Flower Street at Little India Klang - Part 1 Jasmine

On this October 26th 2011, the Hindu community of Malaysia will be celebrating Deepavali, the Festival of Lights, signifying the triumph of good over evil.

In Klang city where I stay, the Tengku Kelana Street, nicknamed "Little India" is all abuzz with activities. There are many stores selling lots of colourful items such as clothes, provisions, foodstuff, decorations, bling-bling, you name it-they have it.

The above is the Flower Street of Little India Klang. It is opened for business everyday.

“Flower Street at Little India Klang - Part 1”, a copyrighted post, was written for My Nice Garden blog by Autumn Belle @ http://www.mynicegarden.com/ on October 24th, 2011.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - GBBD Oct 2011

Welcome to My Nice Garden! This was a birthday gift from my darling daughter last month. I think it's a doe that looks like Bambi. The little garden helper with the Welcome signage shall be my companion while I am all alone tending to my garden, standing in for my DH, the non-gardener.

“Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - GBBD Oct 2011”, a copyrighted post, was written for My Nice Garden blog by Autumn Belle @ http://www.mynicegarden.com/ on October 15th, 2011

Gardening A Game !

I would like to thank Malar of My Little Garden blog for inviting me to take part in "Gardening A Game" where I have to list down "10 Things That I Love To Do".  Her post is here.

Malar, the lovely Blotanist who tagged me.

I have included 10 pictures of flowers from my garden to accompany the 10 things that I am going to list down:

1. I love GINGER. I love my pink Etlingera elatior, or torch ginger. It add a special exotic flavour to my favourite spicy hot and sour dishes. The fun part is getting my kitchen knife to cut off the flower buds and eating them raw, usually as garnishing on those dishes. I am now experimenting with growing the lengkuas, turmeric and ordinary ginger in my garden from store bought rhizomes.

2. I love FRAGRANT plants. This angelwing jasmine has been propagated from a cutting from my brother's neighbour in Ipoh, the same person who gave me the rhizome of the bunga kantan (torch ginger). The fragrant plants I have are Jasmine sambac, Murraya paniculata, Kesidang (Vallaris glabra) and also a white champacca that has not ever flower yet. I also have pandan, mint and lemon grass if you can call them fragrant plants.

Oxalis corniculata - Creeping Oxalis 

3. I enjoy WEEDING whenever I can. Pulling out the weeds and dumping them into my compost pile is a very satisfying experience. I feel like an accomplishment to rid my garden of unwanted plants and recycling them. However, if the weeds are as beautiful as this tiny yellow wild flower with heart shaped leaves and the jade green moss, then I give them a chance. The above is the habitat of my pomelo plant which is grown in a big flower pot.

Weeding or wild flower? The answer lies with the gardener!

“Gardening A Game”, a copyrighted post, was written for My Nice Garden blog by Autumn Belle @ http://www.mynicegarden.com/ on October 5th, 2010.

4. I love to KEEP STUFF and I like to write. I kept a diary when I was a kid. I started a blog to keep an electronic diary or journal but ended up writing a garden blog instead. I like to keep records, directories and spreadsheets and I use an excel file to do the computing and sorting.

 I still keep the letters, cards and stuff my friends and family sent to me.

5. I love FLOWERING plants. Flowers brighten up my day, no matter what their colour. I like it when my foliage plants start to bloom too!

I believe that blooming flowers always bring happiness and good fortune.

6. I love being a DIY gardener because I enjoy doing it MY WAY!

I have since learnt to be a frugal gardener and I also like to experiment with all kinds of plants. So my garden is always changing. I have a backyard for herbs and vegetables, a side yard for shade plants, the front yard for the showy ones and a 'laboratory' under my bamboo tree to act as a quarantine, ICU as well as 'birthing centre'.

7. I love to know the NAME of each and every plant that I come accross. I find that if I know the plant name, then I can find out its origin, likes and dislikes. By doing so, I can become a better gardener.

I also wonder if getting to know a person more thoroughly makes us a better spouse/friend?

8. I love raising BABIES. I am busy raising plants, the sex of which may be male, female or both! I plant from seeds or seedlings purchased at nurseries and also from cuttings given by other gardeners and friends.

Some babies are a nuisance but nature will take care of them if your garden has become a natural habitat and the ecosystem has balanced itself. Can you spot the 2nd grasshopper nymph in the picture above?

9. My HOBBIES. I love to eat, cook and take photos but not necessary in that order. I also like to listen to songs and watch movies, including costume dramas and westerns. Anyway, most of the singers I like are dead and gone (to Heaven), e.g. Karen Carpenter, Andy Gibb. I still watch Tom and Jerry and Disneyland.

If I have more money, my hobby will change to travelling around the world and visiting every botanic garden there is.

I never leave home without my camera and I have never lived a day without my dose of caffeine. I like black expresso coffee on the double, and also coffee in cakes, ice-cream and dishes, e.g. coffee pork ribs.



“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.

The important thing is not to stop questioning.”

..... Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

10. I love to READ.

I get lots of inspiration from reading books such as the classics, fairy tales, self improvement, fiction, romance, sometimes even children books. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the Harry Porter series and I read the children book, The Secret Garden as an adult. Now, most of the books I read are gardening books and cook books. I can spend the whole day in a bookstore or library, reading or browsing.

I also love to read your blogs, as many as my time allow me to.


I have selected 10 bloggers who are also newbie Blotanists to play this game. Let's get to know more about and welcome them to our beautiful Blotanical family of garden bloggers. They are:

1. Makarimi of Orchid de Dangau - Malaysia. Update: The post is here.
2. Terry and Janice of The Upside Down Garden - New Zealand
3. College Gardener of Journey & Jonquils - New England, USA
4. Bom of Plant Chaser - Philippines. Update: The post is here.
5. Michelle, Chris and Gabe Clay - The Clueless Gardeners - Massachusetts, USA
6. Rosie of My Garden Haven 1’s Blog - Malaysia
7. Carol of My Passion Venture - Malaysia
8. Radha of Naturally Beautiful - India
9. Trevor Hunt of A Gardening Life in Brittany- France
10. Takaeko of Small Vege Garden in a Suburb - Japan


The rules of this game:
1) Inform who invited you and link back
2) What are the 10 things you like to do
3) Invite another 10 other bloggers

Now, I wonder if anyone will do this post on Sunday, October 10th, 2010 or 10-10-10!

Blooming Friday in My Nice Garden

What's blooming in my garden today is my Adenium obesum (Desert Rose) in shocking pink. I'm glad it coincides with Blooming Friday's theme today of "Perfect Pink Pouts".


This the Lagerstroemia speciosa tree in front of my house. It's common name is Pokok Bungor Raya (Malay), Banaba (Philippines), Pride of India, Queen's Crape-myrtle.

It was planted by the housing developer. I took good care of it. It has been blooming intermittently for a few years already. This year, the buds started to form in early February just as I was welcoming Lichun Day and by early March it was blooming profusely. I just love the lavender purple flowers which has 7 petals each. One by one, the flowers will drop to the ground like money falling from the sky. This is because whenever it blooms, good luck comes to me. On the tarmac road, they look like purple cherry blossoms. These flowers attract bumble bees, butterflies and I see birds on its branches too.

Can you see the fruit on my ixora plant? These berry like fruits turn from green to dark purple but they are not edible.

Helen (islandgal246) of My Rustic Bajan Garden once told me in a comment that the best time to photography butterflies is in the early morning. That's the time when some of them has just emerged from their chrysalis and would need to dry themselves just before their maiden flights. And yes, that was how I found this butterfly on my champacca tree, lying quite still on the leaf. It was long enough for me to take a few close-up shots.

Do you still remember my pineapple plant that bloomed in February? Well, after the Chinese New Year season was over, I harvested the small, little fruit and this is what I get. Three slices of sweet, juicy pineapples.

I caught this spider crawling around my window pane. It looks like those spiders that the boys like to catch and bring to school for a game of spider fighting during my younger days.

While watering my plants, I stumbled upon this nest on my flower bed. It looked like it has just fallen from my palm tree above. So, I took out the nest from the bushes and peered inside.

Look what I found! There are 5 little birdies, huddled together in the nest. So, I called out for My Dear's assistance. We took a tall ladder and put the nest back to the palm branch, using a rafia string to tie around its nest to make sure that it will not fall again. We also made sure that its position was at a height that was difficult for the cat to reach. That night, I prayed that it will not rain heavily as I was not very sure whether we had place the nest correctly. Well, it rained heavily that night and I was very worried. The next morning, to my utter joy, I heard the sound of birds chirping happily. Now, I can hear this sound whenever mummy bird comes back with food for the babies. Mummy looks like a little black sunbird. Now I feel so relieved that I had successfully rescued my little friends.

Here's another little friend on my Jasminum sambac. To this little guy, the flower look huge. I wonder what he wants to do.

I would like to dedicate this post to my first commenter, Ms Lona, from Ohio, USA of Hocking Hill's Garden blog. She is posting lovely anthuriums and daffodils with a nice poem.

My grateful thanks to Katarina at Roses and Stuff for hosting Blooming Friday. To see what others have posted or to participate, click here.

This is also my entry for Fertilizer Friday. My grateful thanks to Tootsie at Tootsie Time for hosting Fertilizer Friday. To see what others have posted or to participate, visit here.

Blooming Friday - A Garden By The Ditch

Today I shall take you for a walk in the park. At the edge of our housing estate, there is this ditch that is higher than you and me. Here, we fondly call it the big monsoon drain for without it our homes would certainly be flooded whenever there is a storm.

My neighbours, the residents who stay next to the ditch area have taken the initiative to create a garden and a green environment. Come, let me show you the way ........

First, here is the Jetropha Integerrima, an evergreen small shrub with bright red and attractive flowers that can liven up any garden.

