Cosmos Sulph.
Allamanda C.
Gaillardia pulchella
Allamanda C.
Gaillardia pulchella
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
5 tips for making your jasmine(motia) bloom more
Arabian jasmine or jasmine sambac is locally called motia. It blooms almost all year except in winter months. Here are some tips to make it bloom more and bigger.
1- Give it moisture and water. In summer heat of lahore, this plant will drink all the water you will give it. specially those plants which are in container. Keep it moist. this can be achieved through wet trays of pebbles or misting leaves in the evening. Water in the evening instead of morning.
2- Digging and hoeing: This is what we locally call 'godi'. Do this almost every weekend or atleast every month. Purpose is to move soil beneath the surface to come up and absorb sunlight while surface soil to go beneath.
3- Protect from afternoon sun - let it give full sunlight but protect from blazing afternoon sun
4- Give it acid-loving ferilizer high in phosphorus . you can also give it water soluble/liquid fertilizer for blooming. in monsoon when temperatures drop, you can give well rotted cow manure which will promote plant's health. i usually prefer leaf mold in hot summer months. then in late summer cow manure. Also try epsom salt, it works wonders for most shrubs specially jasmine.
5- Prune it in winter. growth will be vigorous and blooms will be bigger on new growth
one more important thing. Buy indian motia instead of pakistani motia. indian one has leaves more darker and roundish than pakistani motia. it is also called labenese motia. i will also post pics differentiating the two. Another form slightly variate is called bela.
1- Give it moisture and water. In summer heat of lahore, this plant will drink all the water you will give it. specially those plants which are in container. Keep it moist. this can be achieved through wet trays of pebbles or misting leaves in the evening. Water in the evening instead of morning.
2- Digging and hoeing: This is what we locally call 'godi'. Do this almost every weekend or atleast every month. Purpose is to move soil beneath the surface to come up and absorb sunlight while surface soil to go beneath.
3- Protect from afternoon sun - let it give full sunlight but protect from blazing afternoon sun
4- Give it acid-loving ferilizer high in phosphorus . you can also give it water soluble/liquid fertilizer for blooming. in monsoon when temperatures drop, you can give well rotted cow manure which will promote plant's health. i usually prefer leaf mold in hot summer months. then in late summer cow manure. Also try epsom salt, it works wonders for most shrubs specially jasmine.
5- Prune it in winter. growth will be vigorous and blooms will be bigger on new growth
one more important thing. Buy indian motia instead of pakistani motia. indian one has leaves more darker and roundish than pakistani motia. it is also called labenese motia. i will also post pics differentiating the two. Another form slightly variate is called bela.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Top Butterfly attracting flowers
Though i would submit a separate post on how to attract butterflies specially in lahore, right now i would focus on only which plants i have found attractive for butterflies.
1- First, butterflies are cold blooded insects so they love sunshine. They tend to prefer area which receives maximum sunshine.
2- Choose flowers rich in nectar. Have you wondered why there is not a lot of butterflies seen on Roses? nectar!!!!! Nectar rich flowers are usually single petal flowers having large seeds visible in the center. See the example of Dahlia below:
Good for butterflies, Nectar Rich
Not butterfly friendly, no nectar
Daisy is another common example. Others good flowers include following:
Butterfly on my senecio vine
3-Choose flowers with sweet fragrance. One example is Murraya (Marwa, marwi), i have seen hundreds of butterflies on one single murraya tree near my home.
Note that butterflies usually appear in lahore from February-October. Also, Butterflies cannot fly if their body temperature is less than 86 degrees.
1- First, butterflies are cold blooded insects so they love sunshine. They tend to prefer area which receives maximum sunshine.
2- Choose flowers rich in nectar. Have you wondered why there is not a lot of butterflies seen on Roses? nectar!!!!! Nectar rich flowers are usually single petal flowers having large seeds visible in the center. See the example of Dahlia below:
Good for butterflies, Nectar RichNot butterfly friendly, no nectarDaisy is another common example. Others good flowers include following:
- scabiosa (pincushion flower)
- Lantana(specially blue flowered)
- buddleia (butterfly bush, white color variety survives in plains while purple one in hills)
- Asclepias curassavica(tropical milkweed)
- lemon/orange/tangerine
- Kniphofia(red hot pocker)
- Allium
- Cosmos
- Single petal dahlia
- Hibiscus
Butterfly on my senecio vine
3-Choose flowers with sweet fragrance. One example is Murraya (Marwa, marwi), i have seen hundreds of butterflies on one single murraya tree near my home.
Note that butterflies usually appear in lahore from February-October. Also, Butterflies cannot fly if their body temperature is less than 86 degrees.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
