Colours attract our eyes and the eyes of creatures that are looking for food in the garden. An unknown insect has come by for the bracts of my bougainvillea again :-( It is probably the same insect that gobbled up parts of other plants as well.
I was told that it could be a kind of beetle. But is there any way to shoo this insect away without using any pesticide? I don't like pesticide as I am afraid that it will also repel those wonderful butterflies and bees. In the pic below is a little red spinach, Amaranthus 'Perfect Red'. I think I am growing food for beetle again, hmmm....
I was there some years ago and the sky was as cloudy and it was a rather cold summer. I was even caught in the rain while catching a bus (a double decker!) with my sister and mother and a friend. We were wet and feeling really cold after that. Still, we laughed at ourselves doing things that we don't normally do back home. And we had the heartiest laugh when my friend had some bird's pooh landing on her while we were taking photographs at Trafalgar Square!
Though it was a run into town, we enjoyed its many majestic monuments and the Rose Garden :-D
Now back to my little garden...
I was greeted by a little white bloom from my little capsicum plant and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for it to pollinate successfully first. It is no better time to fruit than now as the temperature is cooler nowadays due to the rainy weather. Secondly, I'm hoping the flower would not disappear the next day like what happened to my okra plant. The flower and leaves are all gone now. Perhaps eaten by some creatures in my garden :-(
I have been searching for a good kind of Salvia to grow but still haven't found one that will last though. This one, Salvia coccinea, has little blooms (red in actual colour) and I am particularly fond of the how brilliant the tiny flowers can be and how they just keep appearing non-stop.
"The best kind of rain, of course, is a cozy rain. This is the kind the anonymous medieval poet makes me remember, the rain that falls on a day when you'd just as soon stay in bed a little longer, write letters or read a good book by the fire, take early tea with hot scones and jam and look out the streaked window with complacency." -- Susan Allen Toth, England For All Seasons (The Quote Garden)
It has been raining sporadically during the past 1-2 weeks... then came a moderate downpour one afternoon. When the rain is over, the temperature went down with some fresh and cool breezes flowing into the house. Aaah... it really feels good to be writing again in this cozy weather :-)
Looking out from the house, I saw butterflies fluttering about and birds flying from one plant to another (no pics unfortunately). I noticed a few big blooms of Thunbergia laurifolia still intact and the cuphea plant has begun to blossom a few tiny flowers! Now, where are the bees?
My One-Day-Yellow Adenium obesum shines this week. Love its pale yellow shade... it is so gentle to the eyes ;-) With the plant flowering now, I am assured that the plant is still very much alive!
Many times, during the rainy season I feared that this plant will just rot, and in those times, the plant can just go leafless and flowerless for many days.
Also as slow-growing and probably as old as the One-Day-Yellow desert rose (I think I bought both at the same time) is this dwarf ixora. But unlike the desert rose, this pink blooms are amazingly productive... never once was this dwarf ixora without any flower :-D
I was so happy to have spotted a little bunch of blooms on my Petrea volubilis (commonly called Sandpaper Vine) last week. It was the vine's first blooms! They are not scented but look superbly delicate in blue and violet :-)
Earlier, I almost wanted to give this vine away but I am so glad I didn't. The plant was propagated using a stem cutting about five years ago and never flowered until now!
Hope you can spot the small bunch of light purple flowers from the pic below. It is on the left (hint: don't look at the Aranda orchid!). The vine is currently planted in a medium-sized pot and supported by two inverted U-shaped bamboo.
And here are plants that have 'resurrected'...
First of all is the Verbena, a Superbena. The plant shrunk in size, to a small little bush during the prolonged rain. When I repotted it earlier, I notice it was left with very little roots as well. I am surprised to see it able to bounce back and now blooming again!
My Justicia fulvicoma is also re-blooming. Its small spike of red bracts and orange flowers are surprisingly striking and showy.
