1. Purple Cattleya (skinneri?) orchid |
Today, for Garden Blogger's Bloom Day for December 2011, I have my beloved cattleya orchid giving me some "twin happiness" with twin blooms, i.e. 2 stalks with 3 flowers each. This orchid had been quite inactive for a long time, growing only roots and shoots and babies. It has not bloomed since 2009. Can you imagine this - no blooms for the whole of 2010 and most of 2011?
Despite being so unpredictable and an eccentric, this 'temperamental' orchid is my favourite. It is the only plant I 'talk' to in my garden. It had made me laugh and it had made me cry and want to pull all my hair out in desperation of getting/waiting for it to bloom but when it blooms, I'll be in seventh heaven! It may be ordinary but it is my most precious orchid and is the inspiration for the start of My Nice Garden, both at home and in cyberspace (blog).
Now, finally a pleasant surprise to help me end my year with a BANG!
More orchids:
2. Purple Dendrobium Candy Stripe |
3. Purple Dendrobium Camdy Stripe |
“GBBD Dec 2011”, a copyrighted post, was written for My Nice Garden blog by Autumn Belle @ http://www.mynicegarden.com/ on December 15th, 2011.
4 . Pinkish white Dendrobium Suree Peach |
My Dendrobium crumenatum also bloomed during this time but the flowers last only a day. In fact all my orchids are blooming. Due to bad weather, I can't take photos today, hence the photos are taken between 16 Nov and 14 Dec 2011, i.e. after last month's GBBD.
We have cloudy skies and it is raining every day, at odd times like the mid-afternoon when it should be hot and sunny. One moment the sky is clear, the next moment the it is very very dark and suddenly there's a down pour, sometimes a freak storm and floods in certain places. There is even lightning and thunder when I can still see the sun shining brightly!
One consolation is that perhaps due to the cold weather, most of my plants and all my orchids are blooming.
More flowers...
5. Red Pentas |
6. Pink rose |
7. Tricolour rose |
8. Pineapple flowers |
9. Mistletoe Fig |
10. Santa the magician-comedian |
Now that it is still 2 weeks before Christmas, do you have any idea where is Santa Claus? Well here he is at a busy shopping mall in Malaysia making children happy as a magician! Ho Ho Ho...
Besides being a judge for colouring contests, he will also pose as a model for family portraits and photography sessions. In your place/country, what other part-time jobs does Santa do while waiting for the big day to come?
How are you celebrating this Christmas?
Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day is hosted by Carol at May Dreams Garden on the 15th of every month. To participate and/or to view what is blooming in gardens around the world, please visit the link here.
Updated 16 Dec 2011:
The names of the orchids has been added in the photo captions.
My grateful thanks to En Ahmad Makarimi of Orchid de Dangau blog.
Your Orchids are beautiful and I think it's fabulous that the Orchid in the first photo has bloomed once more after a little break. It has such pretty flowers. Your weather does sound a little strange at the moment. That's exactly how our early summer weather is here, as we build up to the wet season.
ReplyDeleteSuch beautiful flowers, that are wonderful shots ..
ReplyDeleteGreetings Karin
Santa here in Adelaide wear shorts and sleeveless since its summer here. Your bloom are lovely.
ReplyDeleteLovely flowers and photos! Have a great day!
ReplyDeleteLove the candy striped Dendrobium
ReplyDeleteThe Pentas flowers like blinking, awesome. Wow my favorite fruit pineapple, didn't know the flower is so good looking. tQ.
ReplyDeleteLove your first orchid flower quite positive its purple? hehe. Also love the striped orchid lovely.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful photos. The Orchids are lovely but I always like seeing the pineapple blooms.
ReplyDeleteCher Sunray Gardens
I knew as soon as I clicked your link I would be wowed with orchids and roses and such. It is great seeing the flowers from other climates to add color and a warmth to the season. Lovely photos and have a Happy GBBD!
ReplyDeleteLOVE your orchids and of course the roses and pentas! Beautiful photographs, what a joy it must be to visit your garden!
ReplyDeleteHappy GBBD :)
Your orchids and pineapple flower blooms are so beautiful! It is so nice to see some colorful blooms since we are going into winter here.
ReplyDeleteThose orchids are just stunning...love 'em!
ReplyDeleteBernie, the news says that our weather at the moment is due to the El Nina effect adding extra bite to our normal year-end Northeast monsoon season :(
ReplyDeleteAs regards to the Cattleya orchid in the first photo, maybe it didn't bloom because it is playing games with me. Sometimes I talk to this orchid.
Karin, Eileeninmd, Cher, Donna, Christine, Lee, Scottweberpdx thanks!
Diana, you have Summer Christmas in Adelaide while we have Evergreen Christmas here in Malaysia ;>)
Sean, yeah I was attracted by its stripes too.
Bananaz, pink pentas starry starry eyes blinking and winking. Yes, the first orchid is purple! Striped orchid (image 2 and 3) is purple and image 4 is pinkish white.
We have almost the same weather these days. It is the cold and the long nights which induced flowering too. If you have another pentas color you will get other colors from those seeds, I can see they have seeds already. Ours just appear on the ground and before we know it there are other colors. However, our whites and violets were all gone last dry season. When I'm home i tend to cut the spent blooms, to encourage more blooms and lengthen its life.
ReplyDeleteChristmas is just another ordinary day to me.
ReplyDeleteMaybe, more photo shooting?
Andrea, thanks for the idea. Now, I'll get more colours of pendas.
ReplyDeleteRainfield, if it rains continuously, we will have a Watery or Rainfilled Christmas!
AB - I'm back, when you steep the leaves of cat's whiskers, how long do you soak the leaves in boiling water? Does it not taste or smell like raw grass? Some people in our area actually planted it for the medicinal value, but I am not really good in taking unusual tastes! But I want sweet basil as fresh tea, i've tried that.
ReplyDeleteNice flower and orchids are so special. The Cattleya is more probably from primary hybrid from cattleya skinneri, cannot find the name...maybe the hybrid is too old, will find and feed back to you soon. The purple stripe orchid is Dendrobium Candy Stripe and the peach color is Dendrobium Suree Peach.
ReplyDeleteAndrea, I have already posted the recipe in a comment in your blog post. The taste is very mild. I think it tastes just like Chinese tea. Basil is more strongly scented when compared to Cat Whiskers.
ReplyDeleteMakarimi, thank you so much for naming the orchids! I am indeed very very grateful. The first orchid is an offspring a cattleya handed down from my late father in Ipoh. He had it since 1960s. He used to say that it was the same type as in the Singapore currency SGD100 denomination during those days. It will be wonderful if you can find out the name. It does look like Cattleya skinneri.
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure Autumn Belle. Thanks for mentioned my name here. I really grateful if you can email me the whole picture of the cattleya plant, from there I can find the exact name (try my best to get the name). Most of primary hybrid, normally the flower can be similar to the parentage. If even that is Catt skinneri for sure it is special variant, that why the price is so expensive. Honestly the flower so beautiful ;)
ReplyDeleteYour orchid photos are beautiful. I can see why they are such an inspiration to you. I like the pineapple flower which I have never seen before.
ReplyDeleteI can totally relate to your excitement about the orchid that finally bloomed after 2 years. It is like meeting an old friend again,right, AB? Happy GBBD!
ReplyDeleteRosie
Such pretty orchids!
ReplyDelete