ABC Wednesday-G for gardenia

Time for ABC Wednesday again, my “G” is gardenia this week.



the meaning of Gardenia is: You're lovely; Secret Love; Joy Sweet love; Good luck…



White flowers are always my favorite...Especially the fragrant gardenia.


Enjoy the sweet scent of this sophisticated flower...
   Click to see all larger images.

..The brilliant green of its leaves and the flower bud. Lovely leaves with lush dark green, smooth textured.

Healthy plant is always with green shining green leaves. Gardenias are not easy plants to grow indoors, it requires full sun or part shade. they’re pretty fussy about their surroundings. It needs well drained and with plenty of organic material. Gardenias prefer slightly acidic soil. Gardenias like moderate humidity, if there is not enough water, they drop their leaves and flower buds. Keep the soil moist, but not soaked. Water deeply and frequently.

Often you will find the black spots on the leaves, they are probably sooty mold growing on the sugary residue from white flies. Spraying with a pesticide every two days till the bugs are gone, otherwise the whole plant will gone. Leave the plant at a place which have filtered sunlight, it is best for it to grow healthy. Protect from very hot afternoon sun. A balcony which have morning sunshine is the best place.

So enjoy,

…the beauty.

Pansy flowers blue & yellow

Blue & yellow matched perfectly here.

Marco : bougainvillea flowers

bougainvilleas commonly called Paper Flowers, this thorny, woody vines are widely-grown in Singapore. They have very colorful bracts or leaves which are mistaken by many as the flowers of the plant because of their prominence.


The flowers are actually the white or cream color, trumpet-like, small and inconspicuous things surrounded by the bracts. Each cluster of three flowers has three large bracts surrounding them.
 

…the bracts are thin and papery, that is why the name “paper flower” .

Click for larger image, visit Macro Monday for more wonderful macro images.

Pink Flowers In The Park

 
 Happy Pink Saturday!

Passion Fruit Plant

…not a good macro shot at all, what can expect the result from my cell phone camera?   …went to a nursery to look for some new plants, there are a few pot of passion fruits tree, yeah, potted passion fruit tree, will it grow? There are two type of flowers, very different, not sure if it is same kind…       

…potted fruit tree, bear fruits! It is funny, right? Planting fruit tree in container pot ?! Well, not many Singaporean can have a garden, those have a garden may not have time to do gardening…

This is life here.

…Still, I bought one pot back home, I hope my neighbour won’t make any complain, I have so many plants at corridor… 
…My previous post about Passion fruit vines

Affrican Violet

ABC Wednesday-F For Fern

 ABC Wednesday, my letter F is fern, some picture of my collection of fern.

 
The picture on the left is Maidenhair fern, the right one is Bird’s Nest Fern.

Maidenhair ferns, Scientific Name is Adiantum pedatum. They are very delicate and require good wind protection to grow nicely. They are deciduous in colder climates, naturally grown in wet tropics, where it can be found in moist open sites along riverbanks. This fern is very difficult to care for, especially in Singapore,  not just decent shade and well-drained soil needed, they require more attention and care than other ferns, I have tried many many time to grow this in door, somehow, this lovely green just turn brown for no reasons. A big challenge for me to grow Maidenhair fern. But the bird’s nest fern is much easier to grow, and always they grow too fast too big to keep as a houseplant. :)

 

Boston fern and fish tail fern are my favorite foliage plants, they are quite popular as a house plant in Singapore, a beautiful hanging basket with lovely, frilly leaves and long hanging fronds is a wonderful addition to the home. They add elegant charm and classic beauty unlike any other houseplant available. Again, they are growing pretty fast, I am always troubled how to get rid of them when they almost become weed.

The Boston fern is closely related to the Johor fern, which is growing wild in Malaysia and Singapore. I believe it was found in Johor so the name was named. Is that so?

The fishtail is the picture on the right, the edge of these beautiful green leaves just like fish tail. They grow beautifully in humid locations that receive plenty of indirect sunlight, so I place them by the side of window, and always spray water on the leaves in the morning. My fishtail fern potted plants has been followed me for 6 years…

 
The two potted fern from my friend, they are my birthday gift last month. I think they are Victoria fern.

…and this, I was told is a kind of fern too. I saw them in botanic garden, white hairy look, what is its name?
…and the last two photos on the right are Crown Stag Horn, or Stag’s Horn Fern, you can find everywhere in Singapore, as long as you like to look up to those big tree, you can see them dancing in the wind.
Well, “Fern” talk end here, I feel sleep already, Thank you for visiting my blog, and I wish all of you enjoy the plants, enjoy the nature.

