Red Intermission

These are just some intermission between my hoya posts. I just want to give you some rest, for fear that you might get bored with purely hoya photos. And also because i want to link again with Ruby Tuesday. 

 a red succulent flower, but i don't know its ID

Dischidiopsis parasitica is endemic in the Philippines. The length of this lipstick-shaped flowers is only half centimeter. 

Macro Monday Too

Ruby Tuesday Too

Sparkling Reds

Hippeastrum bud

Odontonema strictum or firespike

Macro Monday2

Ruby Tuesday Too

Floral Friday Fotos

Reds Strike Again

I've always been complaining of our tropical colors. It stemmed from their perennial presence here, mostly the orange and red. Somehow, if you are always seeing them all the time, anywhere, everywhere, I am sure you will understand. I hope some of you can relate with my craving for the blues and violets. But of course, we have a few of them, but they are not as conspicuous as our loud colors.

But i confess, these oranges and reds are trully very beautiful, like the bougainvillea and the rose.

Happy Reds

Ruby Tuesday Too

Outdoor Wednesday

Floral Friday Fotos

Fertilizer Friday

Foreigner in my Custody!

I received a few half-centimeter diameter bulblets of an unfamiliar lily two years ago. This was sent in a small package of other seeds courtesy of a blogger friend in the US. Of course, the very small bulblets excite me more than the seeds, which otherwise proved to be more susceptible to our tropical climate. The bulblets thrive, though hesitant at first, they eventually acclimatized and passed successfully our hot dry season of >35C.  Half the leaves died, but they lived through. I had to put the pot under filtered shade during dry months and they were so pampered with water and attention.

I searched immediately with how they look and the bright red curly petals seem so beautiful. I haven't seen anything like it here in the country. It was reported to have originated from China and Japan, and I realized it is a bit invasive in foreign lands, and they are seen growing abundantly in abandoned lands. I hope this is the first Licoris radiata here and i will try not to allow it invade our lands. The first bloom already emerged, with four flowers per scape. Despite the small flower size, they are lovely.

The petals curl at the tip, but the petal blades also look like ruffles.

The very long wiskers, which are actually the filament, are wonderful

 Only three flowers are already open in this picture. I still don't know how long is the bloom life.

I searched for any succeeding scape, but nothing is conspicuous just yet. I hope more spikes will be produced this season, which coincide with the rainy months. Those long thin leaves are beautiful on their own, with the whitish hues at the center of the leaves along the midrib area. 

I have a few foreigner plants in my custody, but this one has the brightest and loudest color, so far!

Chasing Ruby Tuesday

red bougainvillea being trained on our fence

 Pedilanthus tithymaloides 

 they look like sleeping birds, nectar is inside that cap near the stem-end

Heliconia rostrata is a usual dry season character near our gate. I cut the tops of those crotons for the heliconia to have full showing. They will stay there even when the rainy season already started in May. They don't disappoint the gardeners for their long life, showy inflorescence, beautiful colors and they can thrive on neglect.

  

 

Dry Season Blooms

Dry season is here, the many symptoms are already evident aside from the heat. Plants have unusual responses to this change in environmental conditions. Deciduous trees decide to shed their leaves during this time, but this is exhibited by mostly forest trees. Others show the almost autumnal colors. There are also trees that decide to flower at the onset of the dry season, and there are those producing very vigorous flushes or nicely colored shoot growths.    

                                                                       avocado flowers, Persea americana

   In July to August, we will again have a lot of avocado fruits, and sometimes we have the problem of disposal. When the single assembler-wholesaler in our area died, nobody seems to be interested again to act as middleman in disposing fruits from small producers. On the other hand, our family cannot eat all our produce.

