Growing Flowering bulbs in warm climates - Rain lily (zephyranthes)

This is 6th article in this series of growing warm climate bulbs. zephyranthes lily with synonyms rain lily, fairy lily, zephyr lily are very tough plants yet very aasy to flower warm climate bulbs. Not a true lily though,they are from amaryllis familly. Their flowering period is not confined, although they bloom after rains hence called rain lily. In my zone 10b, these bloom almost yer round but heavy blooming is in monsoon rains.Its local name is gul-e-nargis.

This is how the bulbs of pink rain lily looks like. It has the largest bulb as compared to the bulbs of white and yellow rain lilies.


Now they are mostly not available as bulbs but plants. And 1 plant includes many bulbs. They are best planted in groups. Sadly the flowers last just few days.

Growing conditions
Plant them in well drained soil so that they are just under the soil. Even the tip few centimeters above the soil is fine.
Give them full sun. Although they will benefit from shade in very hot afternoons like mine of 120 F.
They like being wet and then dry, then again wet and then dry again. This is how their blooming is triggered.
Give them some fertilizer off and on. I do not fertilize them at all and they bloom fine but this season i i will try some light fertilizer.

Winter protection
As long as temperature is over 4C they will do fine. Below that they might get damaged. Mine loose some of their leaves in winter (ours is mild around 4C) but most of foliage is retained.

Propagation
They are mostly grown from bulbs as bulbs keep producing offsets. For new varieties they are grown from seeds.

Varieties
 There are 3 common species. The most common and famous is pink rain lily, zephyranthes grandiflora. It blooms more easily and frequently as compared to other two. It has the largest flower of all species.
 
Then comes the white rain lily, zephyranthes candida. 

And the last one is yellow rain lily, Zephyranthes citrina or Zephyranthes sulphurea They are very common in lawrence gardens, self sow and pop up at odd places in summers.


There are some hybrids grown from seeds with some different colors including some bi colors but i am yet to find their seeds.

Update: Some varieties of rain lily i tried are following:
Zephyranthes labuffarosa:

Zephyranthes drummondii:

And last but not least here is a wonderful article on rain lilies by Zahrah Nasir. http://archives.dawn.com/archives/69398

Dahlia flowers

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Lagerstroemia, crape myrtle and ixora flowers

Welcome to another edition of Macro monday. Thanks to Lisa for hosting this wonderful event every monday. Ixora is still blooming profusely in this extreme heat. Butterflies and bee specially bumble bees love its blooms. I also saw in morning some hummingbirds but could not capture them.

Lagerstroemia with common name crape myrtle is the only tough beauty in this heat of june. Not only blooming profusely in as many colors as white, purple, pink, blue and many others but butterflies love it too. A typical plant of subcontinent very heat tolerant.

Lilac color flowers were just beautiful. The contrast of lilac with yellow pollens was awesome

The flower has actually very unique shape. They surround the pollens in such a different way. From a distance the flower shape is not very prominent. Only when you go near the flower and look closely then you see the real beauty.

Bees adore it. They reach deep into the flower in search of pollen. This one was a busy worker probably drunk in the pollen.

Tecoma (Trumpet vine) blooming

For more wordless wednesday posts visit http://www.wordlesswednesday.com/newhome/

Macro Monday - Zinnia magic

It was difficult to get shots for this macro monday due to intense heat here. However i managed to get a few shots. Until the weather cools down a bit when monsoon starts, plants will be in stress specially the ones on my terrace. Please do visit other blogs for more macro monday shots. Here is the link to Lisa's beautiful chaos http://lisaschaos.com/


Not sure which butterfly it is but it was intense heat out there. Very fast moving butterfly though.

Garden Geek wins Best photo blogger award at Pakistan Blog Awards 2010

It is a pleasure for me to announce that i have won the award of best photo blogger in my country pakistan's first blog awards held in karachi on May 28, 2010. The blog award show was arranged by CIO Pakistan. I could not have been possible without you, the readers, the fans of my blog. I would like to thank you all who voted or put some kind comments for my blog. The credit also goes to hundreds of my fans who visit my blog at regular basis.

