The plants i am featuring here are very common plants with wide range of temperature tolerance. They are normally seen in parks and gardens for a very long time that we don't even think that they are not natives. I chose them here either as easily grown and/or invasive. But even if they are invasive, they are still grown for their beauty and their role with the insect population specially butterflies.
Ixora originated from India and Sri Lanka, now popular in tropical America like Florida and Texas and other tropical countries of the world. My orange Ixora is gathered by my mother from relatives and neighbors, now already a permanent resident in our garden, as it is planted on the ground as hedges.
Lantana came from the tropical regions of America and Africa, later introduced to almost all places in the world. My orange lantana above is from a far province in the Visayas, which is Bohol, an island just recently hit by 7.2 magnitude earthquake. This is loved by our butterflies.
Four o'clock, Mirabilis jalapa is also called Marvel of Peru because it came from South America, maybe one of which is Peru. It got the name because if opens in the afternoon and remains open till early morning the next day. It produces lots of seeds and also a root that also remains alive even during droughts. These characteristics make it an invasive species.
My niece and the daughter of my cousin, when they met after several years. My cousin's daughter is an OFW and come home only once-in-a while. They explore places, so i consider them invasives...hahaha!
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They are beautiful though and I absolutely love the colour.
ReplyDeleteWe have similar climate, hot tropics. So the vegetations are almost similar too. I love lantana, but I only plant small lantanas, cause I only have limited space in my home garden. An interesting blog. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteEndah
Indonesia
That's really sweet Andrea! And nothing like orange to brighten up ones garden!
ReplyDeleteLots of familiar invaders in your post. You know that Lantana is a declared environmental weed here, and we can't plant it in our gardens. It's such a pest in the bushland around here.
ReplyDeleteThose last two beauties may be 'invasive' --but they certainly are pretty, both of them!!!! Love your oranges… We are now in winter --so there's not much color in our yard… Seeing other places where there is color makes me SMILE.
ReplyDeleteHave a great day.
Hugs,
Betsy
Your orange invasives are all beautiful, but I especially like the two in your last photo.
ReplyDeleteLovely shots of orange blooms. Your relatives are both lovely. Great shot of them.
ReplyDeleteCher Sunray Gardens
the ofw is indeed invasive. she invades other countries, but just like the ixora she is a beautiful invader :)
ReplyDeleteLovely plants. I particularly like Lantana. I associate it with warm holidays! It's too cold for it to grow here, but on holiday I always search out Lantana, knowing that there may be butterflies on it!! I guess that plants like this are fine if they feed local insects, but it is when they start to smother out native species that they will become a problem.
ReplyDeleteluv ixoras; have some in my garden; have a nice Friday
ReplyDeletemuch love...
Wow! Brilliant color [Ixora] -- I especially like the Mirabilis image with the water droplets.
ReplyDeleteIxora are so hard to grow here as houseplants - hard to believe that such a beautiful plant can be an invasive :) You've taken some lovely photos and I love the last one of your family.
ReplyDeleteI love your flowers. When I lived in Florida I thought lantana was a weed flower - it grew along the railroad tracks and other wild places. Only when I moved to Arizona did I realize it was used as an ornamental flower. Never cared for ixoras (although I loved to suck the honey out of them). They attract a very mean caterpillar that stings like heck so I never brushed against an ixora!
ReplyDeleteNice series of happy flowers♪ Have a wonder filled weekend! http://lauriekazmierczak.com/night-pixels/
ReplyDeleteSuch beautiful, colourful flowers. They would brighten up any garden.
ReplyDeleteThe girls are lovely flowers...your orange flowers lend lots of beauty to the garden.
ReplyDeleteLove your orange invaders--especially the Lantanas. I've heard they can be invasive. Here they're just fabulous annuals, and yes the butterflies love them. What a sweet photo of your relatives!
ReplyDeleteWhat lovely splashes of orange - so pretty! Just like your relatives.
ReplyDeleteReally invasive orange that you shared here..
ReplyDeleteAll totally beautiful.
Those are such beautiful flowers, so warm and tropical.
ReplyDeleteThe cold didn't get too bad here, our lowest temperature was -8 F (-22 C), but we're above freezing already.