Fancy leaf caladium

Lovely red on fancy leaf of caladium, more red at Mary's Ruby Tuesday.

Macro flowers: petunia

Shadow Shot: petunia on the table

                                 Shadow Shot Sunday

Pink Agapanthus Flowers

Is this the flowers of Agapanthus? First time I see pink one, stunning shocking pink!

Happy Pink Saturday!

Camera Critter-Bee & Purple Flowers

Camera Critters is the inspiration of Misty Dawn
Macro Flower Saturday

Amaryllis Flowers

Stunning ruby red flowers! I forgot where I took this photo, but the place grow this amaryllis must be out door with a lot of sunlight, full day sun light! My Amaryllis just won’t grow well in pot! It never have flowers at all for so many years, Should I give up?

Since I can’t grow my own amaryllis, good enough to share with all of you this beautiful flowers here, and if you have  something RED that you've photographed, join RUBY TUESDAY, it is fun.

Straight Out Of The Camera-Maple Tree

 
One of my favorites tree-maple, It is hard to find here in Singapore. I bought one from nursery last year, at first, the red leaves are so lovely, brilliant red,  but soon it turned to brown, yellow, finally all the leaves were dropped…The tree was dead.
For the memory of the lovely tree, I post this photo here, it was straight out of the camera …

ABC Wednesday-E For Euphorbia

My potted pink Euphorbia Milii, 8 months old now, grow from cutting stems.



Euphorbia Milii belongs to succulents family. This is one of my favorites, my previous post about euphorbia is here. The updated photos and my planting tips post here, for

ABC Wednesday

Euphorbia Milii, is a member of the family Euphorbiaceae (Spurge family), the common name is Crown-of-thorns or Christ Plant, local Chinese in Singapore also call it “Hua Wang”, the Chinese meaning is “the king of flowers”. I really don’t know why it got this name. Yeah, it is beautiful, but why is “king of the flowers” , this thorny plant? :)

 

One thing I am very sure, this Euphorbia Milii is super easy to take care, no need to water it often, grow well in container, they can take just about anything including relatively dry or overly wet conditions, seldom get insects attack, they are one of those low maintenance plants. They are not fussy of growing place, require little attention for their healthy growth, the Potted Euphorbia Milii is suitable to be displayed indoor near window side, I think this is the reason they are so welcomed by a lot of Singaporean, most of us, like me, busy in work days and nights, lack of time for gardening, plus, most of us stay at HDB house, we only have “container garden”.  :)

But still we enjoy gardening in a small space…

There is a wide variety of sizes and color of euphorbia. They have a lot of in different colors, yellow, pink, orange, white, red in varying shades, some are combination of colors. They are also available in different sizes, from cute button-like blossoms to inch-sized flowers.

I have planted a few type of Euphorbia Milii before, I like the flowers last much longer than other flowering plants. They don't easily wilt, and they blooms abundantly all year round. My first collection of euphorbia plants were from a cutting stem picked up from downstairs, someone left it out side the garbage room, I took it back and planted in pot, it grows till now, almost 1 meter height already. I don’t want it to grow too big, so I multiplied the euphorbia by cutting off the stems from the mother plant, 80% of them survive. I have green fingers. One more thing I realize, the Euphorbia Milii with red flowers are always growing faster than other color. The white and yellow color of Euphorbia Milii plants are not easy to grow, at least for me.

 

Left is my first Euphorbia Milii (red flowers), 7 years old now, right is the newly planted Euphorbia Milii

One thing I would like to share with other plants lover, the newly planted cutting should not be watered for at least a week otherwise the stem will turn soft and hollow inside. Like most members of the Spurge family, the Euphorbia Milii exude a sticky white sap from any cut surface, it is better to wait for the sap dry first before pushing it into soil.

However, It is fun of growing a Euphorbia Milii from cutting stems, and the nice little evergreen is the best gift for your plants lover friends.  So if you haven’t tried one, try this easy planting “Crown of Thorns”, just be careful of its pretty big thorns all along its stem, thus its name.

There are, however, many other nice Euphorbias, I will hunt for them, and post more about this lovely plant in future.

Some other Euphorbias with red color flowers, my contribution for

Ruby Tuesday

   

The left is my potted red color Euphorbia, 6 months old. The right Euphorbia plant with red flowers too, but the flowers are slightly bigger than mine. There are many other type of Euphorbia plants on sale in the nursery.



…the red flowers against the shinny green leaves



 

…the lovely red thorn



Lovely flowers after rain…



Happy Watery Wednesday tomorrow!