Winter in Western Australia

Linking to:
Mosaic Monday
Macro Monday
Today's Flowers
SOOC

My Red Orchids Rock

My red orchids have been featured before when they shared the limelight with my dianthus in a post about Red rubies in my garden. Today I am pleased to feature them as the crown jewels of mygardenhaven this month! I had moved these vanda plants nearer to where the sunlight could trigger their flowering mechaninism. And it worked like it always does.With vandas, or possibly with all orchids, this does the trick. However, I noticed that their leaves were getting scorched in the process, whilst the blooms were as fresh and as crisp as cabbages in the refrigerator. It would be timely to remove them from full sun, I thought, so, in order to keep them fresh and crisp, I  decided to place them in a safer, cooler environment. Remember my purple orchid post, My Precious molly-coddled purple orchids? They were not blooming because I had put them in almost 90% full shade. That was why only one spray emerged; and that was from the plant nearest to the light. What I've done now, is, I've moved my precious red orchids to that place of 90% shade...oh, did I forget to boast about the FOUR sprays that emerged from two of the three plants? Yes, my FOUR sprays will last much longer in the shade now that they have endured enough sunshine.


Here they are, introducing my ravishing red orchids!

A Tribute To Nature's Gift

nature's gift of  life

borne of the soil,

nurtured by the elements

bearing beauty beyond belief

gifts that we treasure beyond measure

lives that we tend to, 

lives that we propagate

proliferate and  pamper to produce

abundance

abundant sustenance, feasts for the table

abundant inflorescence, feasts for the eyes

that is nature's gift so valuable

 a  blessing to our lives

Linking to:

Mosaic Monday

Macro Monday

Poetry Potluck

Miss Rosa Frilly Petticoat

I've named my hibiscus flower Frilly Petticoat as I have no idea what it is actually called. I only know that it is a hibiscus, which is the genus name for shrubs in the mallow family (Malvaceae) of which there are several hundred species!I am sure you'll excuse me for not knowing the real name of Miss Frilly Petticoat here. She has such a large family, I just can't identify all of these pretty Rosas.

This is a first ... this page is experiencing a solar flare! I've never posted a page with such brilliant colours coming from one flower.

Linking to:

Macro Monday

Mosaic Monday

The Fruit Of My Passion

This species of passiflora bears green fruit, but I am not sure of the identity of the plant . I have requested my fellow passiflora enthusiasts on  Passiflora-Passion Flowers Online to help me with the identification.

I don't know which I love better, the fruit or the flower! The fruit juice is ever so refreshing and zesty! The flower is ever so exotic and incredibly endearing. That is the allure of the passiflora!

Linking to:

Mosaic Monday

A Foxy Tale

Since I have begun to feature palm trees, I find that there are actually so many interesting varieties here in my town itself. This one is a Foxtail Palm. There are many tales about the Fox Tail...

The trunk is self-cleaning and has a smooth appearance.

Tale # 1
The botanical world didn't know about the foxtail palm until 1978 when a man named Wodyeti brought it to the attention of Australian botanists.


Tale # 2
The palm was given the genus name Wodyetia after Wodyeti, an Aboriginal man.

It got its common name, Foxtail Palm, from the shape of the foliage.

Tale # 3
It was classed as a rare palm in Queensland.

Tale # 4

After it became known to the world, these palms became so sought after that a blackmarket trade formed for selling the seeds of the foxtail palm. Today. it is the world's most popular palm.

The flowers are produced when the palms are mature at 12 years of age!

Stalks of white flowers grow from the base of the crownshaft.

If you look close enough, you can see a yellow bird taking cover from my prying eyes. Too bad it didn't peek out at me...that would have been the perfect shot! This particular tree is about 20 feet high; Foxtails can grow up to a height of 30 feet.

The large, oval-shaped, green fruits turn orange-red when ripe.

Linked to:

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day

Macro Monday

Mosaic Monday

Nutty Over Palm Nuts

These are the biggest palm nuts I've ever seen. They are not coconuts, but a certain kind of palm nut. This palm is very popular as landscape plants in tropical countries. I think it is commonly known as Silver Palm. I've seen them just about everywhere, in parks and botanic gardens, but had never seen the nuts before.


Here's the palm tree, I'm sure many of you know it.

 

                                                          








Linking to Macro Monday, Mosaic Monday and SOOC Sunday

Another Kind of Apple

Here's another kind of 'apple' which I have in my backyard, which is technically not an apple! Those people who name the plants just love to confuse us.  

