This Celosia argentea, cockscomb, has been braving the heat and full sun beautifully, however it has not yet fully grown when it suddenly give up. I was not able to take its dead photo, my mother already throw it away.
This is locally called "kasupanggil", Clerodendrum intermedium. It can still flower well without watering and temperatures reaching 37C. Fruits are also produced nicely. However, the leaves wilted so much especially at noon, but get turgid again in the morning. Those berries turn black when ripe. These are volunteer plants that we consider as weeds, but i opted to leave it there for the butterflies.
Butterflies take turns is sipping the flowers. That means nectar production is still good for them.
The above swallowtail is Chilasa clytia
This Curetis tagalica is getting nectar from the stringbeans' flowers, i did not see it alighting in the Clerodendrum, even if most of the butterflies try it.
A Papillio alphenor getting its food from the already struggling Lantana camara.
This Prosotas dubiosa loves the blue Duranta erecta flowers, which also dwindled because of the drought and the heat.
Euchrysops cnejus on the flower of stringbeans.
Cepora aspasia, also on the blue Duranta erecta. It already has torn wings.
Sincere gratitude is due Dr. Peter B. Hardy, who is very kind enough to identify my butterflies. From now on I will at last call these by their real names.
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Great Butterfly photos. I've had a few here this year already also. We are awful here also with the heat and no water. Have a feeling this is going to be an awful year again.
ReplyDeleteCher Sunray Gardens
Yes Cher, maybe we are already on the way to the path of no return. We are now reaping the consequences of the irresponsibilities of our earth's inhabitants. I hope many will still find ways to return to their most responsible and caring selves.
DeleteGreat to see the positives of the dry season there, which can be a long period before you get the wet season again.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mark and Gaz especially Mark who i think put this comment. We are a bit luckier this year as it started raining in the afternoons now even if it is still May, at least in Metro Manila. However, it still hasn't gone to our property in the province, where the rains are mostly needed because water is also difficult there.
DeleteHi Andrea, I think perhaps our temperate climate is not so bad as I sometimes make out. Some of those shots of the butterflies are downright spectacular.
ReplyDeleteYou are right Alistair, only maybe the winter is mostly difficult for you. But if i will transfer now in your climate, i don't think i would like prevalently grey skies. I only love the temperatures of around 20C, but not the long winters, haha!
DeleteLove these pics Andrea! I especially love the butterflies around them. It's our dry season here as well and there have been some things that have made me sad. It was really hot last week and I wasn't home....several of my fruit trees lost some fruit:( because they needed some water. So I was a little bummed out by that, but otherwise we have a month before the rains begin in our desert. The garden is always changing...sometimes you win some and other times you lose some.
ReplyDeleteThese butterflies normally arrive after the first heavy rains at the start of the rainy season. However, a sudden downpour in March and one in May allowed some shoots for food of some caterpillars. I am documenting the photos of the species which arrived first and then hopefully document again those which come only during the real rainy season.
DeleteI love the celosia. Do you know if it does well as a cut flower for vases?
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the flowers wont do as cutflowers. It has a very short vaselife. But it can do for just a day arrangement, just like underprivileged folks who bring this flowers to the cemeteries during their burial. They can't buy the orchids nor the chrysanthemums or roses, so this practically fills the need!
DeleteSorry to read about what happened this year in the garden Andrea - I do remember those problems you had last year aswell..........it just makes gardening such a challenge and if it wasn't like this we'd get bored after awhile - nature has a way of keeping us on our toes.
ReplyDeleteIs there any chance you could place a link to your other blog on this blog and vice versa as it would make it easier for us to visit between the two blogs.
Many thanks
Rosie
You are so right Rosie, we don't get bored when there's a lot of challenges! Thank you so much for reminding me of the link. I already put it in the post and my other blog on the side bar. I had long suffered from lack of connection, my PC is still with the IT staff for reformatting, my laptop has just been looked into as well. In the past 2 weeks i am just using mobile phone for FB and peeping into the bogs, but i was not able to post. That last post i had was in the draft list for so long so i just publish it via celfone.
