Sunday, April 15, 2012

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!


My Photo       Monatlich 


29 comments:

  1. Andrea you must be just too fussy to be bored by such beautiful blooms. Thay are stunning.

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    1. Thanks Missy, but the previous sets not here are always there year-in and year-out, so they are easy candidates to ignore. At least these ones though always present change their appearance, especially those which are soemtimes dormant like the bulbs. haha!

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  2. Tropical paradise! Such a colorful display, the reds really outshine the rest.

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  3. Love the white flowers against the dark window!

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  4. I don't think anyone could be bored by these fabulous blooms and plants. I understand though that when you're seeing them almost every day, sometimes it seems like you're sharing the same old things over and over again. Still, there are plenty of us who want to see them over and over again, lol!

    That Dendrobium is wonderful, and I really love your Celosia. I'm a big fan of Celosias of every type and I can't wait to plant some more for the coming winter/spring here. I wish they would self-seed easily here, but unfortunately the dry here tends to really kill them off.

    The Plumbago is a new one for me. I'm so used to the blue over here. Yours is terrific. Love, love the Eucharis. I've just planted one under the new pergola area, and can't wait to see the flowers. I'll enjoy yours until then.

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    1. Thanks so very much Bernie, you understand my boredom very well. But when something i usually see just becomes unusual, then i miss it terribly especially when it has been there for years.

      Yes that Plumbago is not very common unlike the white and blue, but it doesn't groom itself well unlike the former.

      Can you not get the seeds of your Celosia before they shed off, put in plastic or bottle and put if the refrigerator, then plant it again when after the bad weather. Here it is not a problem, in fact it becomes weeds as i discussed above.

      I love your Justicia brandegeana, seems like i haven't seen one here. But i dont normally buy tropical plants, i just get some seeds or cut a tip, haha!

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  5. I love the cockscomb. What an unusual plant.....nice shots. The colors are very striking. You live in paradise my friend.

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  6. beautiful tropical blooms!! the cockscomb definitely makes a statement, but yeah, that does look like a LOT of seeds just waiting to be scattered all over the garden!!

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  7. You're plants are not boring in the slighest! I really like the form of growth on the Celosia gigantea though I can just imagine the weeding out of the seeds is a real nusiance. It's a stunner of a plant that's for sure.

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  8. You have a lot of very beautiful blooms! Very interesting bloom with all the seed pods! I had cockscomb at one time - you are so right about the millions of seeds, but a beautiful and unusual type of bloom.
    My mother also liked the Euphorbia millii. She called it Crown of Thorns - a reminder to Christians of Christ's suffering.
    Thanks for your visit and comment on my blog.
    Have a wonderful day!
    Lea
    Lea's Menagerie

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  9. Andrea - What's boring for you is very interesting to us. The Eucharis grandiflora reminds me of daffodils.

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  10. Love all the gorgeous red and orange you have - not boring at all for us who have mostly yellow and pink for spring! Love looking at your flowers.

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  11. The colors in your garden are just absolutely amazing. A visit to your garden always leaves me green with envy.

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  12. aloha andrea,

    i love seeing your native dendrobium, beautiful, i enjoyed my tour this rainy and cold morning in orchidland, we are still getting a very wet spring. i think those prickly euphorbias are great as a hedge to deter outside elements, i've seen them as high as six feet here!

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  13. What a beautiful flowers you have and thank you for showing dendrobium anosmum - what a stunner!

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  14. Andrea I was not bored at all...I love your native 'sanggumay' but really all your beautiful flowers are amazing...so odd for me to see poinsettias in bloom now...

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  15. Andrea, there is lots going on in your garden- I didn't think hops would grow wild - I understand they grow very high as well. will you start making beer? That deep burgundy ti plant is very pretty - I think the color of the darker ones is better in shade. the pink one seem to need a bit of sunshine.

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  16. Hi there - what a range of plants - and to think somebody once told me plants are just "dull and green!"

    The crabs in my post are about the size of large peas - maybe 10 - 12 mm

    Cheers - Stewart M - Australia

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  17. What a tropical bounty! Glad you shared them with us, even if you're a bit ready for something new. Gorgeous fire colors, and I'm coveting that plumbago rosea. We only have pale-bloomed, bushy ones here.

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    1. Hi Amy, if only it is easy for us to share, i can easily give you. I actually cut them several times and discard them, haha! So sorry but they get so unruly.

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  18. Nice showing for GBBD, Andrea. Not boring at all. I'm amazed at your poinsettia. Any theories about that? Could it be our messed up weather. It hasn't been a typical summer with the daily rains at the start.

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    1. Haha, that's a bit of a challenge. I am also amazed at the still red poinsettia even with this heat. It is photoperiodic or a short-day plant. The trick here is that short-day plants actually require long nights, so if they reach the critical length of dark periods, they are induced to flower (i mean produce the colored false leaves)! (hahaha, it was difficult for us students to learn about this also the first time). I wonder why they called it short-day plants, when they should be called long night plants. If you lengthen the light/day with unaltered night, they will not be induced. It is the dark alteration which promotes flowering.

      Probably, the induced molecules are not used up yet and colored leaves still continue to show up! Someone in the US who found my blog earlier said she was amazed to see a poinsettia tree in Subic. Maybe she was just used to the nursery-type poinsettias we also see here in December, all in pots.

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  19. Bored!! yer jokin. (that's slang aberdeen language) Fabulous plants, and I really like the invasive Celosia gigantea.

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    1. Haha Alistair, yes invasive in this parts if not monitored! Even if i give you they will also die there in Aberdeen!

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  20. wonderful flowers! thanks for sharing with us :)

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  21. i remember celosia being used widely during the all saint's day celebration, but i don't really know if they last long as cut flowers. because once we leave them in the cemetery we don't normally return the following days to check if the flowers were still alive.

    did you have nice holy week break?

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    1. Thanks Photo Cache, i have a nice but very hot Holy Week break! I am so glad my remotely-controlled plants are growing well and my 6 tomato plants produced lots of fruits, and i harvested every morning when home. Yes rural folks long ago use "palong-manok" in the past when cutflower industry is not yet the norm. They can't reach even one day in the cemetery due to the heat, but seedlings eventually grow from those seeds. However, the unconcerned 'sepulturero' or cemetery caretaker remove everything around the tombs in preparation for All Saints' Day.

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  22. Thanks Andrea, I've enjoyed the tour through your lovely garden. I wasn't bored in the slightest:) The Euphorbia pulcherrima looks fabulous, much less boring to see it growing in its native habitat. I never buy them at Christmas because my house is too cold and dry and after a couple of weeks they look terrible.

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  23. How lovely these exotic blooms are, Andrea. I guess you think the same thing about what we consider ordinary flowers in our temperate gardens!

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