GBBD June 2011

1. My Nong Nooch Vine (Petraeovited wolfei)

- Creamy white blooms protruding out of the yellow bracts.

It was love at first sight when I first saw the Wolfei vine at the Secret Garden of 1-Utama. I waited almost 2 years before I found the sapling at a nursery in Sg Buloh. It is a native plant of Malaysia.

My 2009 post about this plant is here. 

“GBBD June 2011, a copyrighted post, was written for My Nice Garden blog by Autumn Belle @ http://www.mynicegarden.com/ on June 15th, 2011.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - May 2011

Today is Garden Bloggers Bloom Day for May 2011. Leading the bloom parade is my bread flowers (Vallaris glabra) which we locals call it Kesidang. It is difficult to photograph the flower as they always seem to be drooping downwards. Well, this vine just loves to climb high. Whenever it flowers, we will first sense the fragrance, then we look up or around us, we shall see the sweet, starry blooms.

It has the scent of Pandan, our favourite aromatic herb and also that of 'nasi lemak', our favourite coconut flavoured rice.  Many Malaysians who grew up in a 'kampong' or countryside will have fond childhood memories associated with this plant. The fragrance is very pronounced in the mornings and evenings. A whiff of pandan always reminds me of home cooked food.

Rumphius (1628-1702) wrote about it as one of the perfumed flowers which the peoples of the Malay Archipelago were fond of using back in the old days, once upon a time, long, long ago.....

Lantana, My Favourite For This Season

Today is Blooming Friday, October Week 2. The theme this week is "my favourite for Autumn". As I live in the tropics, I only have summer all year round. Envy me? But I envy you too. How I long to see the ground that I tread on covered with fallen leaves of red and gold, and I wish I could touch real snow with my bare hands. See, how lucky you are! Actually I am quite fickle and my favourite flower changes every now and then.

Yes, yes, my favourite now. Tada... Ladies and Gentlemen! Presenting my Fave Flower, The Lovely Lantana!

I love they way they start off as tiny dots and pretty little 'ribbons' which later changes colour as it grows and matures.

I have a few Lantana Camaras which come in different combination of colours. I have mixed 2 different plants together in one container to achieve the multicolour effect.

Locally, we call it the bunga tahi ayam, meaning chicken dung flower. I just love the smell. Chicken dung to some, but exotic scent for me! Lantana attract the most beautiful butterflies to my garden. Before having lantana, only the pretty teeny weeny ones came. Now, even the bigger beautiful butterflies are coming my way.

This perennial flowers the whole year through. The leaves and stems are quite hairy and the pretty littly flowers come in clusters. Actually lantanas are very easy to grow. They are quite hardy and seldom attacked by pests since their body parts are poisonous anyway. Sometimes, I see lantanas growing wild in the countryside.

Another common name for lantana is "Ham 'n Eggs" due to the pink and yellow colour scheme. Or would you like to call it "Bacon 'n Eggs instead"?

Do you grow lantana in your garden and what colours do you have?

Meanwhile, I wish everyone a Happy Weekend!

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.