I could not attend the ceremony due to some personal commitments but got the trophy somehow. Here is the trophy. The trophy came with goodies bag as well, wonderful stuff. I would also like to congratulate Google Pakistan and CIO Pakistan on doing a great job of Pakistan blog awards.

There are very few gardening blogs from Pakistan and i am sure this award will inspire other bloggers from Pakistan and from lahore as well to blog and blog good. It will also inspire those folks who are passionate about gardening but do not blog. I would love some companions along the way.


For more information on the Blog Awards, please visit: www.blogawards.pk

Macro monday - Waterlily magic

It is a pleasure participating another edition of macro monday hosted by Lisa's Chaos. You will find some excellent macro images out there. Here are my pics for this week's macro monday.

This blue water lily survived our mild winters and popped up blooms in june. It will continue blooming till october. I am growing it in a round clay pot not very large.

And here is the close up. My favorite blooms of all. And guess what it is fragrant as well.

Tips for buying plants from nursery

It was not long ago when i started gardening few years back. It took a lot of mistakes, wasted money and valuable time to understand how and when to buy plants or seedlings from a plant nursery. In initial years excitement always overcame the wisdom and patience. Now things are quite different. Here are some of the tips from my personal experience on how to buy the plants from a plant nursery.
Do not buy a plant in bloom
Remember if you buy an already blooming plant then after transplanting it will not focus its energies on root development instead blooming only. Even if you are buying plants in pots and do not intend to transplant them, still it is better to buy healthy plants with no bud/bloom. If there is a bud or two, remove it before transplanting. As a result the plant will use its energies on root development and after then blooming will be profuse and much better.
Do not buy a plant not meant for your climate
In Spring, i always ask nursery men whether this aquilegia (columbine) is a perennial in my hot climate or not and believe me, although they very well know the correct answer, every time they say it is perennial. Sadly it is not true. Same is the case with delphinium and fuchsia which are annual for my zone 10. This is inversely true for northern gardeners that plants like brugmansia and jasminum sambac do not survive cold weather.Conclusion is, always consult form internet whether a particular plant is annual for your climate or not.Or if you are lucky you might find an honest nursery men.
Buy plants with healthy growth
Here is the trick which some clever nursery men do. They take a healthy plant out from soil bed and put it  i a large pot and sell it by saying it was raised in this pot. You must ensure the plant you are buying has a healthy new growth. Avoid plants with yellow leaves, wilting leaves, spotty leaves,brown or burnt leaves, leaves with bugs or pests on them. If there is not new growth then it can mean few things. Either the plant is dormant or the plant is root bound or there is some problem with this plant. If plant is root bound you will see the roots coming out of the bottom of the pot. Transplant root bound plant as soon as possible although i would discourage buying a root bound plant. Remember there are few perennials which bloom only when root bound. So some exceptions are always there.Purchase a dormant plant only if you very well know the plant.
Do not buy a plant in pot but roots in soil
Sometimes a plant is in a pot but the roots outbreak and reach into the soil searching for water and nutrition. Do not buy such plant as the root damage will shock the plant and it will not recover the shock. I once bought a yellow buddleia whose roots were gone into soil although it was in 6 inches pot. The plant did not show any damage within first 15 minutes. But it was dead in next 2 hours.
Keep cell numbers of sales man in your phonebook
It is very handy. You can always ask the sales man before going to nursery for availability of a plant. I use it for price comparison as well. My cell phone book contains more than 30 numbers confined to seeds shops and plant nurseries.

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

Catesbaea spinosa, frangipani and egg fried tree flowers

Welcome to blooming friday.The intense heat of 110F is not allowing plants to settle right now but some tough beauties are still hanging out there. Here are some of those.

