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
Welcome to our exotic world of everlasting summers and tropical rainforests!

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

My DIY Home Garden in Malaysia - GBBD Aug 2012

1. Begonia
The flag bearer for today's Garden Blogger's Bloom Day for August 2012 is this begonia rose.



2. Rose
This pink rose has a mild fragrance and the flower is quite lasting. The flower petals start a pale pink, then slowly turn to dark pink. The underside is yellowish pink.

“My DIY Home Garden in Malaysia - GBBD Aug 2012”, a copyrighted post, was written for My Nice Garden blog by Autumn Belle @ http://www.mynicegarden.com/ on August 15th, 2012.

3. Rose
This rose is very fragrant but the flower does not last long.

4. Rose
This is "Ros Kampung", our country rose. 
The blooms are long lasting but have little fragrance.
It is a hardy plant.

5.
My pentas flowers attracted this butterfly, a frequent visitor to my garden now.
I think it is the Great Eggfly (Hypolimnas bolina bolina).
Can anyone tell if it is a male or female?

Updated on 16 Aug 2012:
The butterfly has been identified as the female Jacintha Eggfly (Hypolimnas bolina jacintha).
My grateful thanks to Khew Sk who helped with the ID of this butterfly.
Also, thanks to Andrea for pointing out my mistake.
More details about this butterfly at Butterflies of Singapore website here.


6.
It loves the pentas flowers.

7.
It doesn't mind hanging upside-down while having lunch.
It was not bothered my me leaning so close trying to take some pictures.
It wasn't even flipping its wings.

8.
Late in the evening, it is still hanging around in my garden.This butterfly loves to hang up-side down. It seems to be wearing a mask like Batman too! Just look at its head gear and silhouette. Perhaps, it has decided to stay the night on my bamboo tree.

Do you know where do butterflies go to sleep at night?

9.
Bees love my pentas too!

10.
The Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, our National Flower.
Besides butterflies, it has been attracting sunbirds, tailorbirds as well as bulbuls.

11
A violet torenia volunteer plant has decided to camp over with my red rose plant.

12.
These are Stevia flowers.
Stevia plants are being given the nicknames, "King of Herbs" or "Plant Sugar King".
Many types of stevia products are on sale here.
It is being promoted as a natural sweetener and alternative to processed sugars e.g in the prevention of diabetes.

Extract from Wikipedia:
... the United States banned stevia in the early 1990s unless labeled as a dietary supplement, but in 2008 it approved rebaudioside A extract as a food additive. Over the years, the number of countries in which stevia is available as a sweetener has been increasing. In 2011, stevia was approved for use in the EU starting in early December, 2011...


13.
Birds eye chilis are ripe for the picking now.

14. 
The flower of Ulam Raja (Cosmos caudatus) or King's Salad.
The leaves are eaten raw with rice dishes and used in ulam.
Ulam is a traditional Malay preparation of herbs eaten raw for health and beauty.
It is believed that Ulam Raja has anti-aeging properties and it improves blood circulation.

15.
My pink anthurium.

16.
I've been trying to root some Epiphyllum oxypetalum (EO) from leaves sent all the way from the Philippines to me by Andrea of Andrea in this Lifetime blog. Andrea's blog post about the EO titled, "Encounter with the Night's Queen". My grateful thanks to you, Andrea!

After waiting for about 2 weeks, this is the first to send out shoots and I am so delighted. It is from the smallest leaf in the batch. This leaf had already sent out some roots by the time I opened the package. I will be posting the progress in my facebook page here.  By the way, you can contact Andrea if you wish to buy a cutting of EO.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day is hosted by Carol of May Dreams Gardens on the 15th day of every month. To participate, click here.
I am also joining Fertilizer Friday hosted by Glenda at Tootsie Time here.

Update on 25 Aug 2012



This male Jacintha Egg Fly (Hypolimnas bolina jacintha) came to my garden on the first day of Hari Raya 19th, 2012. While I didn't prepare any rendang or lemang, there was plenty of sweet syrup (nectar) cordial from my hibiscus flowers.