                                                                                       mango flowers, Mangifera indica

Mango flowers extensively too. However, we don't get many fruits normally due to pests and diseases. Commercial growers individually wrap fruits, which we cannot do ourselves. Insects are very happy with our area as they can eat as much as they want. It is both advantageous and disadvantageous though.

   kamyas, kalamyas flowers and fruits (Averrhoa bilimbi)

Fruits of this plant are traditionally and culturally intertwined with our food preparations. We use this as souring agent for meat and fish, and the mature fruits are dried, pickled or made into sweets.

  Averrhoa bilimbi flower in detail

Flowers are small, only about two centimeters in diameter if they are open.  Bees and insects love the nectar and help them be pollinated.

Pentas lanceolata and Coleus blumei

We also have the red pentas but they don't have good blooms when this photo was taken. You will notice the reclining stems of both the pentas and the coleus, that is because the chickens love to rest on them. They probably love the colder temperatures while resting there. At least they don't pick on the leaves. These are directly planted on the ground.

Chrysothemis pulchelia

Chrysothemis pulchelia has tubers or enlarged basal portion of the stem, when there is not enough water, they stay dormant and shoot again upon watering. Sometimes, the extreme heat kill these tubers but somehow during the following rainy season, a lot of shoots will emerge again somewhere. Their seeds probably manage to remain alive in the soil.

Dracaena surcolosa 

Dracaena surcolosa flowers

This is also called Florida beauty, one of the most resistant plants to neglect and drought. This is actually planted on a very thin topsoil, but it still grows luxuriantly and doesn't stop flowering. Those lantern-like blooms eventually turn into very red berries when ripened. The Chinese love this plant and considered very auspicious.

Clerodendrum speciossisimum

Clerodendrum speciossisimum

This bushy plant is considered a weed in our area. But i allow some of them to thrive because butterflies and bees love its flowers. An advantage of this is the ability to flower and bloom even without any care given, as long as they are planted directly on the ground. Its roots are deep allowing them to grow in the dry season. 

 Heliconia rostrata

Blooms of this heliconia starts in February and stay beautifully colorful throughout the dry season. When other blooms succumb to the hot temperatures without water, their blooms flourish and stay as food for insects for more than 2 months. 

Sanchezia speciosa 

Sanchezia speciosa blooms in Feb to March, but I don't like too much blooms. Sometimes i pinch them while still very young to preserve the beauty of their striped foliage. At the start of the rainy season, the plants will be pruned extensively to change the whole growth.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Untimely Bloom

My Hippeastrum puniceum produced some blooms in February, as a response to an untimely rain. The blooms are very few, but it gave a beautiful surprise. January to April are the normal dry months, this bulb normally bloom only after the long dry spell followed by the heavy rains in May. However, they are now unprdictable, just like the weather. Thanks to the very unusual climate changes, plants gave unusual responses as well. I hope the changes remain just like this, and not the unexpected harmful ones. 

   

Yellows and Rubies

Some blooms at the start of our dry season in Batangas, Philippines.

spray cascading yellow chrysanthemum, remnants of the long days

 trying hard to bloom Gaillardia, native of temperate countries acclimatizing in our hot tropics

very adapted orange 4 o'clock flower, Mirabilis jalapa

 

 

Jewels Under the Leaves

I have two kinds of 'rubies' here. The first one, i thought are just specks on the leaf near this bug. I was actually taking shots of the bug, although it is just only half a centimeter long. After 2 shots i touched the reddish spots with a leaf and the insect fell off together with the 2 red specks. When looking at the photos in my computer, i realized they are actually babies of the insect. They are safely attached to the legs of the mother, oh how so convenient! I just concluded that this insect is so caring with her youngsters, oh how so cute!

And this 2nd ruby looks really stunning and so glittering in its full red regalia. This is a spider that apparently lacked the other 2 right legs. I wonder what happened but i guess it is now doubly crippled. I promise, i didn't have any contribution in their removal. I saw this already looking this way. I've looked at so many plants in the vicinity, but I can't find any other spider looking like this. This seemed to be alone in its world. I am so sorry, spiders don't have the capacity to regenerate their appendages, so it might have to stay cripple the rest of its life.