GBBD-April 2012 From the Tropics

It is GBBD once more, and we are at the middle of our dry season! Last month instead of posting our plants i posted those from temperate Strasbourg, France, with the reason that I am bored with ours. Now i will try to post our other plants and their different growths. I realized I can still post others not yet posted in previous GBBD. I will also try not to be bored. (lol)

This is our native 'sanggumay', Dendrobium anosmum. It normally flowers during the dry season with a very sweet scent. I am starting again with very short spikes because the original long and old spikes died two years ago from the very long dry season. Big old clumps can have stems as long as a meter completely filled with flowers. As you can see above, a very short stem has only one flower and the bottom only has two. It will take a few more years without extreme dry season before i can again get long stems full of flowers. I wonder why waiting is not boring for me!

 Mother has a few of this Euphorbia millii, which i don't like because of the spines, yet she insisted to plant a few. She has 4 varieties of this planted at the borders. At least they can tolerate very long and hot dry season, without any complaints. 

 I planted this cockscomb, Celosia gigantea, for the first time. They have the habit of scattering lots of seeds which become a problem for me when the rainy season comes, with lots of those seeds germinating which i pluck and throw out. Too much sprouts means I consider already as weeds. Look at those round seeds below the comb, they are potential plants, a lot of them, do you agree?

 This is  Euphorbia pulcherrima, the poinsettia we all get during Christmas. They are photoperiodic, where long nights induce them to change color in Dec, i wonder why they are still not turning green when our nights are already shorter.

This is viny Plumbago rosea, i always cut it at ground level hoping the stems will behave and group themselves in order. However, its habit is really like that. It grows haywire everywhere as in an uncombed long hair! But the flowers are showy red.

 Our beautiful Heliconia rostrata, which i posted earlier in a single post. It has become boring for me because we see it in the front entrance everytime. At least they will become brown and wilt at the end of the dry season, be vegetative again during the rainy season and flower prolifically again in March in time for the long dry season.

 Another Heliconia planted at the back of the H. rostrata. I find this species more vegetative and not as prolific in flowering like the H. rostrata. I always cut many stems of this to lessen the plant population in its area. 

 This Caesalpinia pulcherima has been with us for more than 20 years. They are planted along the slightly shaded hedges, get yearly pruning but still return with flowers. I posted here this one with the pods, because i have long been posting the long flower spikes, so getting away from monotony!

 Flemingia strobilifera, or wild hops. This is growing as weeds in the property and everybody treat it really as weeds. Maybe i am the only one who appreciates its beauty, calling it green shrimp and later become brown shrimp when already mature. I am so amazed when i visited my friend's farm and finding that he actually planted it domestically in plant boxes. Now i know there's already two of us who appreciate it aesthetically. 

 A spiral Ti plant, which becomes spindly and dry during the dry season. This just happens to be still looking good because it is almost covered by the tall Sanchezia. 

 Due to the unusual heavy rains at the beginning of the rainy season in March, this amaryllis Hipeastrum puniceum, produced some flowers very early. This time it is normally dormant and will flower at the same time in May or June after the first heavy rains of the season. The beginners are just a few, in contrast to the hedge-like flowers in its normal season.

A few remaining blooms of some chrysanthemums which flower in December as a result of the long night periods. I wonder why it is still flowering when the days are long again. They are considered shortday photo periodic plants because they will not flower unless they receive the daylength they need. 

My Eucharis grandiflora didn't bore me at all. A year after planting it already produced these elegantly white flowers, against the blue sky (top) and against the dark window (bottom). A spike produced at least 7 consecutive flowers. It flowers a few times per year unlike the Proiphys amboinensis below.

Lastly, this did not keep me bored at all, at its 2nd year of blooming. Unusual early rain at the start of the dry season shortened its dormancy. Here it is just starting to sprout. I might not be able to see it fully blooming as i already left for the city.

Thanks to Carol of Maydreams Gardens for continuously hosting GBBD!