Also my Hoya publicalyx's old flower stalk is re-blooming as well. It has re-flowered continuously since its blooms first appeared. Shortly after the old flowers have spent/dropped, new buds are starting to form now...
Meanwhile, the Hoya kerrii that I was trying to 'revive' is slowly turning green again - a promising sign but I am still keeping my fingers crossed.
Btw I was nominated for an award from Bernie of Bush Bernie's Blog. A veteran gardener who grows many types of plants in her wonderful garden. All her plants are always in incredibly good conditions.
Thanks Bernie! :-D
Here are the rules upon accepting The Versatile Blogger award:
- Thank the person who gave you the award.
- Include a link to their blog.
- Select 15 bloggers that you follow or have just discovered who you would consider fit the bill of a 'versatile' blogger.
- Tell 7 random facts about yourself.
- Include this set of rules in your post.
- Inform each of your nominated bloggers of their nomination.
1. Malar of My Little Garden. Although she has little spare time, she still managed to grow many beautiful ornamental plants as well as edibles (herbs and vegetables) in her garden.
2. James of Garden Chronicles. A person who grows as many plants as he could in a small garden. Exactly like me, haha... And he really knows all his plants really well.
3. Diane AZ of Desert Colors. An excellent photographer who knows and grows many plants herself. I love to check out the many wonderful pics she snapped and posted in her blog.
4. Rohrerbot of Las Aventuras. I enjoy seeing and knowing the diversity of flora and fauna in his posts.
5. Brad of Here to Ann Arbor. I love the dishes he cooks for the many festivals and celebration he plays host to.
6. Mia of Mias Hageliv. She lives in a place that has really cold winter. I am amazed by how she could turn her garden into a thing of beauty during spring and summer... in such a short time.
7. Gudrun of Gudruns Keramik. She makes really good ceramic pieces, mostly using heart-shape motive and I love her pretty and tidy garden.
8. Bom of Plant Chaser. His collection of tillandsias etc and knowledge in plants amazes me.
9. Wendy of Greenish Thumb. She is one busy bee, grows beautiful plants, cooks many delicious food from scratch and has pretty daughters.
10. Diana of Kebun Malay-Kadazan Girls. She grows a vast variety of vegetable in her garden. And all her vegetables are of supermarket quality!
11. Orkid La of Orkidla. A blogger with enormous passion in cultivating orchids.
12. Catmint of Diary of a Suburban Gardener. Not only gardens a lot but reads a lot as well. Some of the plants that she grows in her wonderful garden are really interesting and which I have not seen in real before.
13. Adam of Growing Paradise. His garden is really a paradise! He grows lots of exotic plants. In his blog, he also introduces plants that caught his attention.
14. Prospero of Serendipitous Garden. He is just not only a skilful and an artistic photographer but also a gardener with lots of wisdom.
15. Vicky Nguyen of About tree planting. I have just started to follow her blog. She has a big garden and grows lots of beautiful plants that I like :-D.
16. Lona of A Hocking Hill's Garden. She has the most beautiful roses. Her beds of flowers are outstanding and every summer she specially chooses new flowers for her garden.
17. Lrong of Potager Y @ Japan. A fantastic gardener - grows beautiful trees, flowers and edibles. His sweet wife uses the fruit of his labour in her cooking.
18. Erika of Expat Abroad. If you are new to Malaysia - an expat just moved in or visiting Malaysia for the first time, her blog has all the pertinent information for making your stay here a wonderful one.
19. Kanak of Terra Farmer. Her love for Nature and passion in gardening truly shows in her blogs.
20. Kitchen Flavours of My Little Potted Garden. A mighty gardener, baker and chef for her family and friends :-D
Special mention:
Titania of Lavender & Vanilla, J.C. of My Sunny Happy Garden, Andrea of Andrea in this Lifetime and Aaron of Aaron's Gardening Blog - though they have been nominated for the award by Bernie also, I would like to commend them for their great enthusiasm in their hobbies - more than one! Puts a lazy bump like myself to shame ;-)
Seven random facts about myself:
- Besides gardening, I also love baking and cooking...
