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.

Review of International Seeds suppliers - Chiltern Seeds UK

Buying seeds online is not a big deal in countries like United states and United kingdom but buying seeds online from international seeds vendors is not something common in pakistan. The seeds shops in pakistan which are quite a few in number sell only annual flower seeds. No perennial seeds available. The only reason which i get to know is lack of customers. Although i doubt that.

I had a few experiences of buying seeds online from those seeds vendor which ship internationally so i thought i should share my experience as well as to have a little bit review and comparison of these big seeds vendors. The first is Chiltern seeds UK. They were the first i ever ordered from. Here are some pros and cons of Chiltern seeds.

Pros: 
Variety: There is hardly any plant which they do not have seeds for. From tropical water lilies to alpine wild flowers and from vegetable seeds to cactus seeds, they have got everything.
Mixtures: I love their mixtures. they have got so many of them and the seeds are great in number per packet. The few i got interested in were fragrant flower mixture, tropical seeds mixtures, butterfly attracting mixtures etc. They also offer anonymous mixtures as well. And last but not least the species mixture. Can you find somewhere a mixture of all the varieties of annual poppies in a single packet or all the varieties of lilies seeds in a single packet?
Free seeds/Bonus: They do give free mixtures of perennials or annuals or tree/shrubs with your next order but that's all.
Delivery Time: Very good. The packet reaches my country Pakistan just in 5 days as compared to Thompson and Morgan whose packet reaches me in 13 days.

Cons: 
No discounts/Voucher Codes: Unlike Thompson and Morgan, they do not provide any occasional discounts like 50% off or 10% off. They also do not give any free vouchers with the printed catalog. They did, however, put a sale of 1/3rd off last autumn and this was the first time they offered that. I hope they will offer this year as well.
No bulbs: Although they do provide some plants bulbs including achimenes but otherwise they so not sell bulbs/tubers, only seeds.

Overall They are the best seed suppliers in my opinion. I even rate them better than Thompson and morgan and parkseeds. In next post i will review Thompson and morgan international.

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

Magnolia grandiflora - Southern Magnolia

Here i am again with another edition of macro monday. In this post i would like to share with you some macros of my favorite tree, magnolia grandiflora. This tree is native to southern america and state flower of Mississippi. It is widely cultivated in india and pakistan for its beautiful and fragrant flowers. There are many species, some are dwarf, almost all bloom very late specially if grown from seed.
These magnolias are shot in lawrence gardens lahore. It has very large flowers and the scent is very sweet and delicate. Here is how looks the bud unopened.
Bees love it although i am yet to see any butterfly on it. Remember growing magnolia from seed takes a lot of time to reach blooming sometimes 15 years and minimum 3 years. So mostly it is grown from cutting or layring. It has common name bull bay or southern magnolia as well. A true subtropical tree.
It produces seed mostly after 8 or 10 years. There is another close relative Magnolia champaca or michelia champaca also grown for fragrant flowers as well but it blooms in february here in my zone 10 while magnolia grandiflora blooms in March-April here.


For more macro monday posts, visit Lisa's Chaos