Sunday, August 12, 2012

Giant Crape-myrtle, peacock flower and katsagon

There are lots of flowers in bignonia family which are ideal to the climate of lahore. Some of them are heat loving and flower profusely in hottest months in summer. Some of them are still blooming in monsoon. Let us have a look.
Giant Crape-myrtle with botanic name Lagerstroemia speciosa It is elder brother of common Lagerstroemia indica shrub, but it is a tree not a shrub. It flowers when only few flowers are blooming due to intense summer heat.
Giant Crape-myrtle

Lahore is full of these trees and they add beauty and bright colors. Flower color changes with age.
Lagerstroemia speciosa

Another common and heat loving flower is peacock flower with botanic name Caesalpinia pulcherrima. Flowers for lots of summer months with bright orange flowers.
Caesalpinia pulcherrima

This one is a bignonia family tree with large leaves and yellow flowers. Common name is katsagon while botanic name is Fernandoa adenophylla
Fernandoa adenophylla

This post is featured at Lisa's Chaos so visit her blog for more gorgeous macro shots.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Sunbird on my terrace garden

Humming birds are not common in lahore, pakistan while sunbirds are common here. I did see a humming bird moth in Lawrence gardens but we will have to be content with sunbirds for now on. This sunbird is a regular visitor in my terrace garden. Mostly after seedspods. In the below pictures it is after spent flowers of senecio vine.




These spent flowers will be used probably for his nest although they are source of food maybe. Attracting sunbirds is very exciting and there is another blue one very pretty on my terrace often but very fast to be caught on camera. Will post soon as i defeat his pace.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Wild flowers of Punjab - Sodom apple, bindweed


This is Apple of sodom or calotrope with botanic name Calotropis procera is a wild flower of Punjab. It has succulent foliage and flowers in almost whole summer in open sun.


Bindweed with botanic name convolvulus arvensis. A very common weed in Punjab. A ground cover in full sun. Self sows. Foliage is different than that of morning glory.


Ipomoea nil chocolate. This is a type of Japanese morning glory with a color not very common. It is also called chocolate rose silk. These vines grow good in our extreme summer heat. I am growing more than 7 colors of morning glories this summer and will post pictures as soon as they flower.


This post is included in Garden bloggers bloom day, a gardening event on the 15th of every month at May Dreams Gardens

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Growing Society garlic, Tulbaghia violacea in warm climates

There are not many bulbs capable of flowering in the summer heat of May and June in lahore. When temperatures are over 100F very few plants grow well. Society garlic, Tulbaghia violacea is one of these. From garlic/onion family, this south african bulb is very heat tolerant and a perennial in warm climates. It grows from a rhizome just like most onions and garlic do. Flowers are fragrant though some people do not consider the scent to be pleasant.

This is how the rhizome looks like.
tulbaghia rhizome

The planting depth around 2 inches deep so that the shooting points are just above the soil. I plant whole rhizome into the soil leaving just the tips above. It flowers only after few months of planting.
tulbaghia violacea flowers

It does go down in monsoon rains which shows that it does not like much water although drainage is good in my soil bed. It does not need protection in lahore winter and becomes dormant for a short while. It multiplies fast.

There is another tulbaghia which is tulbaghia fragrans, also a fragrant tulbaghia. It has same mauve flowers but flowers are little different. It also comes in white form. The name tulbaghia is derived from Tulbagh a town in south africa.


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