Seasonal Blooms (Bush Clock Vine / Bromeliad / Golden Shower Orchid /Powder Puff Plant / Yellow Walking Iris / Blackberry Lily)

These orchids are the giant version of the normal Oncidium ones.
It was passed to me by my friend (pity his parent plant died)
I had doubts about this one as it is quite sensitive but somehow it had pulled through and gave me this enormous giant flowers!

These are the white Oncidium.
The normal ones are in yellow.
They too had started blooming during these rainy season.








These Blackberry lily had made a come back after a very long silence.
Its blooming together with my Yellow Walking Iris.









This had been passed to me by my friend and it is blooming so beautifully.




 

 I had kept it in shade earlier but it never bloomed.
And it took awhile to get adjusted after few months before all these blooming.
I just love the flower bud - it reminds me of some berries.
These Powderpuff suppose to attract the nectar loving birds - but I have yet to see them drinking from these.







Finally Bush Clock Vine (below)
Its not actually a vine more like a bush.
It had finally started to give lots of blooms.
Earlier just like the Powderpuff plant - it was kept in shade and it rarely flowered.
Now it is just give so much grace with the blue blooms.

Garden Update - September - Continued

Two of my Earthstar (Crypthantus) died both sides.
It shouldn't happen but I guess its the neglect due to lack of watering and feeding.
These pale brown earthstar seemed to producing lots of pups compared to the red/pink counterpart. The deep red had became dormant and the pink still holding on for now.

I need to get more of them but find them in nursery do proof a challenge as not many of them sell them or if they do - it would be very expensive. Getting a bargain is difficult when there is no competition.

I had now replaced the missing spots with Golden Hahnni 
(Sansevieria Trifasciata Golden Hahnii)
I would had preferred more of the red ruby Earthstar - if I can get my hands on them in the first place but for the moment  I think this will do.

My existing Bromeliad collection gave me an idea.
Those of with spikes, sharp edged needle points and spines at the leaf edges.
These are of the touch me not dangerous kind. 
I wished I had more of the red ”keep me away” kind of colour but the best variegated ones I have are of these yellow, lime & green shades. 

(All of these plants were rescued from dumps, burning sites and throwaways - abandoned on street side-walks)

Plants in this collection:
Top: 
1) Dwarf Gold Pandanus - 
(Pandanus pygmaeus 'Variegatus') or P. toei 'Variegatus'
2) Varigated Agave

Plants in this collection:
Top: 
1) Miniature Pineapple
2) Varigated Spider plant

Plants in this collection:
Top: 
1) Green Agave
2) Golden Hahnii

After  checking through Google - 
I now found out that Tequila are made from an Agave plant.
The Aztec people make the fermented drink from them

King's Mantel, Bush Clock Vine -  (Thunbergia Erecta)
This blue flower plant had really tested my patience. 
It rarely flower and when it does it only gives out one or two blooms. 

I got this plant from a pruned branches where my neighbours had thrown. It did took awhile to establish a lovely bush but that is the problem.
It only remained as a boring bushy shrub.

I'm still considering hard pruning and heavy fertilising for a nice lovely bloom. And if that fail too - this plant is kicking its bucket from my garden.

Earlier this place proved to be a sore-eye as I tend to get rid of all that doesn't do well in my garden. In most cases the very reason is that these are sun lovers and my garden can only accommodate shade dwellers. 
And so in this collection.

1) Dracaena marginata 'Tricolor'.
2) Yellow Walking Iris - (Trimezia martinicensis) 
3) Blackberry Lily -  (Belamcanda  chinensis)
4) Ground Orchids - (Spathoglottis X Parsonii.)
5) Screwpine Leaves - (Pandanus amaryllifolius)
6) Pineapple
7) Jewel of Opar - (Talinum paniculatum)
8) Step Ladder Ginger - (Costus malortienanus)

The champion in this collection are the Ground Orchids. 
They have been blooming continuously for about 3 months now.
I had set another pot here where once it was inside my porch area where it got limited sunlight.
Hopefully they would reset and start blooming again.

