Saturday, September 5, 2009

Growing in pots? you have to see this!!!!!

Now this is something very encouraging for those who have no space like me and are restricted to pot culture. Folks, this railway creeper is at least 15 feet and the plastic container is only 4 inches deep. and i have placed it on a concrete shade which is further 8 feet high from the ground. Now don't ask me how did i manage to put this clay filled container on this shade!!!. The pic is taken from roof top.
railway creeper ipomoea palmata















Allamanda in same container, almost 10 feet high.
Acutally there is another vine in the middle, morning glory. But i think she is over taken by these two and hardly nourishing. But she will bloom too, for sure, just wait a while. This pic taken at 4x optical zoom of canon powershot.
allamanda cathartica golden trumpet vine
















Who says you cannot attract butterflies and bees with container gardening? well i surely think otherwise. now i am not good at bees and i think this is a carpenter bee. sorry for not capturing this bee closer, actually i am afraid of their sting!!!!!
bee pot plant












carpenter bee lahore pakistan















carpenter bee on flower













carpenter bee urban area














I captured this butterfly when thick black clouds had taken over and rain was just coming by. This cutie took shelter on my jasmine nitidum leaf. It was very low light and you can see some grains in the picturesulphur butterfly on leaves
















Isn't it strange that this mushroom sprouted, oops i think we can use this word sprout with fungi as well, right? in this D shaped pot instead of my soil bed. They grow almost every year during monsoon rains.
mashroom lahore

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

The giggling morning glories

The affair was going on for several weeks but not disclosed until today morning. Rain drops hugging the gorgeous blooms of morning glory. MG blooms were looking so happy and went on blooming and blooming with pleasure. Even those stubborn blooms which had no intention to open up and always showed as they were spent but actually not, also participated in the carnival. They did not stop as i caught them in the "act", in fact they cheered and giggled.
blue morning glory lahore















Now these vines are covering my front wall of about 15 feet at least. As they reached the top of wall, you can see they sort of had a get together, a junction. i am trying to cover my first floor terrace with these. now they have reached the top, i am guiding them to upper top, makes total of 35 feet.
ipmoea tricolor flying saucer















Now this is interesting. She is trying to elbow her neighbour, C'mon sleepy head, wake up. but she is sort of dozing. Maybe trying to gather the energy to open up and join the party. i hope you enjoyed the show as well. cheers.
morning glory ipomoea tricolor

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Angelwing jasmine,barleria,railway creeper in my garden

This is jasmine nitidum - one of my favorite jasmines because it blooms nonstop from April till november. divine fragrance. i am growing it in a 16 inches clay pot.
jasmine nitidum angelwing jasmine















Gomphrena - bachelor's button, pink color - seems out of focus pic.
gomphrena bachelor button lahore















Can someone help me Id this butterfly bush?. it has fragrant white blossoms and flowers in late summer from August-October here. its leaves are broad as compared to buddleia davidii.
sweet almond verbena aloysia virgata















some dragon fly on star jasmine stem
dragonfly lahore















Barleria. not one of my favorite but color is good
barleria cristata lahore















Water hyacinth, the official flower of province sindh in pakistan. gorwing in a round clay pot of 10 inches diameter. it is found abundant and wild not only in sindh but in our province punjab as well. considered a weed here.

































what a shot, isnt' it? both my tropical water lilies in one shot. and both are blooming non stop. they will go dormant in winter. the upper pot is bigger than the other. i just love them. note that the the first one is fully opened but panama pacific below is just starting to open. first one is also viviparous and you can see the viviparous leaf in the picture.
















close up of waterlily in smaller pot
















Tradescantia blooming

































And last but not least, the railway creeper. i am growing this vine in a plastic square container in which i am also growing allamanda and morning glory. and that container is placed 12 feet high on a concrete shade. just parallel to my terrace. now this is what i call urban/small space gardening.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Attracting wild life to your garden

It is not easy to establish a garden which would attract butterflies, bees, sun birds if you are living in an over populated urban city with lots of pollution around. Situation gets worse if you have as little space as i have got. Sure plants can be grown in containers and they will flourish but nothing compared to those which are nourished by sweet mother earth. After all, plants get to know they are in containers, nah? what about a patch full of self seeding bright wild flowers!!!

Although butterflies do visit my garden many times a day but this lemon tree just next to my home is something all the butterflies and bees just adore. Sometimes i think that they come all the way to sip nectar from this tree instead and in the way they also visit my garden. well i don't mind it either. My dwarf murraya tree does compete hard and tries to allure those butterflies back through its intense sweet fragrance. The competition goes on.
butterfly on lemon flower















This bee also visited my murraya tree just before coming here but i could not capture it there.
bee on lemon flower















This butterfly was wandering around these phlox flowers and they were hundreds in a row. something i wish i could ever grow.
butterfly on dianthus flower















Now this wild flower garden is something i am talking about. Self seeding annuals in a natural way.
gaillardia wild growing lahore















Hope some day i will have a patch full of butterfly bushes with tons of butterflies around. Dreams never die actually.

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