Winter in Western Australia

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

Precious, Molly-Coddled, Purple Orchids of mine

These purple orchid plants have been sitting in their pot on my porch with limited exposure to full sunlight. Maybe I was being over-protective...didn't want my precious purple princesses to get 'sun-burnt', so I kept them in that location, not expecting them to flower much. After some months  of dormancy, I was so happy to find one brave stalk emerging, seeking light. I guess a bit of molly-coddling doesn't hurt. Now I am patiently waiting for the other plants to get activated and bloom! 

Can you hear what the blooms are singing?

Stretching our limb towards the light.

When's Rosie coming out to give us our foliar feed???

That swan's been watching us  us all day long!

Hey, we get lonely out here on the patio.

We can't wait for this pot to be filled with more stalks of purple orchids! 

Linking to:
Today's Flowers

When a Rose is not a Rose

This post is about my Confederate Rose, which is not a rose, but a hibiscus. It belongs to the Malvaceae family and is known as Hibiscus mutabilis. My Confederate Rose bush happens to be a double flowered cultivar which produces really large flowers that are about four inches across.


What makes this flower so special is its magical ability to dazzle! If you have seen quick-change acts on stage where the performer changes her clothes in the wink of an eye, then this is the flower version. In the early morning, this flower is white in colour. It slowly changes into a blushing pink by noon, and in the evening, it is red! This magic act in my garden never fails to amaze my friends. You can't help but fall in love with this beauty


It is also known as Cotton Rosemallow, Cotton Rose and nicknamed the Changeable Beauty.







Why is it named the Confederate Rose? Well, in the USA, it is generally grown in the section that was once known as the Confederate States of America. It is a popular garden plant in the United States, but it is native to Southern China.









According to Wikipedia, in Ancient China, the flowers are believed to resemble beautiful ladies. Some historical paintings depicting beautiful young women are titled "Cotton rosemallow out of the Water", which has the proverbial meaning of a young lady whose beauty is appreciated.

Linking to:

Fertilizer Friday

Macro Friday

Macro Flowers Saturday

Today's Flowers

Melody of Orchids...on my patio.

These yellow orchids are coming along beautifully. The plants are truly hardy. They have been with me for more than 4 years, and after a short period of rest, they periodically and dutifully burst into song to please their owner. Just look at the song of joy they are serenading to my bird-feeder on the wall! Can you hear the rapturous symphony?

Linked to:

Fertilizer Friday

Macro Friday

Macro Flowers Saturday

Today's Flowers

Pretty in Pink

I am giving centre stage to one beauty today who has been a perfectly delightful performer in Mygardenhaven, my diva, the pink hibiscus!

This is my pretty pink prima donna  all dressed up in her finery and flaunting her pretty frills and finery in my garden. This close-up of the pink double-petalled hibiscus is dedicated to Laura at Macro Friday, Tootsie at Fertilizer Friday, Sandra at Today's Flower and  Beverly at Pink Saturday.

Isn't she lovely?


The prima donna imagery I am using for this hibiscus inspires this haiku which I dedicate to Haiku Heights for the prompt, 'Poison'

beauty is a curse
fawning jealousy veils
  poison  in each smile

My Cherie Amour

Today's flowers are from my  collection of Unforgetttable Blossoms from my New Zealand Springtime Romance. These are my favourite pink blossoms from the previous spring. These pink beauties were encountered in different parts of New Zealand. Yes like the proverbial sailor, I had left behind a blushing flower in every port!


Oh I was lucky enough to see my cherie amour, Cherry Blossoms in the North Island and down in the South Island as well.

It makes my heart flutter just to see this beauty!

Just love that pattern of print on the ground...even the shadows cast are beautiful.

I'll miss this a lot !

We'll meet again, my cherie amour, in another spring, maybe in another country, but till then, I'll see you in my dreams.