DeleteI'm glad to see the butterflies are visiting to add beauty during your dry season.
ReplyDeleteYes Missy, those are courtesy of one rain in March and another rain in May, allowing some shoots for some larvae to eat and be butterflies.
DeleteHi Andrea, Love seeing all of the different Butterflies.... Didn't even realize that you all ever had a dry season... See what I learn from blogging!!!!!! We struggle with drought sometimes also... AND--our Roses have to have water, especially when it is very hot. Droughts can be horrible for plants/vegetation.
ReplyDeleteDo love the butterflies though ..Thanks for sharing.
Hugs,
Betsy
You have to see my other site, where i discussed our types of climate. We also suffer water shortage in the property even for our daily needs, so we recycle the water used to shampoo our hair for watering some annuals or those in pots, which need more frequent watering than the trees. The trees take care of themselves!
DeleteYour photos of the butterflies are marvelous. We went through a drought a few years ago, and it was sad to see the damage they did to the plants and trees. Hopefully we will have more rain this year.
ReplyDeleteAt least our dry season is not as long as that two years ago, when many fruit trees we had died completely. This year i hope we will not have casualties again.
DeleteHello Andrea! You have beautiful butterflies there and very pretty pics of them. I think the garden has the sweetest nectar for them :=)
ReplyDeleteLovely photos! Larry
ReplyDeleteSorry to note the heat is creating a havoc in your garden.
ReplyDeleteSomehow your garden is still giving life to all the butterflies.
Those Clerodendrum is so beautiful.
I have the white type - Bleeding Heart ones - they never seemed to have any berries or fruits whatsoever.
Hope the rains comes once awhile to balance the heat off.
It rained quite heavy this morning in my place and somehow cooled the climate.
Thanks James, at the moment here in the Metro there are already afternoon showers. However, it is not the case yet in the province. The consolation there is the clean air, and it gets windy in the mid afternoon. I saw also a white Clerodendrum in Mindanao, but i saw it in the wild still flowering. I haven't seen it in cultivation here in Luzon.
DeleteAndrea now see there is a wonderful celebration of your season with these blooms and lovely butterflies...thx for sharing it!
ReplyDeleteOh so this is one of the celebrations you are talking about! Okay i can post many ideas to that meme of yours! haha.
DeleteGreat captures, Andrea! So many kinds of butterfly in your gardens. Is that in Batangas or in the city. Please say it is the former or I will be very envious. Lots of casualties in my garden because of the heat and because I could not personally oversee the plant care. In fact, if it were up to my wife, the plants from Lily would be enjoying airconditioning in our room with us. Good thing we've been having afternoon showers. Looks like the rainy season is upon us. New problems altogether garden-wise.
ReplyDeleteOf course this is in Batangas, i don't have a garden in the city as am at the 5th floor, haha! I have 3 pots near the aircon ledge, at least the admin is not complaining yet. But what i have there are upland kangkong, ampalaya, onions and spring onions. These are just experimental as many birds "maya" cut the leaves. At least they don't eat the onions. You should see my older post on gaillardia, Lily's seeds. Even if we get afternoon showers in the metro, which i love much, we don't have it in Batangas, so we still have the heat there!
DeleteI must have missed the post while I was away. Can you send me the link? I have gallardia too but can't remember which container it is in. I'll have to identify via leaves to determine which plant is which. I lost the labels when I transferred Lily's seedlings to bigger pots.
Deletehttp://abagillon.blogspot.com/2012/05/my-first-foreign-flowers.html
DeleteIt actually is in the sidebar contents
Visited the link and commented already.
DeleteSo much fun to see the different butterflies. It amazes me how similar some of them are to butterflies that we have here in Kansas. My favorite, I think, is the last one - what a spectacularly marked and beautiful "flying flower"!
ReplyDeleteThanks Gaia for being here too. Is it really true you have the same butterflies there, amazing indeed! That last one becomes so plenty and have many variants during the rainy season, when we already have lots of host plants for them.
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