John&Jacq~s Garden

Posted by Jacqueline on September 10th, 2010

Solanum macranthum (Potato Tree, Giant Star Potato Tree) Truly an exotic and impressive tropical specimen! This Giant Potato Tree is a large bushy shrub that can grow into a medium-height tree, and be beautifully adorned with stunning flowers all year round! A rare treat indeed to see purple blossoms on a tree! And more amazing [...]

Posted by Jacqueline on March 24th, 2010

Kalanchoe blossfeldiana (Christmas Kalanchoe, Florist Kalanchoe, Flaming Katy) Garden retail centers would naturally know the kind of colourful flowering plants that could entice their customers during the festive seasons! In our tropical country, Malaysia, especially during the Chinese New Year in January or February, Kalanchoe blossfeldiana is a must in their list of favourites, besides [...]

Posted by Jacqueline on March 14th, 2010

Sinningia speciosa (Florist’s Gloxinia, Brazalian Gloxinia, Violet Slipper Gloxinia) Spectacular plant with large colourful blooms sitting atop its handsome green foliage. These eye-catching beauties in such a marvelous array of colours are usually offered for sale as gift plants or decorative houseplants around festive seasons in garden centres and hypermarkets. Hence, I grabbed the opportunity [...]

Posted by Jacqueline on March 2nd, 2010

February had been an extremely hot season in our country, Malaysia! Eeek, too hot and humid most days, with very infrequent rainfall. Of course, sun-loving plants in our tropical garden like the Bougainvilleas, Madagascar Periwinkles, White Mussaenda, Euphorbia milii, Ponytail Plant and Yucca, to name a few just love the heat while the Norfolk Pine, [...]

Posted by Jacqueline on December 1st, 2009

How timely that our tropical garden in November 2009 was in top form to present me with enough photography opportunities to try out my relatively new point and shoot camera, Canon PowerShot SX200 IS! My dearly beloved, John, presented me an early Christmas-cum-40th wedding anniversary-cum-birthday gift during the last week of October. Hehe…too bad that [...]

Posted by Jacqueline on July 31st, 2009

Wow! We got to grow a Passiflora vine finally! The right image shows our first seedling, recently repotted (on July 23th) into a large pot and located against the chain-link fencing at our backyard. It’s growing very well and is now about 38 cm tall, growing too vigorously, I’d say! Pearly surprised us after the [...]

Posted by Jacqueline on July 30th, 2009

Catharanthus roseus (Madagascar Periwinkle, Rose Periwinkle) An old-fashioned and reliable bedding plant that never fails to shine year round in our tropical climate, abounding in pretty little flowers that are usually of the purplish-pink, rose-pink or white form. But, of course, many marvelous cultivars/varieties of various vibrant colors and dwarfish forms have been developed over [...]

Posted by Jacqueline on June 18th, 2009

Epidendrum species (Epi, Epidendrum Orchid, Crucifix Orchid, Reed-stem Epidendrum, Star Orchid) How enormous and diverse the genus Epidendrum L. is! It consists of about 1,100 species of orchids that are native to tropical and subtropical Americas and the Caribbean. Now though, it is widely distributed, naturalized and cultivated in many regions worldwide. The more popular [...]