BLOOMING FRIDAY : eye candy

To us malaysians, bunga is flower. The plural is bunga-bunga. There aren't many bunga-bunga in our little Tanah Merah garden. Always, flower is Kakdah's delight especially her hanging orchids. For today's post, I wish to explore flowers among the vegetables here. The most exciting understandably is lady's fingers / okra / bendi / kacang meo. I find the word kacang meo interesting because it is used only among Kelantanese. I will not venture into its origin. Kakdah jokingly mentioned about miang as the root word for meo, since her hands get very itchy whenever she got to harvest okra.

lady's finger flower

okra/bendi/kacang meo

lady's finger flower

okra/bendi/kacang meo

Malabar spinach

malabar spinach young flower

malabar spinach, young fruits

malabar spinach ripe fruits

Selom

selom flower

selom flower

selom flower

selom flower

 selom flower

Oenanthe javanica in the family of  water dropwort 

 Flowers or bunga-bunga are beautiful and treasured here, whereas in some other parts of the world, the word bunga bunga has different meaning which  Silvio Berlusconi (click here for more : Italy in suspense as 'bunga bunga' trial is poised to lift lid...) had made famous in  Italy last year,
and  in a century old  incident
happening on British Navy battleship H.M.S. Dreadnought in 1910, later known as   Dreadnought Hoax. (click here for more:  Dreadnought hoax)



More bloomings over at Katarina Katarina: Roses and stuff

bangchik and kakdah

on the ground

We dont have any plant that grows higher than the eye level, not counting kakdah's hanging orchids, and what by the end of the year, the four papaya plants would eventually be. To see flowers is to  look physically down, but flowers remain high in the aesthetic and emotional level. Kakdah will smile, temporarily getting out of whatever is negative and stressful in life, as she walk and lovingly hold the few flowers in the garden.

 flowering plants in clusters, balsam (keembung) and zinnia

Balsam, Malar's giveaways, zinnia from the old Putrajaya garden are flowering. The site is actually reserved for pandan which will soon conquer the area. For now flowerings are grown to fill the empty space.

 basil flowering

 basil getting quite bushy

Basil which is about to be a permanent feature here, is flowering too. The two basil at the back of the house are becoming more bushy after I did a complete pruning of all flower stalks. A few new flowers are coming up and are quite visible.

 a young ubi badak by the fence

 ubi badak, the shoots,

so tender looking.

 ubi itik, another tuber, is a climber too.

I don't know if it will ever produce flower.

 kiwi from seeds, first attempt.

at four leaves, they are growing steady. 

For now, i will let the eventual kiwi fruits grow in my dream.

Hop over to Katarina  to see more.

bangchik and kakdah,

blooming friday: IN THE AIR

Pollination is a process by which pollen is transfered from the stamen to the upper tip of the pistil of a flower. Ninety percents of plants requires man, animals, and insects for pollination. For pollination to take place, flowers has to be aerial enough for bees and butterflies to hover, sniff and dive in for the sweet nectar. During such frenzy, pollens are gathered on the legs and get transferred to the pistil, for pollination, a necessary step for fertilization.

 purple orchid.
This beautiful orchid is beautiful,  dancing in the air  but reproduction is not through flowers. Orchid flower is colours of the earth.

 balsam

 sweetpea flower

 exotic climber

exotic climber

 zinnia

 ubi badak
the vine has reached the top of the trellis

 belalang kunyit
rest for a while on Kakdah's hanging pot.

 clitoria ternatea
with fence as trellis, clitoria exhibit beautiful blue flowers, dancing on a breezy day. The locals will collect clitoria flowers/ bunga telang for nasi kerabu.


To see more blooming Friday posts, click Katarina  Blooming Friday - In the Air.
Katarina is the host.  

bangchik and kakdah

Blooming Friday: False Start

I googled for false start, and  two definitions kept cropping up, first being as a premature start as in a race or football match, the second being an unsuccessful attempt to begin something as in task, work or career. I guess the theme refers to activities within the boundary of gardening.

Growing Kiwi

kiwi seedlings in pure sand

kiwi seedlings in potting soil

The worst experience must be growing sweet peas. They grew but never to the level of health I  am looking for. I am guilty of asking too much from nature. The  hot climate here will not mellow down for sweet peas. I keep sowing new seeds, in the hope that I get the right combination of primary parameters that make sweet peas happy. So far not too good.

I move a step further by including Kiwi as the new member. From the single kiwi fruit, seeds were scooped out, cleaned and separated into 3 sets. The first set went to little pots filled with just sand. The second went to little pots with proper potting soil. The third went to the refrigerator for a month, then-after will be taken out for germination. I think the process is known as stratification, simulating the dormant stage imposed by winter.So it seems, kiwi seeds are happy without stratification

Now kiwi seeds are sprouting well at the first pair of leaves. 30 little kiwi seedlings are ready to run wild!! Pure sand seems to improve germination, that they germinate faster. I wonder if Kiwi will be like sweet peas...., tried again and again.... with a long list of false starts.

I am not about to back out yet....

Kiwi isn't the only first timer in our garden. There are timun tikus, ubi badak, ubi kemili, ubi itik, and many others. Each offers its own set of difficulty for me to cope.

first timer: ubi badak

first timer: timun tikus

 and the followings are photos of a red flowering plant.  They are spectacular with fine needle-like leaves.   They are climbing up nicely now, a lot bigger since Feb 25th post of  Blooming Friday: A Pinch of Green . First timer too.

So no flowers today, all plants with potential series of false starts. There goes the whole fun about gardening, learning to cope with failures, trying as much to give each plant the best condition to thrive... There will be more fall starts here : Blooming Friday - False Start at Katarina's Roses and Stuff 

bangchik and kakdah
Tanah Merah.

BLOOMING FRIDAY: Feeling Blue.

 There are days when we feel depressed for no reason at all. Just go out and look at colours. They are soothing.... I will start with blue....

Blue.

Blue flower

blue flower

blue flower

 

So many blue flowers

Update: 15.3.2011. 

Thanks Rosie of My garden haven for reminding me the name of the above flowering plant.  I wont forget "plumbago".

Red

hibiscus: red

hibiscus: red

hibiscus: red

hibiscus: red

Mixed colour

bougainvillea

bougainvillea

All from MIL garden, Sitiawan perak

and you may want to see other blooming friday at Katarina: Roses and stuff. 

bangchik and kakdah

Malaysia

Blooming Friday: Big and Small

Sunflower
From the same mother plant, sunflower seeds never guarantee they will develop and grow big as their mother.  I wouldn't wish to explore on the issue of nature versus nurture... but plants are telling us something, that they don't wish to be taken for granted, they don't want to be identical to their sisters, they want to be counted. Each one is unique! Four sunflowers in a row... three is visible but the fourth wish to stay back, stay low and hide away behind ulam raja bush.

Four Sunflowers:  3 full blown, 1 hasn't opened

smallest

medium size

the biggest sunflower

 An orchid and Santalia
We paid MiL a visit yesterday, taking along 5 grape seedlings as promised earlier. Flowering season was at its peak there. A big orchid, and little flowers attracted our attention. They contrast well on size, big and small, and yet they were not envious of one another.

Orchid and little flowers

Orchid and little flowers

Each is beautiful, big or small. 

How well they complement with each other, 

the big and the small flowers.
(Visit Katarina for more  Blooming Friday - Big and Small )

Bangchik and Kakdah

Tanah Merah, Malaysia