Flowers of sophora, ranunculus and california poppy

California poppy is favorite among bees as well. It is a drought tolerant as compared to iceland poppies. Most common color is this yellow one.

And they look great in masses.


Sophora secundiflora with synonym Calia secundiflora also called shama here. One of most fragrant flowers i have ever come across. Fragrance is just like grape sode and resembles hyacinth. Bees love it too. Fragrance wafts in the air. A slow growing plant, it takes some time to reach flowering height. The other species common in lahore is sophora tomentosa with yellow flowers but with no fragrance. This Shot is taken in lawrence gardens lahore.


Ranunculus grown from corms/tubers. Blooming right under my neem tree.


Just another bee trying to get inside this blue flower. Any help with the ID will be appreciated.


To see other flowers from around the world, visit Today's Flowers

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Sparaxis, Freesia, gazania in my garden

It is a pleasure to be part of another Booming friday hosted by Katarina at roses and stuff. There are lots of blooms in my garden, Spring at the peak. First comes this beautiful freesia. I planted lots of freesias this year as they are sure to bloom in our weather and adapt very well to our hot climate. I have never seen such lovely color before. And do i need to tell you the fragrance is just outstanding.

I also planted sparaxis bulbs but not all of them showed the blooms. This one did send up some awesome blossoms. A treat to watch if you have planted them in masses. Another warm climate bulb from south africa. so here goes the Harlequin Flower.

Here comes another heat tolerant dazzling bloomer, gazania. Even in this 90F temperature, they will endure drought. What a tough plant it is. And what a splash of colors they provide.

Pink ranunculus blooming in clay container. I grew them from the corms/tubers.

Layia platyglossa,iceland poppy and ranunculus flowering

Iceland poppies are my favorite as far as delicacy is concerned. We had few rains last week and weather was just superb, chilly to be precise. This made our spring last few week more.

 

Isn't  she loaded with pollen?

This ranunculus i grew from tubers/corms and what a wonderful display it is. There are 5 more buds coming and i will post separate on them.

  

Just love the color of this seed raised dahlia.

  

Tidy tips (Layia platyglossa) is a popular annual here.I love the bicolor flowers. Local name is desi gendi.

For more macro monday posts, visit Lisa's Chaos.

Growing Flowering bulbs in warm climates - Ranunculus

This is the second article in this series. Ranunculus asiaticus with common name Persian buttercup Bloomingdale series. Here they reach around 10 inches in height and around 15 inches wide. They come in various color including yellow, red, white, blue and some bi-colors. Flowers are long lasting even in vases.
Here in lahore, Pakistan the price of each corm Rs 20 this year. Plants grown from seed germinate late but come to flowering early and have larger flowers. Price of each seedling is Rs 25 in single plastic cell.

1- Buy biggest corm. Soaking will help but not mandatory. I did not soak and result was fine. This was the corm
















2- Plant it 2 inches deep in a well drained soil which could retain moisture. The corm moisture to sprout roots. Remember plant claws down or in other words plant as shown in the above picture.

This is the situation after one month. I planted 3 corms this pot and so far they are doing fine.

















We plant corms in November and it flowers in January/February and flowers go till March. Remember to save this plant from heavy rains as last year one of my big plant having lots of buds (grown from seed) was ruined by heavy showers in March.

3- After flowers have finished blooming, let the leaves gather the energy and store in corm. when leaves also start to fade, cut the foliage and dry them in shade. Save for next year. Although this was not successful when i tried it. I think it is better to keep it in ground and hope it will multiply itself. I was told that fresh corms better results.

Plants from seeds take around three years to form usable corms. They also end their first bud after third or fourth leaf stage. Remember to remove first bud of the plant so that plant could establish strong root system and forthcoming flowers will be larger. Give this plant semi shade. In our mild winters, we try to avoid it from mid day sun specially if planted in a pot.

They are suitable to our zone 10b just like narcissus paperwhite and anemone so do plant them and you will have fun when you will see really large and beautiful blooms.

Update after 2.5 months: Here are the flowers.

  

Next Bulb: Forcing Hyacinth bulbs in water