- I love to learn new dance steps
- I love the skinny jeans that is in fashion now
- I love seafood especially crabs
- I love to watch Korean dramas
- I love coffee... cappuccino, piccolo, flat white and americano are my favourites!
- I love visiting new places
Btw I respect your time and priorities, so it is not compulsory that you need to accept this nomination like I did.
Cheers! :-D
Also, it is quite fascinating to see how the spike of flower grow out from the orchid - strong and long :-D
While the blooms are outstanding, bright and prolific, this orchid has actually not bloomed for about 12 months or so... what a long wait! Could it be the fertiliser, I wonder?
I have been feeding the orchid with balanced liquid fertiliser once a week for about a year now. I used to apply fish fertiliser and fertiliser specially made for orchids but when the stock has finished I discontinued - I think they all give the same result. Long wait that is!!
What's your experience with aranda orchids?
The Adenium obesum is just as charming this time round. There are plenty of flowers on the shrub...
Not everything is rosy though. One of my Hoya kerrii vines is withering (must have over-watered it!). I chopped the vine to pieces and hopefully it will root again as there is still sap oozing out from the stems. After a week I dug out the stems to check and I was glad to see very short little roots. Then, I realised that I shouldn't have disturb the cuttings... gosh, I am keeping my fingers crossed now!
Meanwhile, my Russelia equisetiformis 'Flava' is going crazy - what a mess! But I have to just leave the plant like this for a while till I find another space/pot for this dear plant. The plant that is in front of the russelia is Euphorbia milii... glad to see its yellow bracts :-D
I have just changed the look of my strawberry pot again. Earlier I planted some coleuses. They have grown 'old' and didn't look that nice after a while. So now I have planted some succulents into the pot which include Portulacaria afra, Kalanchoe species and Graptoveria varieties (one bronze, one pale green and one dark brown).
Also in this rectangular pot...
A few other highlights in the garden... the Guzmania lingulata bloom looking radiant in the shade :-)
And my dear Iresine herbstii plants (there is a red one hiding at the back) are growing pretty well with some coleuses...
This particular marigold in the pic below (bought, not planted from seed) is amazingly strong. I thought this kind of pom pom flower doesn't hold up well. I was wrong... it lasted for weeks!
Cheers and have a great week!
The weather was super hot and humid last week but my Hoya kerrii seems to be loving the heat. The vine has been growing really well and doesn't care about having more water than usual.
Few of the Hoya kerrii leaves grew so big and I can't help but to take a pic of one of them. My plant loves me this much... yay! ;-D
My Plumbago plants loved the heat as well. They are growing unusually fast, with cheerful blooms all over...
So is the portulaca...
And desert rose...
But my Columnea tulae var. flava vine is slow to grow back its leaves and flowers after a 'hair cut'.
Also, my Carnation Chabaud, the buds are taking their own sweet time to blossom...
In the shade, it was a different story... instead of blooms, my Kaempferia pulchra has sent out a few leaves - the darkest leaves ever with pretty attractive pattern on them! They really made me happy as I was longing to see these wonderful leaves for a long time.
I was also happy to see my Guzmania lingulata finally flowering...
And my newly propagated Perilla frutescens 'Magilla' is ready to be taken out to bask in the sun :-)
When the weather changes, my plants either grow better or worse. This time round, I am pleased that most of them are able to cope with the recent rather finicky weather.
Ciao for now!
Apple? Nope, it's a fruit from my Acerola bush. This one is big and very red...
Another fruit that is growing on the other side of the bush was nibbled by birds or something while ripening...
It was really delightful to see these deep pink fringe flowers beaming on the bush and looking radiant ;-) The plant really stole the show and my neighbour kept asking me where did that red plant come from and what's this plant...
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