

Macro Monday

Ruby Tuesday Too

Floral Friday Fotos

Intensity in my Veins

Red flows throughout my veins, and its intensity shows on me! I am purely intense, will you still ask for more? 

Macro Monday Too

Ruby Tuesday Too

Hoya pubicalyx

Most of you are aware of my present addiction. It is difficult to be afflicted by this, which is similar to a severe disease. Some people even say it is very contagious, so we normally warn friends and colleagues who also intend to try this product. This is my hoya addiction!

The plants and garden are at home in my province, and i can't just normally drop by every afternoon after office hours. It takes at least 4-5 hours to go home, so the most normal routine for me is going home every other week. However, just recently i made it a point, no matter how tired I am during the weekdays, to go home every weeked. And that is to keep track of my hoyas blooming for the first time. Seeing them change morphology from opening till a few days before they drop is also very interesting.

 This is Hoya pubicalyx that i watched opening from the first flower till all the flowers are open. It is a consolation to be doing just that, watch and shoot!

They normally open in the late afternoon, and starts emitting scents on the process. That is to attract insects for pollination, and the scent is even magnified at night luring the nocturnal insects like moths. 

The flower buds take a longer time, from a few weeks to months from emergence to blooming. But even just the buds are consolation enough and very nice to photographs. This species is known to produce big almost round umbels, that really catch the fancy of both plain gardeners and addicts alike. 

 Look at that small insect nymph, it somehow take shelter on the safety of its pedicels (flower stalk). I just don't know if it is an enemy or just resting there. If it is a sucking insect, most probably it is an enemy.

 Two plants adjacent to each other and flowering at the same time or simultaneously is a sight to behold. And the scent near them is a bit overpowering to the senses. The beauty of this species is the long number of days before they fell. For 7-8 days they are there expressing their beauty and lure passers-by!

What about you, aren't you a hoya addict yet? I warned you! It is very contagious.

Macro Monday 2

Our World Tuesday

Ruby Tuesday Too

Ruby Enough for a Ring?

My Hoya pubicalyx has been blooming since May, but it always do after i left for the big city where i stayed most days. Then finally, last weekend it chose to let me see its splendor. I am so thankful and savored all the pleasure it can give me. One flowering plant has six umbels, while the 2nd plant has 8. That is quite prolific already for a first bloomer and only at its 2nd year of growing. It really is a delightful experience, tending them, looking at them and shooting their pictures.

It looks so elegant individually, do you agree?

 Even the umbel is half-full with flowers, an umbel almost 4 inches in diameter. 

 The flowers kept intact for 7-8 days, at dehiscense the corona are still very stiff.

The two plants that i formed into circles just like wreaths. 

Ruby Tuesday Too

NF-Blo-Ma

Outdoor Wednesday

Floral Friday Fotos