Count Your Blessings!

With love and passion, everyone can have a nice garden...Elaine Yim

Count Your Blessings!
Count The Garden By The Flowers, Never By The Leaves That Fall.
Count Your Life With Smiles And Not The Tears That Roll.
..... Author unknown.

Knowing me, Knowing you..... Aha.....!

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Malaysian Flora USDA Zone 11
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Monday, May 14, 2012

My DIY Home Garden in Malaysia - GBBD May 2012 & My 4 Baby Butterflies

1. Dendrobium Candy Stripe
Here's what I have for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - May 2012 from my DIY garden in Malaysia.

My Dendrobium Candy Stripe orchid (picture above) is blooming now. There are 6 flowers in a stalk. This is the first rebloom and from a new shoot produced at the base of the plant.




2. Dendrobium crumenatum

My Dove Orchid bloomed on 11th May 2012, just 2 days before Mother's Day. This is very meaningful because the orchid was my late mom's favourite.

“My DIY Home Garden in Malaysia - GBBD May 2012”, a copyrighted post, was written for My Nice Garden blog by Autumn Belle @ http://www.mynicegarden.com/ on 14th May 2012.

3. Dendrobium crumenatum

8 years had gone by...

Moments I hold dear
That still bring a tear
for my beloved Ah Ma who is no longer here.
Memories sublime
unerased by time.

4. Lonicera japonica
Japanese Honeysuckle.

5. Medinilla ???

I am not sure about the correct name of this plant.
It looks like either Medinilla multiflora or Medinilla asteroides.

6. Azalea

My Azaleas are blooming now. I thought they are temperate plants.
In Malaysia, we don't have the 4 seasons, so they bloom on and off throughout the year.
When do azaleas bloom in your area?

7. 
This is a UFO (Unidentified Flowering Object) in my garden right now, a volunteer plant that sprouted from a Thuja orientalis (Platycladus orientalis) Christmas tree sapling I purchased from a nursery in Klang. The plant just grow freely on sandy soil surviving on plain water without fertilizer. The flower came out from the ground and it is opened for only 1 day.

The leaves and stems are soft and juicy and the chocolate coloured flower is shaped like an anthurium flower.

Does anyone know the name of this mysterious plant?

8. Spring Onions

These onion plants are grown from store-bought bulbs. While sorting out some red onions purchased from a hypermarket, I discovered some sprouted ones. I didn't throw them away. After removing the outer dried/brown layers, I found that some bulbs had already developed roots inside. For those that didn't have roots yet, I placed them in a container with a few drops of water.  By next day, the roots had appeared. Then I planted them in potting mix by covering the bulbs in soil. Green shoots appeared the next day and grow quite quickly under our Malaysian climate.

Walla, I have home-grown spring onions for my dishes now.

9. A multi-colour bougainvillea plant

This bougainvillea has 3 different colour varieties grafted into a single plant.
The flowers colours are white, pale purple and orange-red. 

10. Bougainvillea

I like this orange-red colour most, especially the flowers which are in pairs of white and pale orange.

11. BB # 6 - Lime Butterfly
I was also busy helping Mother Nature by being nanny to the butterfly babies that feed on my citrus lime plants. On 1st May 2012 which was Labour Day in Malaysia, BB no. 6 was born. For our goodbye shot, it had selected a shady spot atop my pomegranate fruits.

12. BB # 7 - Lime Butterfly

BB no. 7 was born on 8th May 2012. Here it is perched on my Orange Jasmine (Murraya paniculata) plant. Perhaps it is already saying, "Haha, I am FREE, catch me if you can!"

13. BB # 8 - Common Mormon Butterly

On 11th May 2012, i.e. 2 days before Mother's Day, I had a pleasant surprise. 
My BB no. 8 is a Common Mormon butterfly! 

Yay! this is the first time I raised a Common Mormon butterfly from my citrus lime (Calamondin) plants.

14. BB # 8 - Common Mormon
It is a male Common Mormon butterfly. 
Here it is perched on the leaves of my pink Bunga Kantan aka Torch Ginger plant (Etlingera elatior).

15. Rose
A single red rose was blooming on 13th May 2012, Mother's Day.

Now tell me, what's blooming in your garden now - Is it Summer or Winter already?

Until then, Cheers and have a happy day!


Updated: 15th May 2012

16. BB # 9

Yay, today I released BB no. 9! 
For this batch of 4 caterpillars, I have 100% success rate. 
Outcome 3 Lime Butterflies and 1 Common Mormon. 



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.

35 comments:

  1. Hi Ms Belle!
    If its any consolation to you, my mom is in Heaven too. If you noticed, I kept mentioning about her in my blog especially on recipes. She is always in my heart and I'm sure you feel that way too. Our moms are special people to have daughters like us. Cheer up.
    By the way, your flowers are gorgeous. I can't imagine having 3 colors in one plant. Congrats.

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    1. Ash, thanks! you are so nice and sweet, sungguh menggalakkan. The 3-colour hibiscus was propagated by the inhouse gardener at a local nursery. I was very curious how the little plant will turn out. Now it is already flowering. You can still see the white bandages on the branches. He told me, "Saya kahwinkan mereka semua" meaning I married the 3 of them. This is polygamy, haha ^-^

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    2. That sure is polygamy alright hahaha! Very clever of that gardener. I wish I could do stuff like that someday. Is your red rose fragrant? I'm on the lookout for my yellow rose. Poor thing..got invaded by tiny red ants :( You can read here.
      http://hourisinthegarden.blogspot.com/2012/05/roses-versus-red-ants.html
      The Malaysian Rose Society are full of Sifu. Quite shy to ask much questions.

