Garden Of Mr Waheed Malik in Lahore

Waheed malik is a very experienced and skilled gardener of Lahore. He is very passionate in growing almost all forms of plant kingdom including cactus, succulent, bonsai, bulbs, climbers etc. He grows hundreds of Amaryllis bulbs on his rooftop and has some rare collection of amaryllis family bulbs. I had the honor to visit his garden and learned a lot of things from him. Let me share some of the flowers blooming at his farm house and one of his gardens.
Wisteria flowering at his farm house. This is one of many types of wisterias he is growing.
This is a bulbous plant which is not common in Lahore. It is a perennial in lahore and has wonderful fragrance. This is Ipheion uniflorum 'Wisley Blue' It is from allium family.
This is amaryllis papilio, a rare amaryllis in lahore, flowering on his rooftop.


This is one of many clematis vines grown in his garden. They do not give profuse flowering but do grow fine and flower regularly.
A lot of dutch Iris. He is also growing lousiana Iris and Tall beard Iris, both of which grow very well in lahore.
This is a flower of some cydonia. Cydonia is relative of prunus and has many varieties which are grown in lahore. He has more than one cydonia i believe.
He is growing Euphorbia in masses.All planted in soil bed. They give a spectacular look indeed.
This is yellow Tabebuia. Tabebuia is from Tecoma (Bignonia) family tree and there are lots of color available in lahore. It is one of many Tabebuia he is growing.

This is prunus growing at his farm. Not sure how much fruits it produces but it looks beautiful.
The pictures above show a glimpse of what he is growing. There are lots of plants i did not cover just because they were not in bloom. I will try to capture more flowers from his garden in coming months will share with you. I will also cover more private gardens of lahore in next few posts. Your feedback will be highly appreciated.

Spring flowers of aquilegia, beaumontia, gardenia and thunbergia

I am pleased to be part of Garden Bloggers bloom day once again, a monthly event hosted by none other than Carol from May Dreams Garden . Gardeners from around the world showcase their gardens and show the lovely blooms. Here goes mine. And don't forget to visit my previous post of free tomato seeds away. It will only last till last day of April.

I caught this butterfly at these paper flowers on the flower exhibition in the Canntt lahore. There were two more butterflies which i captures there but these will be posted separate.


My favorite aquilegia. Blooming happily in my soil bed. Not a perennial in my hot climate but blooms long enough.

This is gardenia coronaria. Not much fragrant but the flowers are very pretty. A relative of gardenia florida but it blooms in spring instead of late summer. This one shot at the lawrence gardens lahore.

And this one is the favorite creeper of gardeners of Islamabad. This is beaumontia grandiflora also called nepal trumpet vine. Not as fragrant flowers as famed for but still very pretty blooms.

Gram blue butterfly captured on flower of erythrina suberosa. Will post pictures of Erythrina suberosa and cristagali in next post hopefully.

This is an uncommon gardenia. Gardenia lucida. Very fragrant flowers, a small tree. Blooming happily in lawrence gardens lahore. A plant must have.

You all will be familiar with thunbergia alta and perhaps thunbergia grandiflora (bengal clock vine) but not this one. This is thunbergia erecta. Dark blue flowers. Blooms almost whole summer once established.

And last but not least, this flower also shot at Flower exhibition held at polo ground lahore canntt.

Dombeya Magic

Dombeya closeup






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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.

Wordless Wednesday - vigna caracalla

Rose Garden at Liberty Market Lahore

First, i would like to congratulate this year's Blotanical 2009 awards winners, you guys really deserved it. I would also like to congratulate stuart for managing this wonderful event and providing us some opportunity to vote for some wonderful blog around the globe. And special thanks to those who voted for my blog, it was awesome to be in top five.

Now coming back to the post, i admit that i had no intention to do a post on roses specially in this season when they do not bloom at their best But i just carried away. I just happened to visit this rose garden at liberty market lahore and the fragrance and colors were just awesome. I mean how can you resists capturing these beauties anyway. Now if they can bloom as good as now in this heat of 90F then how cheerfully they will greet you in spring!!!!!

This is my first ever post on roses and i hope you will like it. This is one of my favorite rose gardens in lahore. Enjoy!!!!!!

A sight to behold - Water lily blooming

so it is the second waterlily blooming in my garden. it is first day of its bloom. wonderful sight. note that it is not deep blue as compared to the first one but light blue with shades of white and yellow center. i just love it. my brother says it reminded him of old movie scenes lolz.

pic from my cell phone. at 9am sharp














This one taken at 2pm.

5 tips for making your jasmine(motia) bloom more

Arabian jasmine or jasmine sambac is locally called motia. It blooms almost all year except in winter months. Here are some tips to make it bloom more and bigger.

1- Give it moisture and water. In summer heat of lahore, this plant will drink all the water you will give it. specially those plants which are in container. Keep it moist. this can be achieved through wet trays of pebbles or misting leaves in the evening. Water in the evening instead of morning.
2- Digging and hoeing: This is what we locally call 'godi'. Do this almost every weekend or atleast every month. Purpose is to move soil beneath the surface to come up and absorb sunlight while surface soil to go beneath.
3- Protect from afternoon sun - let it give full sunlight but protect from blazing afternoon sun
4- Give it acid-loving ferilizer high in phosphorus . you can also give it water soluble/liquid fertilizer for blooming. in monsoon when temperatures drop, you can give well rotted cow manure which will promote plant's health. i usually prefer leaf mold in hot summer months. then in late summer cow manure. Also try epsom salt, it works wonders for most shrubs specially jasmine.
5- Prune it in winter. growth will be vigorous and blooms will be bigger on new growth











one more important thing. Buy indian motia instead of pakistani motia. indian one has leaves more darker and roundish than pakistani motia. it is also called labenese motia. i will also post pics differentiating the two. Another form slightly variate is called bela.

Khizra Nursery - Haripur

This plants nursery http://www.khizranursery.com/ is situated in main G.T road haripur. I bought so sought after Brugmansias from them. OMG, the flowers were so huge, almost more than my hand's length and fragrant i was just amazed. I tried but could not find anu brugmansia from lahore. May be because its a toxic plant which usually all daturas do. I also bought Some pelargoniums from them. If any one is after burgmansias, they are definitelty worth trying.

I also plan to get seeds for Datura metel bellarina from UK for their dwarf nature and fragrant flowers all summer long. Their seeds, toxic though, are easy to germinate in lahore and it flowers first year from seed. Mine's not starting to bloom yet but i have my fingers crossed, let see.