Red Blooms

It is indeed amazing that these red ones actually dwell in my garden invisibly.
You may have to seek them out with a detective lens, armed with a camera,
they are hidden from common sight..

Or perhaps.. As I mentioned before..
I often see them, until they had become invisible to me.

Does that happen to you?
Something so common and that you just walk pass them?

Though their size is tiny and small.
They make up like bright lights, shining red on their colour.
And these are the small little joys in my garden.
Like chilli red - they flavor a sharp spicy taste in between my greens.

How do you see your reds?
Are they all attention seekers or hidden behind a leaf?
Share your story.

These Doritis Pulcherimma is recently purchased for RM10 from another gardener near my place.
It never stop to give out spikes of flowers continuously.
Something that I truly admire with this orchid - never to disappointment me without blooms.

Dumbcane Collection - Side View

My garden is constantly evolving. Most likely they tend to grow & trail in places I cannot imagine but somehow it is predictable that my garden slowly turning forest often happens with the 3 months time.

Again, I was not able to co-pe with my mood to garden and the constant unpredictable climate of rain & shine somehow brought me to procrastinate gardening (that explains my long-due silence in the blog-roll)

Nevertheless, I would like to share the small little beauties that blossoms time to time in my garden. Small little things that brighten my day.

These are Zebra Tradescantia - I had found another different species. (My favourite one)
where they seemed to glow a shimmering violet shade.

Black Flamingo seemed to be able to put a stand of a constant bloom for months.
And they really compliment each other very well.

Together in this collection is Chinese Evergreen (Aglaomena sp.),  Goosefoot plant (Syngonium podophyllum)  & Dumbcane.

I really want to make the emphasise of the variety of colours here rather than just plan green factor. Somehow Dumbcane plant is easiest to maintain as they hardy and able to tolerant both the hot & rainy climate interchangeable well.

I still have to prune and reset this area here as some of the plant had totally gone hidden as the top growth had cast a shade & overgrowth over them and most likely those that survived had become leggy and un-noticeable. 

Really hope I can manage this space again and continue to admire them.

Coloured Foliaged Plants

 It's been quite a while since I posted. 
I guess it must be the blues I've been facing.
The unpredictable weather 
(rains almost every time when I garden) 
and the untameable garden that slowly turns into a jungle - somehow tires me a lot.
The plants that I want them to stay seemed to growing fast and the plants that I want them to grow & multiply seemed to stay dormant and sometimes dead.
(I guess most gardeners swears this happening in their garden)

Its now September
 - a seasonal change is taking place in my garden.
The night seemed to take place faster much earlier than towards the evening. 
The good thing is that I had planted more Jewels of Opar  in few more pots and they seemed to bloom lavishly during evening times.

My elder's son passed this Polka Dot plant for Father's Day.
He suppose to take care of it on my behalf and it happened to be doing quite well without anyone's care. 
I'm surprised to note the flower spike
 - though not very impressive.
(Looking at it now - its about time I pruned and propagate it before the plant matures and dies)

My Earthstar seemed to give out pups from where the flowers was.
I thought these don't seemed to last long but I'm quite surprised that they are doing very well.
Now I can add more pinks in my garden that gives more vibrant look with the purple queen.

These are the random plants which I have in my garden.
Most of which are with me for years.

Though they are not so outstanding when seen as a singular plant - they somehow make an impact in the colour spray when viewed together as a unit.

Their colours & tones and the variety of the shapes and sizes takes great emphasise when it comes to making an impact.

You will see that all of them are everything but never a plain ordinary green. 
And I guess that is my taste in having my style of a small tight space shaded container garden.

I realised that I find it just as hard to put all of that I see in camera.
They don't turn out to be show what I see. And what had been captured is just a fraction of what I see which somehow interpret differently when viewed once the picture comes out in the screen.

And the frustration that leads to another point where I often comfort myself believing that there is always another day or time of which I can elaborate about it.

Or that I get lucky on the next shot where the sunlight might be just nice or the focus device on my very worn camera might just be on right or that I get lucky.

Sometimes that feeling seemed to be very much a fantasy than a reality.
With another load of procrastinate and sometimes I forget what I actually want to show or write about my garden that I have to wait for my mood to spark the zeal and excitement to give me the boost.

Right now - I just cannot imagine the "messy side" of my garden.
Its just too much of stuff which I'm very much in grave decision of (To throw or not to throw)
and there never seemed to be not enough time and always..
always with many interruptions that spoils the mood of gardening.

I guess being persistence is part & parcel of gardening.
Maybe I have to learn from the weeds that grow along side with my garden plants.
In not giving up and continue to pick up and carry on.