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    3. The MRS members are very friendly and helpful. They are full of tips. For a start, you can post you yellow rose picture there and wait for comments/advice. Don't be shy to ask any questions you like. The only problem is once you start to hang out there, you can spend a long long time there, haha.

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  2. Very pretty candy stripe!
    Looks like the tail end of summer where I am right now. I've just got back though so I still haven't done a full inventory. Definitely some new blooms so I'm excited.

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  3. You're a great mom - so many caterpillars have turned into beautiful butterflies because of all the love and care you showered upon them.

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  4. Such lovely blooms and so many right now. The Butterfly photos are great.

    Cher Sunray Gardens

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  5. L love the beautiful butterflies in your garden and how you lovingly nurture them.

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  6. What an amazing display for bloom day!! Absolutely beautiful.
    PS: My Azaleas start to bloom at the beginning of winter, slowly and by Spring they are in full bloom through to summer.

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  7. Bom, I bet there are many changes since the last time you view your garden.

    Sharon, the butterfly babies are very easy to look after. They are pretty undemanding.

    Sunray, actually I have more - other plants are flowering too.

    Stiletto, the best part is when you see the results in the newly emerged, lively adult butterflies and setting them free.

    Christine, azaleas bloom in winter? Aha, that explains why our nurseries import azaleas from China and Europe during Dec and Jan months.

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  8. Hello AB - it is so amazing to see the flowers blooming around the world on GBBD! Your orchids are incredibly beautiful. And the butterflies! Wow! Here in NW Oregon, USA, my azalea's are mid-spring bloomers. In general, May is a good azalea month and often a popular gift on Mother's Day. Happy GBBD! Cheers, Jenni

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  9. You have a beautiful DIY garden! Your japanese honeysuckle is so pretty! I like the Azaleas!

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  10. Hi AB and it's lovely to see what unusual plants you have growing in your garden and those butterflies are so beautiful. My azalea's flower around this time of year but sometimes later in the season they may send out the odd flower.

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  11. aloha,

    love that first orchid, its beautiful...i'm guessing that medinilla you have is multiflor, your garden flowers look great!

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  12. Love the butterflies. I am suprised Azalea grows good in your climate, well it does not in our climate. The japanese honeysuckle is beautiful as always and grows good here too. Your orchids are lovely, they need special care in our dry summer heat.

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  13. Seeing your honeysuckle reminds me of when I was young. We often smelled these wonderful plants around the adjacent woods...so fragrant. Your butterflies are beautiful, so colorful....glad you had such good success with them.

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  14. Beautiful bloom and photography :).

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  15. Excellent shots! I especially like the Nr.6....
    Best regards,Karin

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  16. What beautiful exotic flowers you can grow! And I just love the butterflies... I only see about three kinds in my own garden and none are as pretty as yours!

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  17. Beautiful blooms and you bravo with the butterflies! They are very pretty! There's nothing exciting in my garden right now, totally lack of beautiful flowers. Have a lovely day, Autumn Belle!

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  18. Greetings from Southern California. Your butterflies are different from ours- but just as lovely

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  19. What a lovely collection of blooms.
    I really enjoyed your orchids.
    And congrats for the successful butterfly release.

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  20. Oh, my, you have so many lovely flowers! Love love that first candy strip orchid, first time see, and I know I will bring it home without any hesitation if I see on in the store! I don't know the name of your UFO plants, but it surely is beautiful. you are so lucky! All of those butterfly babies are so so pretty, especially those lime butterflies. You are such a good butterfly nanny :)

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  21. So many beautiful plants and butterflies! I'm so jealous that you can grow Bougainvillea! And Citrus trees!

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  22. What a happy occasion that all your butterflies survived and are now living in your garden. In my area azaleas bloom in the spring only.

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  23. Congratulations, you got your first Common Mormon. They are not as pretty as lime butterflies though.

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  24. Such beautiful flowers, and the butterflies are stunning! I started growing sprouting onions just recently--what a great idea :-)

    -Stopped by from GBBD

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  25. Your Dendrobium Candy Stripe is gorgeous and so rewarding with 6 flowers, A. Belle. I have a somewhat similar one (D. Burana Stripe) and it had never given me more than 3 blooms per stalk. Besides, it had also stop blooming for a couple of years... thinking of thrashing it.
    Enjoy seeing your lovely garden plants and the butterflies too. I'm impressed with the pretty butterflies you've raised. Would love if you can share a little on how you've nurtured the caterpillars. Thanks, my friend.

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    Replies
    1. Jacqueline, maybe the official name for this orchid is 'D. Burana Stripe'. They do look similar to me. Regarding the butterfly rearing, I have written about it here:

      http://www.nst.com.my/life-times/live/nanny-to-butterfly-babies-1.68452

      More pictures of my butterfly babies can be found in the photo album of My Nice Garden facebook page (access via my sidebar)

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  26. I enjoyed seeing your beautiful blooms. That first one took my breath away. Congratulations on all of the wonderful butterflies you reared.

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  27. Stunning colour on the Dendrobium Candy Stripe.

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  28. Hi,
    Very beautiful DIY garden and it's give me some idea with my garden too..

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  29. Hi. Lovely blogs n just signed up cos i m a newbie to gardening n i just love ur posts. Really inspiring. Btw.. any suggestions where to get azaleas in the klang valley

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    Replies
    1. Hi Jennifer, thanks for your support! You can expect to get lovely azaleas from Christmas time to Chinese New Year season. That's when we find lots of choices at different prices. The nurseries don't seem to stock them at other times of the year. Good luck in your gardening!

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