Flowers of murree hills - aquilegia, chestnut tree and wild flowers

All shots taken in Murree hills and Nathia gali, Pakistan. some flowers are wild while some are grown by home gardeners. The first one is aquilegia or columbine. A passionate gardener in nathiagali is growing these beautiful columbine flowers.



Indian Horse Chestnut tree with botanic name Aesculus indica is a common tree of murree hills. The umbrella shape leaves are beautiful and the flower spikes add to the beauty. 




Another columbine flower planted by a gardener in nathia gali. Columbines grow naturally in hilly areas. They do not tolerate the southern heat of plains thus they are mostly treated as annuals in our southern plains. There are some cultivars though which are perennial in lahore and other subtropical areas.




This pink flowering shurb is a common sight in galiyat in murree. Flowers are from fabacea family (Pea family) and my first guess is Himalayan indigo, Indigofera heterantha. Any confirmation about the ID will be highly appreciated.


This is a wild flower grown in many parts of murree hills. This one i shot in the nathia gali road side. Not sure about the ID though.




For more flowers from around the world, visit Today's Flowers
For macro monday, visit Lisa's Chaos
For Mosaic monday, visit Dear Little Red House

Annual Spring Flower Show Lahore - Part 2

This is the second and last part of annual spring flower show coverage. The star of the show were my all time favorite plant aquilegia or Granny's Bonnet and another name is columbine.

The blue one above is the prettiest of the lot. Although this red one is very pretty. Sadly they are cool climate plants and do not tolerate the summer heat of lahore. I am yet to find a species of aquilegia suitable for lahore as perennial.There are many hybird varieties of columbine and some are fragrant as well. Probably the other flower which dominated the show was godetia. Botanical name Clarkia amoena,  they almost beat the aquilegia with masses of their beautiful display. They are very tolerant of poor soil although they dislike poor drainage. Isn't it sad that these flower, though grow very good in lahore, are ignored by many nurseries and seeds shops. would surely get my hands on these beautiful plants soon. Keep your eyes on my blog and you will see this plant in my terrace this winter.

Now this was a surprise. A flamingo flower. Another plant very tolerant of lahore weather but ignored by commercial growers. Botanically called Anthurium andraeanum, the common color is this one the red. Although other colors exist for this beautiful flower as well. As expected, it was sold at unreasonable high price.
Amaryllis was also displayed as being forced inside a small plastic pot. It was also high prices although it is very easy to make it bloom in spring in hot climates like ours. you can force it in water and in soil as well. Blooms readily. Many colors available. The local bulbs have rather small flower as compared to those imported ones. although local ones perform better in beds as heat tolerant.
Can you believe that this year in lahore, no seed shop tried to get bulbs of Ornithogalum? i mean such a pretty flower and in many colors and very tolerant of lahore weather and no single bulb present at seeds shops? unbelievable. Now this was probably last years plants or the bulbs were not commercially available. Very pretty flowers and look gorgeous in masses.And yes they are also called chincherinchee.
This was some unknown plant having strange looking flowers. Being sold at sky high price. About 5 feet tall.
Coco bricks were also sold. These bricks are soaked in water and then used. Coco peat is mostly used as mulch or soil amendment. Also used as seed cover for germinating the seed. I use lots of them as summer mulch as they retain moisture to a great extent.
Indian dahias were also exhibited. The indian ones are grown from large thich tubers. And another cheaper alternate is to buy the cuttings of these plants which exhibit same result or even better. The pakistani dahlis is grown mostly from seeds and have single or semi double flower. The local ones have more heat tolerance once again.
Last but not least, gypsophila. Once again a plant being ignored. People probably do not give it much attention because of its small flowers although it has very delicate pretty flowers.

Aquilegia, cyclamen and freesia in my garden

Cyclamen















Bi color Freesia













Freesia - great fragrance
















Aquilegia - Alas they could not survive summer heat of lahore :(