Butterflies of Lahore - Plain tiger butterfly

Starting from this post, i am initiating a series of posts on butterflies of my city Lahore. There is already a post on butterflies of Islamabad here. I have few butterfly posts on butterflies of himalayas as well but right now i am starting with those of my own city lahore. All the shots are taken by me. The first one is Plain tiger butterfly Danaus chrysippus.


Plain tiger is probably the most common butterfly in urban cities like lahore. And it is also one of the easiest to capture because it is a slow mover. Not very fast so camera captures easily. You will find this one on roads, in gardens, everywhere. It is not fond of a specific plant, you will find it mostly on foliage. Here is the side shot of this butterfly. Remember there is not much of difference between the male and the female at least not to naked eye.


This butterfly is common in India, Pakistan and many other countries. One habit of this butterfly is that it spreads its wing so that full sun is at the back absorbing the heat of sun through its fully open wings and that is the time to capture it closely.


The next butterfly post would be on Common lime butterfly, another common butterfly of Lahore - Pakistan. This post is included in Macro Monday by Lisa's Chaos. So visit her blog for more macro shots.

Snail vine, vigna caracalla flowering in my terrace garden

Welcome to another edition of Macro monday. This is what is blooming right now in my garden.
 Snail vine finally in bloom. Very sweet fragrance.

You will find all 3 colors on this vine. White, then purple and last one yellow. Very heat tolerant vine.


I captured this gram blue butterfly on the flower of hyacinth bean vine. Very fast growing vine and a relative of snail vine.


For Macro monday, visit Lisa's Chaos

Flowers of PC Bhurban - Lobelia, hosta, fuchsia, gazania and daylily

This is the second post in the series of garden flowers of PC Bhurban, Murree hills Pakistan. You can see the previous post covering delphiniums and roses here. As always, feel free to click on the image for full view.

The first one in this post is gazania. Now this is almost a perennial in lahore which is lot hotter than bhurban. It is a very drought tolerant plant and very suitable for hottest of the places in your garden.


Then comes the fuchsia. These are not suitable for hot climates of karachi and lahore. They prefer a cooler weather or at least a temperate one. They can be grown as spring blooming annuals in our southern plains but they do not tolerate the summer heat.


Here is another view from the balcony of PC Burban.


Lobelia, another spring blooming annual in lahore but not a common sight due to the small flowers. It blooms in summer in hilly areas of bhurban and murree hills. Planted in masses, all blue color looks just exquisite. Here is the macro view

Another view of lobelia flowers.


Hosta or plantain lily, grown rarely in plains at least in lahore. It is a bulbous plant famous for growing in shade. Its foliage is perhaps more pretty than its flowers and the is the main attraction.


There are some species which can be grown in lahore and other subtropical climates. But it is a plant not well explored here in plains. Does not come true from seed and does not flower early from seed, best propagated through division and not easily available as well.


Last in this post is the daylily. There are many cultivars of this beautiful and east to grow plant. If there is one bulbous plant which can well endure the heat of lahore then it is no other than daylily. In Pearl continental hotel Bhurban there are many varieties of daylily are planted. This was my personal favorite.


The last post on the flowers of PC bhurban will take some time because there are lot of un-identified flowers in the post and i am trying hard to get their names. Meanwhile there will be a series of butterflies of Pakistan and that includes a few species i captured in murree hills and one special butterfly i saw in the garden of PC Bhurban. So the butterfly lovers, stay tuned for next few posts!!!

This post is included in Today's flowers  so do visit there to see flowers from around the world.
For macro monday, visit Lisa's Chaos
For Mosaic monday, visit Mosaic monday

Flowers of PC Bhurban - Delphinium and Roses

This is the third post in the series of hilly area flowers. The first two you can find here and here. If you ever go to murree hills and other gailyat and do not visit the garden of PC Bhurban, you did nothing. One of the most beautiful gardens i ever saw. Very well maintained and well planned. The landscaping is excellent so is the choice of plants. You will find flowering bulbs, shrubs, roses, perennials, annuals etc.

When you enter into PC bhruban, the first row of flower bed, that is all delphinium. And what a sight it is. almost every color of delphinium with full glory. And it is not 6 inches delphinium from a hot climate, this is grandiflora which gets tall to its full extent as this cool climate is ideal for its growth. We, the natives of subtropical climate, are content with its warm weather cousin larkspur though. Here comes the delphiniums, you can click on the image for full view:







If you visit Pearl Continental hotel bhurban chances are you will be seeing one of the best roses display over there. And these are not floribundas or other miniature ones. The giant roses. Bright colors, very large blooms and that too on a single stem.


The white roses are my personal favorite. Roses love temperate climate. Neither too hot not too cold. This is mid May and weather is very pleasant in bhurban. Roses are enjoying it too. What a delight it is, having a cup of coffee among these beautiful roses, looking at the snowy Himalayas. What a treat.  






There will be at least two more posts on flowers of PC Bhruban Murree ahead. So keep visiting for more alpine flowers. There will also be one post exclusively on butterflies of Murree and galiyat. So stay tuned and enjoy these blooms.

This post is included in Today's flowers  so do visit there to see flowers from around the world.
For macro monday, visit Lisa's Chaos
For Mosaic monday, visit Mosaic monday