Our garden flowers in February 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, Macarthur [...]
Quisqualis indica (Rangoon Creeper), simply spectacular!
Quisqualis indica (Rangoon Creeper Vine, Drunken Sailor, Scarlet Ragoon, Chinese Honeysuckle)
An extremely spectacular vine that just loves showing off throughout the year in our tropical heat! When in full bloom, this beauty will be dramatically covered with large trusses of tricolored flowers that are very showy and truly a traffic stopper.
Similar to another tricolor beauty, [...]
Colourful flowers in our garden, November 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 [...]
Exotic tropical Lipstick Palm (Crytostachys renda)
Crytostachys renda (Red Sealing Wax Palm, Lipstick Palm, Rajah Palm)
Considered one of the most colourful and exotic palm tree in the world, Crytostachys renda is such a marvelous sight to behold!
Standing tall and majestic in its erect and beautifully clustered trunks with vibrant red crownshafts and fabulous green feathery fronds, the Red Sealing Wax Palm [...]
September 2009 joy in our tropical garden
Gardening is truly food for the soul and its rewards are endless, a tonic for stress and a sight for sore eyes!
We’re absolutely delighted to be maintaining a garden blog here that gives us the opportunity to share online the many treasures seen in our tropical urban garden. They may look very ordinary to some [...]
July 2009 Garden News
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 Sunset [...]
Pretty and dependable, that’s Catharanthus roseus
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 the many [...]
Epidendrum orchids: so diverse, yet easiest to grow!
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 and [...]
Flowering continues into May 2009
Wow! Our baby is grown-up! Just two years old, short of one month.
There’s always excitement and pride when a young plant blooms for the first time ever upon maturity.
This time, it is an orange Crucifix Orchid that was added to our garden in May 2007. Voted as our star orchid for May 2009, this lovely [...]
Impressive foliage of Dracaena marginata ‘Tricolor’
Dracaena marginata ‘Tricolor’ (Rainbow Tree, Variegated Madagascar Dragon-Tree, Red-margined/Red-edged Dracaena)
Its foliage is really impressive and dramatic – striped and dressed in beautiful color combination of green, cream and reddish-pink, besides being bold, spiky and marvelously symmetrical! That was what moved us to introduce it to our garden in early 2004.
Moreover, Dracaena marginata ‘Tricolor’ is a [...]