Next, we have the Nerium Oleander plant, an evergreen shrub with beautiful pink flowers. It is one of the most poisonous plant in the world, so we adults will watch the children and teach them not to consume the leaves but they can admire its beauty.

Next comes the Euphorbia Milii (Crown of Thorns or Christ Plant). Like many plants with lovely flowers, it has many torns. So, children, be careful when you want to pluck the pretty red flowers.

This is the Flower of Love (Tabernaemontana corymbosa), another evergreen shrub. This plant is very frangrant. Okay, you can stop here to smell the flowers. It is healthy and blooming furiously now. I think it kind of look like our galaxy, The Milky Way when seen from afar.

Here's a row of sugar cane plants. When I was a kid, they use to sell the cut stems which is about a foot long at the stalls. We buy them and even bring them into the cinema where we will bite and chew the flesh using our strong teeth and suck on the sweet juice. At home, we can boil the stems to make a sweet herbal drink. Out in town, there are roadside stalls equiped with pressing machines that sells cold sugar cane drinks to quench our thirst during a hot afternoon.

This is a tapioca plant. We plant them for the roots which is dug out for culinary use. We can boil the tapioca and eat the flesh or use it to make deserts, chips and cakes. Look closely on the top left corner or click on the picture. Can you see McDonalds across the dicth?

These are pineapple plants. I guess they are still teenagers, so we have to wait at least a year and a half before we see any flowers and fruits.

Yes, a baby papaya plant living together with the kangkong vegetable or ipomoea aquatica or water spinach. Papaya plants seem to love living at concrete corners, I don't know why. This kangkong vegetable can be stir fried with belacan (shrimp paste), a local favourite, which I like very much too.

This is one of the rosa-sinensis hybrids I photographed for my latest Wordless Wednesday post. Lovely, aren't they?

Finally, this is the blue daze (evolvulus glomeratus). The flowers are tiny but the they look very striking among the green leaves.

This little girl automatically stopped to pose for me when she saw me taking a photograph of the nerium oleander plant. She likes to come here in the mornings with her siblings and grandma. She is holding some rosa-sinensis hibiscus which she has earlier handpicked herself. I think she is a natural when it comes to modelling for me.

This is the place I come for a morning walk or jog. It is also the place where I have watched many beautiful sunrises. Besides the pictures here, other plants include the lemongrass, pandan, aloe vera, bougainvillea and bamboo.

Do you like this garden by the ditch?

This is my entry for Blooming Friday. My grateful thanks to Katarina at Roses and Stuff for hosting Blooming Friday. To see what others have posted or to participate, click here.


Update: 
My New Straits Times article titled "Garden Makeover for a Ditch" was published on 13 March 2010, the link is here.

Jasmine My Darling

My Common Jasmine (Jasminum sambac) plant is blooming now.

Botanical name: Jasminum sambac
Common name: Arabian jasmine
Family: Oleaceae (olive family)
Native of: India

Jasmine flower is also known as bunga melur in Malaysia, melati putih in Indonesia, mo li hua in chinese, sampaguita in the Phillipines and mallika in Indian (Sanskrit).

A beautiful and very fragrant flower much loved in many parts of Asia, the bunga melati putih was designated as one of the 3 National Flowers of Indonesia in conjunction with World Environment Day on June 5, 1990. Sampaguita is the national flower of the Philippines.

We grow jasmine in our gardens to enjoy its exotic fragrance. Flower buds open in the late evenings to fill the garden with a pure magical scent. We usually pluck the flowers in the mornings when the buds are still unopened. These flowers can be tied into garlands which are used to adorn religious altars and deities or to welcome guests. Jasmine flowers are also used in wedding ceremonies. For example in a traditional Javanese wedding, jasmine flowers are used to adorn the bride and groom and decorate the wedding dias and bridal chamber. The bride-to-be goes through a 'lulur' bathing ritual before the wedding ceremony. Wow, isn't this royal treatment? We can enjoy the traditional lulur treatments or 'mandi lulur' in many modern spas. Jasmine is one of the flowers used in lulur.
This flower can also be made into corsages or as hair adornment. Jasmine is used it to make perfumes, scented cosmetics, powders and aromatherapy oils. We also have the Jasmine tea which I like very much.

Daughters are given names like 'Melati', 'Mallika' or 'Jasmine'.

A very popular mandarin folk song is tittled 'mo li hua'.

This is the beauty of Jasmine.

Now, back to reality. Based on my own gardening journal, growing jasmine had not been easy for me. This is my third try. The old plants died as a result of pest attack even before it could bear flowers. Even when it is flowering, somehow it attracts a lot of pests that damage the leaves and buds. These pests are very tiny, appear like brown or black dots on the surface of the leaves and secrete a sticky-like substance on the leaves. I sprayed boiled chilli solution on it and applied some purple colour pesticide granules on the soil to ward off tiny snails. The infected leaves and buds have to be cut off.

Regular fertilising is needed. Phew! A lot or work right? Seems to be working so far. Well, bees and butterflies loves the nectar of this flower. I love the scent.