3 Months free floriculture course - Lahore

The Government of Punjab, floriculture department is offering a free 3-months course at Lawrence gardens, Lahore. Minimum education is matriculation and last date of application is September 27, 2013. Course will include landscaping, commercial cultivation of flowers, ornamental flowers and kitchen gardening.

Purple Buddleja and Cassia nodosa

There are very few plants which grow well in summer heat of lahore. Our summers are constantly over 40C. But there are some flowering plants which take the heat very well. Here are some of the flowers showing their grace in our hot summers in June. This is purple dwarf buddleja. Probably a variant of buddleja followiana and davidii. It is fragrant and heat tolerant. Not all purple buddleja plants are heat tolerant but this one is. It tolerates our monsoon rains too. It is planted in my soil bed.





This is cassia nodosa, a tropical summer flowering tree. It flowers in our summers when there are very few trees in bloom. Ofcourse cassia fistula is another summer flowering tree. Cassia nodosa is loaded with flowers in summer. Young plants need protection from winter.
 


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For more Floral friday pictures, please visit Floral Friday

Private garden of Amer Yar Khan - Lahore

Dr Amer is a Doctor by profession and has tremendous interest in gardening. He has accumulated some wonderful rare plants from his garden. I would like to share some of the beauties in his garden. Hope you will enjoy it. A very large flowered daylily.



Another beautiful daylily
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He has many varieties of hibiscus specially tropical hibiscus. This one is cosmic dancer





This hibiscus is city slicker
 



He is very fond of fragrant plants so gardenia is an expected plant in his garden. He grows around 6 varieties of gardenia. This one is Aimee Yoshioka the largest gardenia in the world. 




Tall beard iris grow well here in lahore. This one is Cloud Ballet. 






This is michelia figo also called as magnolia figo.Common name is banana shrub. Very fragrant flowers but very slow growth

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There are lots of roses in his garden including david austin ones and other fragrant roses. This one is bronze star.
 



Double delight is one of his favorite roses for both the beauty and intense fragrance.



Ebb tide





Augusta louise

 



He is also growing many bulbous plants as well. This one is a giant amaryllis.



Cybister lima
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Ornithogalum dubium



Scilla peruviana. Probably the only scilla which will grow in lahore. Many plants from peru do good in lahore.



Some of the vines from his garden. This one is lonicera gold flame, a honey suckle.



Lonicera magnifica
 
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Passiflora clear sky
 


Tabebuia haemantha





I will post more rare flowers from his garden off and on. I hope you would have enjoyed this virtual tour of his garden.

Evening primrose, climbing snapdragon and gardenia florida

Spring is coming to an end in Lahore and coming heat wave is having its toll on the spring flowers. On the other hand, the semi tropical perennial flowers are coming to their own. This year i grew many perennials from seed. Not common in lahore, i took they risk whether they will grow good in lahore or not. Some produced excellent results. Here are some of those:

Evening primrose, Oenothera pallida "innocence", seeds bought from Chilten seeds UK. Flowers are very fragrant citrus spice and bloom in mid day. They last few days. They are supposed to be a perennial plant in lahore and other hot climates. I hope they survive our hot summers and prove to have a permanent position in my fragrant garden.


Another rare climber i grew from seed and it flowered only after 8 months is, climbing snapdragon. This is asarina purpurea seeds from Sunshine seeds Germany. seeds are small but germination was good. It produces hundreds of buds on a small plant. I hope it will prove to be a perennial in my hot climate too.

This gardenia although not grown from seed but a very fragrant and prolific blooming gardenia florida i have. There are many cultivars of this common gardenia and this one seems to be "Heaven scent". Gardenias likes bright shade and not much direct sun light. They also need humid air and an acidic soil to thrive. Most healthy gardenias have green leaves.