Regardless how hard or difficult it may be.
And I realised that its OK to take a break once a while and abandon the garden.
(when most of them are hardy plants and so - the lack of care is very much manageable within few weeks time) 

Then when the strength and the zeal and the mode arrives.
Its important to spring up and rise with a shove and a scissors.
In planting and pruning and living the cycle of the plants again for the next generation garden plants.

Fairies in the Garden

Its going to be a little difficult to describe concerning fairies.

I did ask few of my gardener's friends on what you think about them.

To a certain degree - I did get raised eyebrows and a look that sounds like - 

"What! You believe in fairies??"

Guess its a guy thing not to fall for these mumbo-jumbo factor.

Well, I guess - I didn't continue with that conversation or leading to any explanation.

You can't go so far in any explanation when you hear a person says that they don't believe in the existence of fairies.

OK - Let me rephrase:

I don't go after fairies like the one who chases butterfly with a net and all.

I wouldn't say that I'm neutral about it - that whether they exist or not doesn't trouble me.

What I'm getting at is that :- 

IF there is an unseen creature as just as fairies.

And that they do exist and

IF they exist and make a dwelling place in your garden.

How would your reaction be?

- Would you continue to garden as you would usually do - regardless or

Would you change your perception concerning your garden.

I wonder if you would had watched any of the fairy themed movies - like Peter Pan, Thumbelina or Tinkerbell. There are lot more of these mystical creature based movies coming out very popular even the Box Office like Harry Porter and The Spiderwick Chronicles
And a lot more which I really can't recall much.

OK - leave out the entertainment industry - what about Garden Ornaments?
Even those who buy them will consider them as cute figurine regardless of their existence.

To me personally - I can sense fairies.
I understand that they are assigned to take care of nature.
They are nature spirit and to some extend there are some order and a complicated hierarchy involved in who does what. I'm really not sure of their detailed issues - what I know is that when they are present in a garden - the garden will certainly look beautiful and healthy.

Perhaps they do & work better in the unseen world.

And in the matter of the unseen world there is a host of things and issues that we really don't know or care about. Strange as it may seemed - the old folks and the native people somehow had lots of stories and legend concerning them. Its a pity that this treasure is slowly getting lost and faded away.

And to a certain extent the touch of a gardener hands is slowly replaced with an industrial, bland, uniformity.

A lot of garden now replaced with a landscape ideology which do not have a magic touch.

It just too boring and plain "dead"

An arrangement of line-up palm trees with ixora's in between is not a garden. 

But that is what it happening now.

And soon when the place appears to have weeds and grass growing in between  the collection - 

its truly a sore eye.

That's when you know - that there is no fairy taking care of this place.

I had heard countless true stories where the same similar issue is been always brought up.
Somewhere in the forest a tree cannot be fell - somehow an unseen force at work either make the worker sick or the vehicle unable to operate or the tools seemed not working.
So much so the work had to be abandon or a compromise/leverage had to be made.

Cases where people go missing in a jungle even in an island. Somehow they cannot see or feel so lost.
And often there is a mystical connection concerning these issues that they are not accurately studied or addressed.

A lot of folktales and old wife tales influenced from these realms.
Few I often remember - Do not garden in the night. Don't plant these plants in front of your house.
And yes the most famous one - Do not pluck flowers in the night...

So yes - its going to be hard believing in the existences of fairies.

(not to equate with the believe that you must adhere in these fairy tales - folklore rules - I certainly don't)

But somehow - that you rely very much on your senses.

Somehow - coming from the depth of your senses - you somehow learn to trust your instincts.

That there is some strange feeling that gives you a warning sign not to go near there, or to that tree, or that pond and your heart beats twice the fast if you brace yourself against your senses.

And true enough you found that a viper is coiled so invisible by the tree, or its too late by then when you find that your foot is resting on a vicious ant nest or being near a pond - getting your footwear all muddy and soaking wet (you thought it was dry ground)

Yes - when you are so seasoned with these situation in the garden.

Somehow the sense is so acute that you know something is wrong in the garden.

(That someone had plucked flowers or stuff without your knowledge (and you suddenly checking the scene of the crime) or that you seek and found a plant is almost dying because it got knocked over, or a flower is about to bloom - and you just noticed it when the plant it placed in a hidden, un-obvious place)

And you always arrive to the scene in the garden at the right precise moment to handle and correction the situation before it is too late.

As I said - it is going to be difficult to explain about a lot of things.

What I want to say is that - I had found that magic is real in my garden.

There is this good feeling that comes when a flower blooms or 

see the Caladium leaves with different spots of reds in the their leaves.

Or See a Sunbird come and drink nectar from the flowers

or watching the flutters of the bees and the butterflies.

What is your magic in your garden?

How do you say it: The source of the Enchantment?

Do you have a fairy in your garden?

Do you care to share your story?

There is a nice document on : Fairy Faith also

Click here for a nice fairy dance song. Enjoy.