50 comments:

  1. I have a white anthurium blooming inside our house. Those flowers don't survive outside in our gardens here in Finland.

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    Replies
    1. Sadun, over here we grow them in the outdoors but under the shade.

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  2. W ogrodzie piękne kwiaty i na dodatek śliczne motyle. Pozdrawiam.
    In the garden of beautiful flowers and on top of beautiful butterflies. Yours.

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    Replies
    1. Giga, thank you for your beautiful words of inspiration!

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  3. Your red chilies are pretty as a flower! All your garden blooms are beautiful. I love pentas because the butterflies love them too!

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    Replies
    1. Deb, yeah, the pentas are like magnets to different types of butterflies. As for the chili, I can pluck 1 or 2 for cooking when needed and leave the rest standing like ornamentals in my garden.

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  4. Lovely pics... especially the begonia and the butterflies...

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    Replies
    1. Lrong, this butterfly is not a regular in my garden until the pentas came.

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    2. Hi Autumn Belle,
      There are two images of similiar looking butterfly on my current post; 'Pseuderanthemum reticulatum- the insect attractant' I've named it the Great eggfly too. Now I wonder whether it is the Jacintha Eggfly.

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  5. I love your shots of the Great eggfly. They are frequent visitors to my garden too. Your plants are lush and lovely.

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    Replies
    1. Stiletto, the butterfly is a Jacintha Eggfly, not a Great Eggfly. I'm sorry for the confusion.

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  6. Love your collection of plants, amazing blooms!!

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    Replies
    1. Mark and Gaz, glad you like my GBBD collection.

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  7. I haven't visited blog or FB since last week as we had an event and come home only around 11am. I even got fever yesterday maybe from too much stress, and absent today.

    That butterfly is also very common in our farm/property, but i only know the one with two blue spots. I thought that one is another species aside from H bolina, now i must ask some people. The Eo leaves left here in the bathroom are already producing roots and small shoots too, but the parent leaves are already very much wilted. Maybe i will just put it in any soil downstairs, hopefully the condo gardener will allow it to grow.

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  8. Andrea, I hope you are feeling better now. Thank you for highlighting your doubts about the butterfly ID. I have since seek help from Khew SK of Butterflies of Singapore website and updated my post accordingly.

    About the EO, you have packed it well, hence it was in good condition when I received the samples by post. As noted by your comment in my Facebook page, now anyone who wish to grow EO can buy a cutting from you. It will be great if you can write a post about how to grow EO.

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  9. I love your butterfly photos. It was very interesting to read about the King's salad, and the cosmos caudatus is very pretty.

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    Replies
    1. L. Ambler, it looks like a simple cosmos with symmetrical petals. The flower is small.

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  10. Los of lovely blooms. That violet torenia looks interesting, I don't know it.

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    Replies
    1. Nicole, torenia is a lovely volunteer plant in my garden.

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    2. Torenia are nice but they attract mealybugs too. Then the mealybugs start attacking other plants. That's what happened to me and sadly I have to remove some of my plants in my garden because the bugs has started to infect the plants roots. Yes they don't only linger on the stems but they will breed more in the roots! I'm trying Trio insect repellent now and hopefully it works. Or any recommendations or experience to share about mealybugs?

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    3. CatRoad, you can view my reply to your comment earlier if you scroll down the page. I still think that the best method to take care of mealy bugs is to remove the infected parts for small area or remove the whole plant if badly infected.

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  11. Those roses are very lovely.
    I used to have hibiscus before until it got so badly infested with mealybugs that the plants slowly died.

    Have a nice long holiday!

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    Replies
    1. James, some of my H. rosa-sinensis also met with the same fate. Some cultivars are not so hardy. This 'Bunga Raya' is very hardy. It has established itself, needing no watering nor fertilizing by me. It is growing 'independently' and looked after by Mother Nature. I get to enjoy all the rewards, e.g. beautiful flowers, lovely birds and butterflies.

