Sunday, April 17, 2011

Spring trees millettia ovalifolia and butea frondosa in bloom

There are lot of trees in bloom right now. The spring annuals have started fading but trees are just warming up. Here are some of the trees in bloom right now in lahore. I am intended to capture at least 50 trees in my blog this spring.

First one is butea frondosa also known as Flame of the forest. Bees and butterflies just love it. The hundreds of flowers on a single tree look so pretty. A common tree in lahore. This is a closeup of flowers.


And this is how it looks like a panorama view.


The next one is millettia ovalifolia with local name villayati shisham. A subtropical legume tree. There are more than one millettia species blooming right now but i will share the remaining in next post.
These are buds not flowers.


This is closeup of flower buds. Look like capsules


And this is how flowers look like. Somehow they appear to be pea like.


And last but not least the front view of this beautiful tree.


This post is included in Today's Flowers so don't forget to visit it and enjoy blooms from around the world.

For more macro flowers posts, visit Lisa's Chaos
For Mosaic monday, visit Little red house.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Spring flowers of aquilegia, beaumontia, gardenia and thunbergia

I am pleased to be part of Garden Bloggers bloom day once again, a monthly event hosted by none other than Carol from May Dreams Garden . Gardeners from around the world showcase their gardens and show the lovely blooms. Here goes mine. And don't forget to visit my previous post of free tomato seeds away. It will only last till last day of April.

I caught this butterfly at these paper flowers on the flower exhibition in the Canntt lahore. There were two more butterflies which i captures there but these will be posted separate.


My favorite aquilegia. Blooming happily in my soil bed. Not a perennial in my hot climate but blooms long enough.

This is gardenia coronaria. Not much fragrant but the flowers are very pretty. A relative of gardenia florida but it blooms in spring instead of late summer. This one shot at the lawrence gardens lahore.

And this one is the favorite creeper of gardeners of Islamabad. This is beaumontia grandiflora also called nepal trumpet vine. Not as fragrant flowers as famed for but still very pretty blooms.

Gram blue butterfly captured on flower of erythrina suberosa. Will post pictures of Erythrina suberosa and cristagali in next post hopefully.

This is an uncommon gardenia. Gardenia lucida. Very fragrant flowers, a small tree. Blooming happily in lawrence gardens lahore. A plant must have.

You all will be familiar with thunbergia alta and perhaps thunbergia grandiflora (bengal clock vine) but not this one. This is thunbergia erecta. Dark blue flowers. Blooms almost whole summer once established.

And last but not least, this flower also shot at Flower exhibition held at polo ground lahore canntt.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Free tomato seeds give away

I am glad to announce this tomato seeds give away on my blog. Sherilou is a generous gardener from New south mexico, USA. And i received freshly harvested heirloom tomato seeds from the mountains of Zuni courtesy to Sherilou. I also got some other cultivars of tomato which are extra. So Any one who is interested in these seeds, just reply in this thread and send me your address at muhammad dot khabbab at gmail dot com and i will send the seeds. I will send seeds wrapped in bubble wrap to those who are overseas. For overseas gardeners, i will send through airmail but may not be able to send first class.

Remember, maximum 2 packets per person. And one packet of seeds will contain around 10 seeds. This offer is only for amateur gardeners !!!!. I will add more tomato seeds in coming few days.

Porter dark cherry tomato - from sherilou
These are some tough heirloom tomatoes. Very heat tolerant. Indeterminate type.
Packet 1 - M. Subzwari, Karachi  - SENT
Packet 2 - Jahanzaib, Islamabad - SENT
Packet 3-  F, Irum. Rawalpindi - SENT
Packet 4 - S, Shahid Karachi - SENT
Packet 5 - Waqas, Lahore - SENT
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Tomato pole beefsteak
Packet 1 - M. Subzwari, Karachi  - SENT
Packet 2 - S, Anis, Karachi - SENT
Packet 3-

Tomato hillbilly
Packet 1 -
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Tomato golden jubilee
Packet 1 - S, Anis, Karachi - SENT
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Tomato rio grande
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