 Dark sighs of  yearning 

 printed patches on the ground

  pink petals drift in dreams

Go on and have a good time at Today's Flowers, Shadow Shot, Pink Saturday, Haiku My Heart

  

  

Witches Tongue

Musical Note Plant, Morning Kiss, Witches Tongue (Rotheca incisa)

Family: Verbenaceae 
Genus: Rotheca 
Species: incisa 


When I first came across this plant at a garden nursery, the nursery lady told me she only knew it by the local Malay name of Bunga Taugeh. 'Taugeh' is Malay for beansprouts and 'bunga' means flower. The flower buds did look very much like beansprouts.







They also look like musical notes, hence their other popular name.





I have no inkling as to why they are also known as Morning Kiss, though. Do you?









When in full bloom, my oh my, they are the tropic's equivalent of snowdrops!!!




Snowdrops with whiskers.


They flower repeatedly all the year round, isn't that great? If I wanted to propagate them, I could take the semi-hardwood portion of this herbaceous plant. Will try doing that when the plants are more mature.


I just love my Morning Kiss to bits, even if they are more maliciously referred to as Witches Tongue. I think I'm literally stifling them with love. They are being coddled by the coleus plants all round them.I am trying not to trim the red coleus, though, as they would certainly be bushier after a trim and further overwhelm my pretty rotheca incisa.


So, it may not be spring here in the tropics, but I have my whiskered spring flowers to give me a feeling of springtime here.


Visit Today's Flowers for more pseudo spring flowers as well as  the real deal spring flowers from all around the world.

Agapanthus - the African Lily

For Haiku Heights

Prompt:Command

Lily white petals, pure

Softly bend in the breeze

A mother's command

For Macro Friday, click here.

For Macro Flowers, click here.

For Haiku Heights, click here.

For Haiku my heart, click here.

For Today's Flower, click here.

For Straight Out Of The Camera, click here.

To the hosts of the above memes, thank you for all the weeks of fun you give to me.

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.

Macro Flowers and Today's Flowers - Bursting With Pride

I am just bursting with pride... gladiolus plants are currently bursting with blooms in my own garden!!! Can you believe that? I have already featured their story and mine, or should I say our history, in the previous post. Now I want us all to get up-close and personal with Dark Eyes and Her Majesty. Here they are :

                  

I just can't get enough of glads. 


To view more lovely blooms, go to Macro Flowers and Today's Flowers. Click on the links which you can find on this page if you patiently scroll all the way down. Cheers and have fun.

Today's Flowers-The Mediterranean Look.

Flowers of the Mediterranean, how I love them. It is not just the flower that is so beguiling, it is the style in which these plants and their brilliant flowers are displayed.

Display Number 1: The Smouldering Spanish Look.

This is how the streets in the village of  Sitges is made memorable for me. One snapshot for my album!

Display Number 2: The Charming Geranium-Balcony Look.

This typically Mediterranean balcony window display is THE essential Mediterranean icon. In every  village, town or city- even in shop windows, the lovely terracotta pots with their geraniums made me yearn to transform one part of my own garden into that  LOOK!

Display Number 3: Proud Petunias on the Wall Look.

Where else but in the Mediterranean  would you find displays of petunias in such a rustic setting as this? This snapshot is one of my favourites - taken in the town of Valdemossa, these were on the wall outside a souvenir shop in a quaint narrow street. It was along this street that we had the best hot chocolate - thick and heavenly sweet - so much appreciated on that chilly spring day. Another snapshot that brings back fond memories for me.

Display Number 4: Rambling  Roses  On Moss-covered Wall Look

This makes me think I've travelled back in time and I expect to see Don Quixote de la Mancha walk down the steps beside where the roses are clinging to the wall, saying to me, 'Welcome to my hacienda,  Senorita Rosie".

I hope these snapshots from my album bring some kind of nostalgic associations of the Mediterranean to you as well.

See more Today's Flowers at the TF Team's Blog. Click on the link at the bottom of the page. Have a great week, everyone!