Dahlia flowers

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Lagerstroemia, crape myrtle and ixora flowers

Welcome to another edition of Macro monday. Thanks to Lisa for hosting this wonderful event every monday. Ixora is still blooming profusely in this extreme heat. Butterflies and bee specially bumble bees love its blooms. I also saw in morning some hummingbirds but could not capture them.

Lagerstroemia with common name crape myrtle is the only tough beauty in this heat of june. Not only blooming profusely in as many colors as white, purple, pink, blue and many others but butterflies love it too. A typical plant of subcontinent very heat tolerant.

Lilac color flowers were just beautiful. The contrast of lilac with yellow pollens was awesome

The flower has actually very unique shape. They surround the pollens in such a different way. From a distance the flower shape is not very prominent. Only when you go near the flower and look closely then you see the real beauty.

Bees adore it. They reach deep into the flower in search of pollen. This one was a busy worker probably drunk in the pollen.

Tecoma (Trumpet vine) blooming

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Macro Monday - Zinnia magic

It was difficult to get shots for this macro monday due to intense heat here. However i managed to get a few shots. Until the weather cools down a bit when monsoon starts, plants will be in stress specially the ones on my terrace. Please do visit other blogs for more macro monday shots. Here is the link to Lisa's beautiful chaos http://lisaschaos.com/


Not sure which butterfly it is but it was intense heat out there. Very fast moving butterfly though.

Macro monday - Waterlily magic

It is a pleasure participating another edition of macro monday hosted by Lisa's Chaos. You will find some excellent macro images out there. Here are my pics for this week's macro monday.

This blue water lily survived our mild winters and popped up blooms in june. It will continue blooming till october. I am growing it in a round clay pot not very large.

And here is the close up. My favorite blooms of all. And guess what it is fragrant as well.

Pink rain lily, lotus and ixora flowers

Here comes another garden bloggers bloom day. Thanks Carol at May Dream Gardens for hosting this wonderful event every month.

This is pink rain lily. The botanical name is Zephyranthes grandiflora. I got more than 50 bulbs in this plastic pot. They bloom mostly in rains. But you would find blooms all year round.




I just caught this bumble bee on ixora plant. There were humming birds on these flower too but only in the morning and in strong sun. They were so quick that i could not capture them. Still bees love these blooms. This picture is taken in lawrence gardens lahore.


This is pink lotus. Because i could not see the flower open due to cloudy sky, i could not be sure whether it is nelumbo or water lily


Don't Forget to visit other blogs of GBBD for more beautiful blooms.

Ixora, yellow rain lily and blue petunia flowering

Here are some of the pics for this edition of macro monday.










For more macro monday posts, visit Lisa's Chaos

Catesbaea spinosa, frangipani and egg fried tree flowers

Welcome to blooming friday.The intense heat of 110F is not allowing plants to settle right now but some tough beauties are still hanging out there. Here are some of those.

Plumeria rubra also known as frangipani and local name gul-e-cheen is a subtropical fragrant plant. It comes in lots of color with white one the most common. This color is not so common but most beautiful of all.
Water lilies are another tough beauty blooming profusely. These white water lilies are shot at botanical garden of the Government College University lahore.They do not appear to be tropical ones but hardy tropical lilies.They bloom when temperature rises above 70F. Growing inside a large pond.
This flower is what we commonly call fried egg tree. The name implies the appearance of fried egg. Bees love its blooms. It was shot at lawrence gardens lahore. Botanical name Oncoba Spinosa,this one has small spines over the trunk of the tree but not too hard.
And last but not least is Lily thorn having botanical name catesbaea spinosa. I had thought that only fuchsia and brugmansias having inverted flowers but the list has gone one more step now. These are also shot at Lawrence gardens lahore.

Amaltas,Gul mohr, neelam and fragrant ixora

In this edition i will share with you the flowers which are currently blooming in lawrence garden (bagh-e-jinnah) lahore. Remember this is garden bloggers bloom day post and for others gbbd posts go to May Dream Gardens and check out other beautiful blogs showing some marvelous blooms from all around the world.
The first one is cassia fistula or amaltas. Very drought tolerant tree and blooms freely in this heat of over 110F. A common street tree with masses of yellow blooms.
At this time when not a lot of trees are blooming, cassia fistula gives eyes a treat to watch. You will lots of these trees in india and pakistan. In lahore a lot of specimens are planted on mall road.
Day lily is another common sight in lahore these days. There are mainly three varieties availabel here commercially. The yellow one which is cheapest, the orange one which is most common and the red one which is most expensive and slightly fragrant as well. Botanical name is Hemerocallis. And there are tons of cultivars and colors but here only these three are common. Some nurseries do sell other colors but at high rates. This is a perennial plant in our climate although flowers only in late spring and summer.
The tree is probably one of world's most beautiful trees. Having botanical name delonix regia but more famous with common name Gulmohar and flame tree. It is indeed a sight to watch when in bloom as it produces hundreds of flowers and looks like the tree is on fire.
If you look closely at the bloom it has very interesting shape like that of a claw.It changes its color with the passage of time. Remember this tree belongs to the pea family.
Here is what i would call the remnants of jacaranda and i belongs to the famous bignonia family.Remember tecoma?, yap same family.It was in full bloom in spring and whole tree was covered with blue flowers but now only some are left on the tree.
This fragrant ixora having botanical name ixora parviflora is also at the end of blooming in lawrence garden. What a scent!!!!
And now some blooms from my terrace a well. This morning glory the hardiest of all, blooms much earlier than other varities. I planted 3 various colors and will share with you as soon as other colors bloom but right now be content with this one only. And yes its botanical name is ipomoea purpurea.

