Aloe Vera blooms

Flowers of Aloe vera. It's local name is Kawar Gandal. Shot in Model Town Park, Lahore. Famous for its medicinal properties, it also has culinary uses. There are many plants growing wild in lahore. Some of them are outside the barni garden in lahore near Governor house.

There are many other flowers blooming all around the world. To see them visit Today's flowers.

For Macro Monday Visit Lisa's Chaos
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Blooms of hibiscus and Cherry tomato

Hibiscus


Flower of Cherry tomato


Visit Flowers from today for other flowers around the world

Dombeya Magic

Dombeya closeup






Visit Flowers from today for other flowers around the world
For Macro Monday Visit Lisa's Chaos
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Annual Chrysanthemum show 2010

This year's Autumn Chrysanthemum flower show was held in Race Course Park Lahore. The show was not as vibrant as the last year. Few stalls, less space and not much activity was there. For last year's Chrysanthemum show click here













Visit Flowers from today for other flowers around the world
For Lisa'a macro monday visit Lisa's Chaos
For Mosaic monday visit Little Red House

Runner up in Dave's garden photo contest 2010

It is of immense pleasure to me to announce that i got the runner up position in the annual photo contest 2010 at dave's garden, the largest online community of gardeners around the world. The category was "Macro" and this picture of water lily got 54 points. You can click on the picture for full view.



Thanks to all who voted for my photo. Although voting and photos were anonymous so nobody knew whose picture this was. It was my first time participating in the event and it was a wonderful experience. I would participate next year as well and encourage all the readers to do so.

I could not participate in Carol's GBBD this month due to EID holidays but i hope this post would qualify for bloom day as it does contain a wonderful bloom and there is nothing else blooming in my garden right now apart from this waterlily. Don't forget to see other bloom posts on Carol's website May Dreams Gardens

Sweet almond verbena, gram blue butterfly and skipper butterfly

Welcome to another edition of garden bloggers bloom day. This is a monthly event hosted by Carol at May Dream Gardens. Visit her website for some intriguing flowers blooming all around the gardens.
This is my second year growing sweet almond verbena, botanic name aloysia virgata. This year i pruned it hard in the last december and the results showed in form of more blooms. I deadheaded every bloom and it kept blooming and blooming.
Every butterfly of the area and every bee visited these blooms having strong almond fragrance.

The first one is plain tiger butterfly with common name african monarch and biological name danaus chrysippus. A very common butterfly from asia and africa found abundant in lahore pakistan.


This is Small branded Swift Skipper with biological name Pelopidas mathias. No other insect is so fond of sweet almond verbena but this skipper butterfly. There were more than 15 beauties luring over the blooms at one time.


Another bee but i am not sure which one it is. She is the one which stays still in air for a long time.


This is gram blue butterfly with biological name (Euchrysops cnejus).She is mostly after pea related flowers but this time she could not resist the fragrance and nectar of these sweet blooms.


Another common bee of our area. She loves murraya and any sweet smelling plant. She is the last one to leave the flowers of this sweet almond bush.


And last but not least, this sweet smelling flowers are no other than cestrum diurnum also known as Din ka raja. Unlike its cousin cestrum nocturnum it releases its scent in daytime.


And this post is also included in the Blooming Friday hosted by Katarina at Roses
and Stuff. Do visit her blog for some enchanting blooms.

For Fertilizer Friday visit Tootsie Time

White cabbage Butterfly

Welcome to another edition of macro monday.. It is difficult to attract butteflies if you are growing plants in containers. But planting the right plants at right places is the key. It appears to be a trifle task to capture a butterfly but it is not. This is probably some white cabbage butterfly. Still trying to confirm the identification. Sipping nector from my murraya plant on terrace.

Sometimes it takes hours capturing a butterfly. And the viewers are oblivious of the effort it is spent on the shot. Sometimes continuous shots are taken if butterfly is moving fast. Shutter speed matters a lot in this case. This one is another common butterfly of lahore. Just before rain she took shelter in the leaves.

For Macro monday Visit Lisa's Chaos
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For Flowers from today, visit http://flowersfromtoday.blogspot.com/

Tuberose (polianthus tubersoa)

Finally monsoon hit and rains started. Compared to last year when it was almost drought this year it has been raining good, in fact very good.So those plants which were waiting for high humidity to send blooms started to wake up. For this monday here are these two beauties.
This butterfly treated my soil bed as her guest house probably and sent whole night clinging to this jasmine leaves. I captured her at night with auto flash and macro. She seemed drunk to me as the flash and macro both did not make her embarrassed at all. In fact, i was almost thinking she is here for the photo shoot. This photo is also included in the Gardening gone wild Picture this photo contest

The second photo for this Monday is the tube rose flowers. I almost forgot murraya and my arabian jasmine when these started to flower. I planted around 50 bulbs in pots and this is the first one to flower. Would surely post separate on these warm climate flowering bulbs continuing the series.

For Macro monday Visit Lisa's Chaos
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For Flowers from today, visit http://flowersfromtoday.blogspot.com/

Allamanda, Murrarya and rain lily flowers

Welcome to another edition of macro monday, a weekly event hosted by Lisa at Lisa's Chaos.You will find some magnificent macro shots out there. All pictures are thumbnails and you can view the full image by clicking on them.
I would start by macro of crinum lily. Very fragrant and large blooms.

Murraya exotica is blooming profusely as monsoon has started here. No aroma can compete that of murraya's.

And when we talk of rains and monsoon, rain lilies come into mind and into bloom as well.

Allamanda is another climber growing right now. Many colors are available of this beautiful climber but the toughest one is the yellow one.

Gaillardia aristata

Welcome to another episode of macro monday, a weekly event hosted by Lisa.Visit her blog for more stunning macro shots. Gaillardia is very tough perennial here standing in the extreme summer heat of lahore. This plant is not common for sale in nurseries, may be because it has committed the sin of being COMMON.

Can you believe these species are not available at nurseries, seeds are available though with the name 'bicolor'.

The parent of all these species is probably gaillardia grandiflora. Various varieties are sold in other countries but the ones in this post have gone wild and self sow easily.

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

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

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.