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  12. Jeg kom bare lige forbi din blog.
    Hvor har du mange smukke blomster.
    Gode billeder af sommerfuglen. Godt fanget.
    Tak for kigget.
    Ha´ en dejlig aften.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Landbohaven says, "I just came right past your blog. Where you have many beautiful flowers. Good pictures of the butterfly. Good catch. Thanks for viewing. Have a nice evening."

      Landbohaven, Welcome and thank you very much! I am delighted by your visit and nice words.

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  13. Your Roses are gorgeous! And the Begonias are very pretty, too. I can't believe you got so many great shots of the butterfly--it wasn't shy! Happy (Belated) GBBD!

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    1. Beth, I too can't believe this butterfly could stay still for the time I need to take those shots. It is a very graceful butterfly - in flight, landing and take-off!

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  14. The blooms have spectacular shades of pink and your volunteer plant Torenia seemed to be happy in your garden. Funny, that butterfly does not only look like Batman, it appears to behave like one, too.. might as well call him "bat-terfly!" :-)

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    Replies
    1. Hardinars, I hope you get torenias as volunteer plants in your garden too. The torenias volunteers are the result of self-seeding from earlier parent plants. They can disappear for some time only to remerge in my garden later, and in all kinds of places, nooks and corners.

      Haha, I like your "bat-terfly"! I wonder if Batman also like to hang upside down like bats do?

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    2. I'm not a fan of Batman but you're right, haven't seen him hang upside down in d movies! :-)

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  15. What a wonderful visitor to your garden - loved your butterfly photos!

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  16. OMG...that Torenia is just wonderful...and the butterflies!

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    Replies
    1. Scott, yes indeed. I don't mind lovely volunteer plants like torenia.

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  17. Beautiful butterfly! It has such lovely colours. All your blooms today are very familiar to me as I grow many of the same. It's great when Torenia self-seeds isn't it? I find little ones popping up in strange spots too.

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    Replies
    1. Bernie, the way they pop up is often a pleasant surprise, so unlike other weeds.

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  18. I love those butterflies. I grow pentas as an annual but the local butterflies don't seem as interested here.

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    Replies
    1. Jason, maybe you have too many other bright and beautiful flower choices for the butterflies.

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  19. Stunning photographs. Love your roses and other beautiful blooms. Hope you are well!

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    Replies
    1. Redneck Rosarian, thanks! I am really glad I can grow roses in my garden and I'd be ecstatic whenever they bloom.

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  20. The Jacintha Eggfly is surely enjoying your Pentas. You definitely must remember to post a photo of the Keng Hua when it blooms.

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  21. That's a lot of flowering plants! No wonder you have a lot of butterflies!

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    Replies
    1. Malar, yes, butterflies are attracted by flowers in bright colours.

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  22. want to know more about stevia. Read on Facebook

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    Replies
    1. Ann, thanks for the lead. I like to pluck the leaves off my stevia and it tastes very sweet.

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  23. Good GBBD showing, AB! Wonderful captures with the butterfly. When I had pentas, they never attracted butterflies, only bees. It was always my lantanas that the butterflies went to. Now I wonder if there is a difference in our pentas.

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    Replies
    1. Bom, I was surprise at the popularity of pentas too. They attracted more butterflies to my garden than the lantana in terms of numbers and varieties.

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  24. Hello there, I have torenia popping up suddenly in my garden too. But they will attract white miley bugs which has also infected my other plants. I was so sad to have to remove those plants altogether! I used to spray strong hose of water to get rid of those bugs but they keep coming back!
    Do you have the same problem? What type insecticide should i use?

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    Replies
    1. Hi CatRoad, I do have such a problem once in a while. When my torenia gets infected, the mealy bugs usually stay localised to the same plant. When the infection is bad enough, I shall dispose off the whole plant properly and grow new, healthy ones. If you wish to use insecticide, you can use the organic neem spray available at DIY centres.

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