Plants and Gardening Finds plus more

We were in Lake Sebu, South Cotabato in Mindanao, Philippines for a photography workshop and be away from the city, Metro Manila, where most of us are working. It was a four-day escapade. Each has his/her reason to get away, have some space and be with like-minded friends. We also visited the famous T'boli community of people who are the weavers of the T'nalak, an abaca fiber weave made into clothes and decors. From these cultural group are the Dreamweavers, who materialize the T'nalak patterns from sleep.

It is quite a group: two professional photographers, two lawyers, two scientists-a plant scientist and an engineer scientist,  and one medical staff.  When someone has a question, someone will have an educated reply. Enmeshed in all our immersions and photo workshops, our laughters, eating and jokes are of course...my love for plants. And here are some of my findings, i would like to share with you.

 Who will not be inspired to eat when at the centerpiece with condiments are lovely flowers!

 Kapa-kapa (Medinilla magnifica) with profuse flowers at different stages of maturity. The blue at the right is unidentified.

 Do you like my composition? This is a big crafted cement basin with floating plants. I would like to convince you that the red and orange flowers (Impatiens balsamina) were not intentionally introduced to make a composition, it was a serendipitous find! Do you believe me?

 A vine is purposely allowed to climb this nipa hut facing the Lake Sebu, which will eventually destroy the roof but certainly will be more beautiful. Tree ferns are planted on both sides.

 These are inside the Tiboli Museum, the parent pots with their offsprings!

 The cactus above is unidentified, the plant scientist was at the end of her memory. The doggie is the guard of the T'boli Museum housed in these bamboo-walled edifice.

  

These patterns are from the trunks of the Travelers' palms (Ravenala madagascariensis)

Can you guess what the garden table and chair are made of???? Exactly yes...from old discarded truck tires.

 The leaf pattens are beautiful, especially those colors at the tips. They are symptoms of nitrogen defficiency in these buri palm leaves (Corypha elata). The area receives high rainfall leaching nitrogen from the soil, making these palms defficient for it.  

 

Young frond of a tree fern looks like a face of some young animal. Can you picture what animal looks like that? The floating plant at the right is a common water hyacinth (Eichornia crassipes), whose stalks when already mature can be made into bags, slippers, mats and some other decors.

Now, what about this? A very common sight around the world. But this one is in Gumasa Beach, Glan, Sarangani Province.

Fom the Lake Sebu mountains we go down, to find this Gumasa Beach, which our group owned at least for this time. It is a bit secluded and occupied with vacationers only during summer months. Meanwhile, it is exclusively ours!

 We clamored for the Gumasa Beach Sunset!

 A later photo of the sunset taken at the same beach.

Would you say it was a fulfilling vacation? Yes, of course, it really was. And i invite you to come and experience all these, come rain come shine!

Post Script: Thanks to Tatyana of My Secret Garden for the cactus ID. It is a Schlumbergera or Zygocactus, commonly called Christmas cactus. It may be called that because days are shorter during Christmas season, which trigger this cactus to flower. This cactus is thermo-photoperiodic, which means it is not only a short day plant but also triggered by cold temperature. No wonder, the photo is not flowering yet, because August still have long days, when we were in Lake Sebu.