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.

Trumpet honeysuckle and butterfiles in Lawrence garden

Here i am again with another edition of macro monday. Yes more butterflies in this post. I would post seperate on butterflies of lahore. And not just butterflies, capturing some hummingbirds wont be a bad idea though? Wild life is in full swing in urbans of lahore. Most shots are from Lawrence gardens also known as Bagh-e-Jinnah.
First is Plain tiger butterfly (Danaus chrysippus), Very common and easy to capture as its speed is not very fast. It spreads the wings easily and very beautiful indeed.

This one is Pioneer white butterfly (Belenois aurota) Very fast and difficult to capture. She does not like being photographed at all. I hardly manage to get few shots of hers. She is trying to get some nectar off trumpet honeysuckle the botanical name of which is Lonicera sempervirens.

Here is a trick to capture them easily. The small ones in pioneer butterfly group were much faster than those which were large. So i concentrated on large ones having large wings. not a bad deal at all.
This one was pretty fast as well and very small as compared to others butterflies. But capturing her back with spread wings was the challenge. I do not know her name, this is my first capture of her. She just adored alyssum flowers.
Another butterfly whose name i do not know. She was attracted to trumpet honeysuckle or Coral Honeysuckle, which is a hummingbird magnet. I also captured some hummingbirds, but the shots were not clear as i had no tele lens with my digital camera.
.

For more macro monday posts, visit Lisa's Chaos

Annual Spring Flower Show Lahore - Part 1

This year's annual spring flower show was held at bara dari in lawrence garden aka jinnah bagh lahore. It was 152nd annual flower show and lasted for about a week. The special feature of the show was that it was collaborated with iran's culture centre, they are also celebrating their spring these days. There was a special corner for iran's flowers and their floriculture. I must say they had one of the beautiful flowers i have ever seen which i will share in next part. So here goes the flower show:
This was joint flag of pakistan and iran.
Helichrysum also known as paper flowers planted in groups. Very pretty indeed.
Geraniums, and these seemed to be geraniums not pelargoniums.
These are the cranesbill geraniums.
Another beautiful plant whose name i am forgetting right now but but very pretty in masses.
There were many stalls and few were selling bonsai at very high cost. Although personally i do not like bonsai but people seemed to be interested in them.
succellents were also displayed and people bought them with interest.
There were many mass plantings of petunia but this one just caught my eye.
This iris was about 3 feet high probably raised from bulb.
Statice are becoming popular at cut flower shops as well due to their lasting capabilities.
Many types of roses were displayed. This one is miniture rose.
This is hybird tea rose.
The floribunda rose.
Another mass planting of these beautiful yellow flowers i was unable to identify at first glance.
Many types of gladiolus were also displayed including imported ones and local ones. This one was gem of all.
Although digitalis foxglove do not grow very well here in plains, the sellers do manage to get them bloom and sell at high prices. This one was one example. I discourage buying high altitude plants in plains, ahhm okay i admit aquilegia is an exception.

What do you think a spring annual show can be complete without mums? here they go. By the way here is exclusive coverage of chrysanthemum flower show few months back.

Dianthus and shirley poppy flowers

For more Wordless Wednesday posts, visit Wordless Wednesday