This pineapple plant had produced the perfect pineapple two years ago. We harvested that large, heavy fruit and had a feast. I was planning to pull out the plant but noticed two small suckers growing from the sides of the parent plant, so I decided to leave the whole plant intact. After two whole years, now I have two more perfect pineapples to admire...and then to enjoy, of course. Who's complaining? Not me.


Linking to Haiku Heights for the prompt "Innocence"

Innocence is not all 

it appears to be

pure and  pristine but prickly 

Linking to Macro Monday and Mosaic Monday.

      

Lovely Mellow Yellow

Presenting the Second Cousins from Mygardenhaven! These two varieties of  yellow hibiscus dwell side-by-side in neighbouring flower-beds. They were both acquired from a local garden nursery, and have been blooming regularly in their new location. Guess they like their new neighbourhood!




Here's one for the macro album:

And another for company.

I love them both for their colour, their form, their performance, and their impressive appearance!


To visit more Macro Monday beauties, click here,  to see more Mosaic Monday compositions, click here and to follow Mellow Yellow Monday, 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

Mosaic Monday - A rose by any colour...

'Oh my love is like a  red, red rose' have you ever tried spinning this yarn for a lovely lass, gentlemen?
Here's the full original version as written by Robert Burns back in the 18th century, if you have a need for it to accompany that bunch of red roses you have bought for your lady.

She might not be able to appreciate such old fashioned sentiments so be sure the roses you are giving her says it all. Choose the reddest of red roses you can find!

		A Red Red Rose
O, my luve's like a red, red rose,            That's newly sprung in June.       O, my luve's like the melodie,            That's sweetly play'd in tune.   As fair art thou, my bonie lass,  So deep in luve am I,       And I will luve thee still, my Dear,  Till a' the seas gang dry.         Till a' the seas gang dry, my Dear,            And the rocks melt wi' the sun!    O I will luve thee still, my Dear,             While the sands o' life shall run.         And fare thee weel, my only Luve,      And fare thee weel a while!     And I will come again, my Luve,              Tho' it were ten thousand mile!                                       Robert Burns No, no not blue ones like those above. Not those pink ones either...the colour's not red enough! The right colour but not showy enough... Hey, wait...this one is lovely! Or that one even! Tell you what gents, if you see roses like these two yellow ones, grab them, for your girlfriend will surely love them!!! Oh my love is like a yellow, yellow rose... Sounds alright to me. For more Mosaic Monday, click on the link below:    http://www.dearlittleredhouse.blogspot.com

A Haphazard Arrangement of Happy Flowers

I couldn't forego a week of  Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, or Mosaic Monday, or Today's Flowers, or Fertilizer Friday,or ABC Wednesday so no matter how busy I was, I stole some time to present this collage of what is in my garden today. With this collage count me in for all the memes I mentioned above.

Mosaic Monday
This happy mix of photos taken in my garden is as busy as the photographer-gardener-blogger they belong to.  However, there's great harmony in this thematic presentation of a happy garden.


Today's Flowers
For you, I offer my pale petunias, my pink and red dianthus, my deep red hydrangeas, my vermillion gerberas, my creamy yellow water-lilies, my lilac hydrangeas, my ripe, orange kumquats, and my deep purple water-lilies. I an not doing justice to each of these flowers I have mentioned, but I promise to feature them one at a time in the following weeks.

Fertilizer Friday
A tribute to the magic of fertilizing our plants...all of these flowers are in peak performance mode, thanks to the tender loving care provided by the mulching, the organic fertilizers and the watering...brought to you by yours truly, the galloping gardener. I practically had to pick up speed to Mach 5 to get all these chores done for the garden to look great for the festive season.

ABC Wednesday
Now how am I going to convert my happy mix of flowers for the letter D? With disdain for the game, and not dutifully sticking to the rules? No, that would be disgaceful. D it is for this Wednesday. D for the apparent disorder of  my photographs. Yes, let's debate on this...is a collage representative of  Disorder or Delight? I speak for Delight! This collage is definitely a delight for the beholder. When the eyes get tired of the details of macro images, they can turn to a collage . Let our sense of sight drift in delectable delight over the pictures. There's a surprising discovery at every turn, never a dull moment  when we study a collage. Do not be deceived, there is design in the apparent disorder.


Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day
Here in Malaysia, around this time of the year, there are more blooms than ever because it is the festive season. I have new plants which provide more gaiety to the Lunar New Year celebrations, and old plants that have felt obliged to put on a grand show...so that is why my garden is really abundant with blooms now.Hope you enjoy the collage of festive blooms.

So there, I've done it...I have made it, all with one collage. 
Do click on the links of ABC Wednesday, Today's Flowers,  Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, Fertilizer Friday, Mosaic Monday...you know where to find them-at the bottom of the page, of course.
Happy travels from blog to blog, everyone.