Plumeria rubra also known as frangipani and local name gul-e-cheen is a subtropical fragrant plant. It comes in lots of color with white one the most common. This color is not so common but most beautiful of all.
Water lilies are another tough beauty blooming profusely. These white water lilies are shot at botanical garden of the Government College University lahore.They do not appear to be tropical ones but hardy tropical lilies.They bloom when temperature rises above 70F. Growing inside a large pond.
This flower is what we commonly call fried egg tree. The name implies the appearance of fried egg. Bees love its blooms. It was shot at lawrence gardens lahore. Botanical name Oncoba Spinosa,this one has small spines over the trunk of the tree but not too hard.
And last but not least is Lily thorn having botanical name catesbaea spinosa. I had thought that only fuchsia and brugmansias having inverted flowers but the list has gone one more step now. These are also shot at Lawrence gardens lahore.

Amaltas,Gul mohr, neelam and fragrant ixora

In this edition i will share with you the flowers which are currently blooming in lawrence garden (bagh-e-jinnah) lahore. Remember this is garden bloggers bloom day post and for others gbbd posts go to May Dream Gardens and check out other beautiful blogs showing some marvelous blooms from all around the world.
The first one is cassia fistula or amaltas. Very drought tolerant tree and blooms freely in this heat of over 110F. A common street tree with masses of yellow blooms.
At this time when not a lot of trees are blooming, cassia fistula gives eyes a treat to watch. You will lots of these trees in india and pakistan. In lahore a lot of specimens are planted on mall road.
Day lily is another common sight in lahore these days. There are mainly three varieties availabel here commercially. The yellow one which is cheapest, the orange one which is most common and the red one which is most expensive and slightly fragrant as well. Botanical name is Hemerocallis. And there are tons of cultivars and colors but here only these three are common. Some nurseries do sell other colors but at high rates. This is a perennial plant in our climate although flowers only in late spring and summer.
The tree is probably one of world's most beautiful trees. Having botanical name delonix regia but more famous with common name Gulmohar and flame tree. It is indeed a sight to watch when in bloom as it produces hundreds of flowers and looks like the tree is on fire.
If you look closely at the bloom it has very interesting shape like that of a claw.It changes its color with the passage of time. Remember this tree belongs to the pea family.
Here is what i would call the remnants of jacaranda and i belongs to the famous bignonia family.Remember tecoma?, yap same family.It was in full bloom in spring and whole tree was covered with blue flowers but now only some are left on the tree.
This fragrant ixora having botanical name ixora parviflora is also at the end of blooming in lawrence garden. What a scent!!!!
And now some blooms from my terrace a well. This morning glory the hardiest of all, blooms much earlier than other varities. I planted 3 various colors and will share with you as soon as other colors bloom but right now be content with this one only. And yes its botanical name is ipomoea purpurea.

Trumpet honeysuckle and butterfiles in Lawrence garden

Here i am again with another edition of macro monday. Yes more butterflies in this post. I would post seperate on butterflies of lahore. And not just butterflies, capturing some hummingbirds wont be a bad idea though? Wild life is in full swing in urbans of lahore. Most shots are from Lawrence gardens also known as Bagh-e-Jinnah.
First is Plain tiger butterfly (Danaus chrysippus), Very common and easy to capture as its speed is not very fast. It spreads the wings easily and very beautiful indeed.

This one is Pioneer white butterfly (Belenois aurota) Very fast and difficult to capture. She does not like being photographed at all. I hardly manage to get few shots of hers. She is trying to get some nectar off trumpet honeysuckle the botanical name of which is Lonicera sempervirens.

Here is a trick to capture them easily. The small ones in pioneer butterfly group were much faster than those which were large. So i concentrated on large ones having large wings. not a bad deal at all.
This one was pretty fast as well and very small as compared to others butterflies. But capturing her back with spread wings was the challenge. I do not know her name, this is my first capture of her. She just adored alyssum flowers.
Another butterfly whose name i do not know. She was attracted to trumpet honeysuckle or Coral Honeysuckle, which is a hummingbird magnet. I also captured some hummingbirds, but the shots were not clear as i had no tele lens with my digital camera.
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For more macro monday posts, visit Lisa's Chaos