Protecting Container Plants from Summer Heat

Protecting container plants in extreme summer heat is a challenge many gardeners face. Note that the plants in soil bed do not feel that much heat as compared to the ones in containers. In my case, i have got majority of my container plants on my terrace, the floor heats up in summers and the roots of plants at bottom of container are stressed. I had to water every second day to protect them. Last year i lost some of my plants because of that. Here is what i am doing this summer and this is going good so far.

Mulch: The best mulch components are leaf mold, coco peat and some organic matter or humus. You can also include, shredded newspapers and card boards. Remember, leaf mold cools the soil more than anything else. See the following arabian jasmine, though in soil bed, i have mulched it with leaf mold and coco peat around 2 inches depth.

This is how it will look closely. Don't forget to keep the mulch away from the main stem. Mulch will protect the plant from outside heat but not the bottom heat which is coming from the floor and stressing the roots.

Humidity: If your containers are at your terrace, the bottom heat will stress the roots of the plants. To handle this, place your container in a tray of pebbles soaked in water. But don't forget, your pot should not be standing in water, just the pebbles should be soaked and not the lower portion of your container. It is also useful for those plants which like humidity e.g. Arabian Jasmine etc.

Type of container: If you see below, this is my murraya exotica plant in an 18 inches clay pots. If you use terracotta pots, the terracotta color will protect the plants from heat however plastic pots heat up in direct sun. I like clay pots and they provide better protection from heat as well. The mulch of leaf mold and coco peat is 2 inches deep.
And last but not least container gardeners should try to plant drought tolerant plants as much as possible. The plants which are native to south africa, brazil, australia and mexico are very suitable to our sub tropical hot climate. The temperature outside temperature on my terrace right now is 110F which is quite challenging. But the mulch and pebbles tray are doing a great job till now.

Tropical milkweed and murraya on my terrace garden

Here i am again with another edition of macro monday. Hot summers are in full swing and i am busy mulching all my plants to save them from scorching sun. I will start with this beautiful butterfly hanging over my murraya plant on my balcony.And she is a frequent visitor here.
Another butterfly i captured but not at my terrace, in an open space instead. She is way faster to capture and i spent hours to get her.
This is Tropical milkweed. Botanical name Asclepias curassavica. This is first ever bloom of this plant in my garden. Initially i planted it just fro sake of attracting butterflies but the blooms changed my mind. I grew it from seeds last year. As the name implies it is more suited to tropics than its cousin butterfly milkweed asclepias tuberosa. It likes moist climate specially in hot summers. It is a bit drought tolerant as well. I am growing it in a 14 inches container on my terrace.
I captured this bee busy in a sunflower bloom. This species has gone wild in open areas of punjab. Not many bees are attracted but bees just love it. Could not resist few close ups.
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Annual Spring Flower Show Lahore - Part 2

This is the second and last part of annual spring flower show coverage. The star of the show were my all time favorite plant aquilegia or Granny's Bonnet and another name is columbine.

The blue one above is the prettiest of the lot. Although this red one is very pretty. Sadly they are cool climate plants and do not tolerate the summer heat of lahore. I am yet to find a species of aquilegia suitable for lahore as perennial.There are many hybird varieties of columbine and some are fragrant as well. Probably the other flower which dominated the show was godetia. Botanical name Clarkia amoena,  they almost beat the aquilegia with masses of their beautiful display. They are very tolerant of poor soil although they dislike poor drainage. Isn't it sad that these flower, though grow very good in lahore, are ignored by many nurseries and seeds shops. would surely get my hands on these beautiful plants soon. Keep your eyes on my blog and you will see this plant in my terrace this winter.

Now this was a surprise. A flamingo flower. Another plant very tolerant of lahore weather but ignored by commercial growers. Botanically called Anthurium andraeanum, the common color is this one the red. Although other colors exist for this beautiful flower as well. As expected, it was sold at unreasonable high price.
Amaryllis was also displayed as being forced inside a small plastic pot. It was also high prices although it is very easy to make it bloom in spring in hot climates like ours. you can force it in water and in soil as well. Blooms readily. Many colors available. The local bulbs have rather small flower as compared to those imported ones. although local ones perform better in beds as heat tolerant.
Can you believe that this year in lahore, no seed shop tried to get bulbs of Ornithogalum? i mean such a pretty flower and in many colors and very tolerant of lahore weather and no single bulb present at seeds shops? unbelievable. Now this was probably last years plants or the bulbs were not commercially available. Very pretty flowers and look gorgeous in masses.And yes they are also called chincherinchee.
This was some unknown plant having strange looking flowers. Being sold at sky high price. About 5 feet tall.
Coco bricks were also sold. These bricks are soaked in water and then used. Coco peat is mostly used as mulch or soil amendment. Also used as seed cover for germinating the seed. I use lots of them as summer mulch as they retain moisture to a great extent.
Indian dahias were also exhibited. The indian ones are grown from large thich tubers. And another cheaper alternate is to buy the cuttings of these plants which exhibit same result or even better. The pakistani dahlis is grown mostly from seeds and have single or semi double flower. The local ones have more heat tolerance once again.
Last but not least, gypsophila. Once again a plant being ignored. People probably do not give it much attention because of its small flowers although it has very delicate pretty flowers.