John&Jacq~s Garden

April Garden Joy (Part 1 – Plant Life)

What a glorious Easter month this April had been! Lots of new discoveries and experiencing so much joy with all our plant life. There were gorgeous first time bloomers, like the Blue Hydrangea, White Bougainvillea and a Peachy-orange Hibiscus! We’re absolutely enthralled with all these new additions, firing in our garden. :D

Also, worthy of mention is the amazing Orange Amaryllis (Hippeastrum hybrid) which resurrected itself after a year of dormancy! It decided to flower again significantly on Easter day! Surprisingly, it first bloomed last year, around Easter too!

Absolutely amazing to see the multitude of colors in our small yet tightly packed garden! Flowering plants of the tropics such as the Wrightia antidysenterica (Snowflake), Bleeding Heart Vine, Ruellia brittoniana, Mussaenda philippica ‘Aurorae’, Heliconias, Podranea ricasoliana (Pink Trumpet Vine), Chrysothemis pulchella, Lantana camara, Duranta repens / erecta ‘Sweet Memories’ and ‘Alba’, Torenia fournieri, Cuphea hyssopifolia and many others are seemingly blooming non-stop! And well watered by the rain which seems never ending since late February!

Also, our fabulous greens such as the Dieffenbachias, ferns like the Pteris ensiformis cv. Evergemiensis, Nephrolepis biserrata ‘Furcans’, Adiantum capillus-veneris and Asplenium nidus, as well as Epipremnum aureum ‘Marble Queen’ and ‘Golden Pathos’, Palms and other foliage plants thrive very lushly in this wet and hot month of April.

Unfortunately, white flies and other garden pests thrive extremely well too in this humid tropical environment! :( So, we did have some casualties like the beautiful Flaming Beauty (Carphalea kirondron), Croton (Codiaeum Variegatum Cultivars) and Plumbago auriculata (Blue Plumbago) that became heavily infested with white flies and mealy bugs that snuffed them off. Luckily, I’ve rooted a few stem cuttings from these lovely plants earlier and they’re showing promises! In gardening, you lose some and you win some. Fortunately, in most cases, winning far exceeds our losses and that’s what keeps us going happily forward! :D

Other exciting April happenings in our garden continuing here!

Last edited: May 27, 2016

Tags: blue, flowering plants, foliage plants, orange, our garden, pink, white