Steadfast and True

What's blooming  in my garden lately? Well even though my plants are suffering in silence from neglect as I've been gallivanting about quite a bit this month, the perennials are doing alright, and one of my older orchid plants decided to bloom to get my attention. Aren't they my steadfast and truly loyal friends?

Here's that old friend I was referring to ...my large cattleya, I'm ashamed to say I do not know what type of cattleya she is.







She may look a little unkempt, but look deeper and you see the beauty deep inside her:








Here's my waterlily...always there by my side, a cheerful presence that lifts my spirits; no wonder, she has a heart of gold:










Let's take a closer look at this flower from my climber. I do not know what it is, but it blooms all the time. She also has a heart of gold!












I should let them know I appreciate their companionship and that they light up my life! Can anyone teach me how to speak to my plants? I gather that they can hear us and respond to our tone voice...is that true?


For Fertilizer Friday, visit Tootsietime, for Macro Friday, visit Blogging from Bolivia.

Eye Candy from Cambodia

I have not been able to visit your blogs lately as I was on a mission, away from home. My mission from Roses and Stuff for Blooming Friday was to get eye candy for the week's theme. I went far and wide, searching for some truly exotic eye candy, and so I travelled to a land that takes you back to ancient times. My destination was Cambodia. I have just returned today from the city of Siem Reap, where the ancient temple of Angkor Wat is situated, and although it was easier looking for ancient ruins than floral eye candy there, I have managed to capture some rather strange-looking flowers.


This is the strangest lotus I have ever seen.

These cascading flowers come from a tree. I was told that this tree is actually a jungle plant, but we see them planted along the streets for landscaping. Tootsie at Fertilizer Friday might find this a lovely bunch to flaunt this week.

This last eye candy is the frangipani which is very popular in Siem Reap.The trees are used for landscaping. This bunch was photographed in the morning after a heavy shower.  Laura at Macro Friday might appreciate this.

Do visit the highlighted memes to enjoy more eye candy.

In The Air

Love is in the air

Everywhere I look around

Love is in the air
Every sight and every sound

I think there is something going on in my garden haven...the atmosphere is charged, there is a buzz, yes a definite buzz in the air. 

Could they be in love?

Is this the beginning of a new romance?

What is this thing called 'love'?






A loving family kind of love...

Love for the flowers which share your pond?

Or could it be infatuation...or just fascination!

For Macro Flowers Saturday, I present my smitten seagull from Bali:



                                                              Sigh...when will I see her again???




Do have more fun and click on the buttons below to visit:




Yard Art on Thursday!          Blooming Friday                      
  
   

Fertilizer Friday                          Macro Flowers
                      

False Start

Some of you might remember how ecstatic I was back in December 2010 when I posted about my fruit trees rewarding me with a spurt of flowering activities. This was after I was away for more than 3 weeks in New Zealand, admiring the spring flowers there. Little did I imagine that my own backyard was having a season of mellow fruitfulness! 


I harvested lots of longans, lemons, limes, guava and even kaffir limes. But my rose apple tree which had lots of flowers at the start, began to shed most of their tiny fruit. It was probably because the strong winds that characterized the North East Monsoon in November and December were a trifle unkind to my rose apple tree. But the initial photographs I took of the flowers had filled me with dreams of a bountiful harvest.

This was the photograph I had posted last year.

       

  
But to my disappointment, all that materialized were these few fruit that could not fill up the plate, not to mention the fruit basket I had visualized would be filled to the brim with these rosy rose apples.




 


This year, in mid February, the tree began flowering in earnest. After that false start last year, I dared not hope for much, but from the look of the quantity of buds, flowers and young fruit on the tree, that basket I had in mind to fill with my rose apples would be filled to the brim more than once over! Just see for yourselves the abundance on the tree!

The view from under the canopy looking up, is inspiring and certainly thrilling:

Some close-ups of the buds, flowers and fruit:

Tootsie, you'll love these...

Let this not be another false start, but a fresh start. Keep your fingers crossed for me !!!

For Tootsie's Fertilizer Friday, click here, and for Blooming Friday,click here.

                                     

                               

Blue

Four square pots
With blue plumbago
Share your thoughts
On how to make them grow




As you can see, my plumbago plants are still too little for their pots. They have not grown much since I planted them almost a year ago. Oh dear, what can the matter be?


For Blooming Friday and Mosaic Monday, click on the links below:

    

                              http://rosorochris.blogspot.com/    http://dearlittleredhouse.blogspot.com

What's Blooming in Kunming?

It is not a good time for plants here in my My Garden Haven. The weather has been hot and dry, and my hydrangeas are almost spent. My gladioli plants too are browning-off. 

Looks like we have to go seek blooming gardens, and since I have just returned from early spring in Yunnan Province in China, I shall flaunt the spring flowers I photographed there for Tootsie' Fertilizer Friday.

So what's blooming in Kunming, you ask? Quite a fair bit, ladies. Big and small, yellow and purple, in the parks, by the lakes, on the mountains...for Katarina, at Blooming Friday, I present the big and the small.

We'll flaunt the small flowers on big trees first:

Small blossoms

on a big tree!

Or...small flowers surrounding a big tree!

Some of the colours and shapes of flowers are rather unique:

Others are plainly...pretty. There are masses of colours in the parks:

And the prerequisite in every country with a temperate climate,  the pansies in a pretty pot:

The wild flowers grow from under limestone rocks in the Stone Forest!

But these are planted for their effect as a Western-style garden to frame the karst landscape in the background:

Oh, and by the lake...I found to my disbelief...vermillion tulips!

And a field of poppies.

For Maia, a special macro shot for you on Macro Flowers-Saturday:

I'm sure you want to see more, so click on the links below:

                                      

http://rosorochris.blogspot.com/          http://www.tootsietime.com   http://macroflower-saturday.blogspot.com/