The Jewel of Opar seemed be a collateral damage when the grass cutter comes along. I guess the cutter could tell the difference and slice everything away. 

Somehow this plant comes back with a vengeance with more spikes and more blooms. I prefer not to take it for granted and place them at this drain-side where there is no weed or grass.
(And no grass-cutter to raze any weeds)

Step Ladder Ginger - (Costus malortienanus)

This plant was growing from a cement crack and was a survivor. 
In fact I did got rid of it ripping it off from the ground and this plant proved resilient by coming back again.
I pulled the root rhizome from the cracks & planted them in this pot.

There are some few other non-significant plants here which I have not put in details of which I will come back when I get a better shot on them or when the plant generate with satisfactory growth - whichever comes first. 

Come to think of it - there is so much to do now in my garden where another reset is urgently required where I really don't have the time or the energy to get myself to do it. Looks like its going to happen in a slow pace with a little a time.
It would be a nice appropriate time for me to finish by year-end holiday season.

Blooms & Works

I noticed the flower buds appear last Saturday. Too bad I didn't get to recharge my camera batteries and even if I did - the shots would not appear in a satisfactory mode when its evening.
I did manage to get the pictures though on the next day - it didn't rain as usual and the evening light was just nice.

These are Ground Orchid. (Spathoglottis Plicata) It was with me for years without any flowers. I have no clue what triggered it to bloom - probably it must be Easter. The last time another orchid bloomed (Cattleya) was Christmas. Somehow I'm loosing the interest in these orchid plants - just hope my patience last until the rest slowly show their blooms.

While at it, I had started working on my water jasmine plant. These I have planted from seed. A few gardeners shared their secret about getting this one to bloom.

And the secret is:
Strip off their leaves.

Well, lets see if it works for me.

Somehow, the garden look a little exotic with these branches and the Ground Orchid with the Blackberry Lily plant at the background. That exclusive look somehow makes my garden look lesser than a jungle.

I'm down with flu - first it started with the children, then my wife and now its finally me. All of them had recovered. Now, I'm popping up pills to control the every flowing running nose and the sneeze. (Ahh!!!... my throat & my nose feels so sore) And I'm just too exhausted to water the garden yesterday & today...
Hope it rains...

Blackberry Lily blooming - Belamcanda Chinensis

I noticed a new shoot appeared from my blackberry lily. This came a week ago and I was following up with it everyday

Finally, my lily bloomed today...

Lovely...

Blackberry Lily - Belamcanda Chinensis

This plant is known as blackberry lily or leopard lily.
(there is another leopard lily from the dumb cane family - but this is not that one)

I got this plant from Melaka (another state) when I went there for holidays with my friends.
I found this at the roadside and took a very small planted to try it out.
It was then Nov. 2007 (2 years ago)
Now, I'm happy at the outcome as I was very skeptical whether this plant will manage to survive the ordeal of time & traveling.

Very hardy, so far I had not faced any heart breaking problems with this plant.
Need to fertilise more for the continuous bloom.
Need to trim off the dried leaves and flower spike (once its done with all the flowers)

Flower blooms in the morning and closes in a twisted tight spiral form (like a spring) towards the evening.
There will be about 3 to 4 flowers in a crown.
So far, its my best flowering plant
Required well drained fertile soil - clay soil may tend to rot the root & kill the plant.

This picture is taken towards the morning, before the sunrise.

This is the overall plant - about 6 feet high in length.

The leaves have a flat fan shape feature.

Its very easy to propagate by rhizomes /shoots that it produces from the roots.

Much easier that way to ensure more floral blooms faster compared to seed planting which said that it will take years to come to flowering stage.

Need to watch out for snails that eats up the young shoots (leafs) and later when the leafs starts to grow, there might be the telltale holes from them.