Count Your Blessings!

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

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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.

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Malaysian Flora USDA Zone 11
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Sunday, June 28, 2009

Jasmine My Darling

My Common Jasmine (Jasminum sambac) plant is blooming now.

Botanical name: Jasminum sambac
Common name: Arabian jasmine
Family: Oleaceae (olive family)
Native of: India

Jasmine flower is also known as bunga melur in Malaysia, melati putih in Indonesia, mo li hua in chinese, sampaguita in the Phillipines and mallika in Indian (Sanskrit).

A beautiful and very fragrant flower much loved in many parts of Asia, the bunga melati putih was designated as one of the 3 National Flowers of Indonesia in conjunction with World Environment Day on June 5, 1990. Sampaguita is the national flower of the Philippines.

We grow jasmine in our gardens to enjoy its exotic fragrance. Flower buds open in the late evenings to fill the garden with a pure magical scent. We usually pluck the flowers in the mornings when the buds are still unopened. These flowers can be tied into garlands which are used to adorn religious altars and deities or to welcome guests. Jasmine flowers are also used in wedding ceremonies. For example in a traditional Javanese wedding, jasmine flowers are used to adorn the bride and groom and decorate the wedding dias and bridal chamber. The bride-to-be goes through a 'lulur' bathing ritual before the wedding ceremony. Wow, isn't this royal treatment? We can enjoy the traditional lulur treatments or 'mandi lulur' in many modern spas. Jasmine is one of the flowers used in lulur.
This flower can also be made into corsages or as hair adornment. Jasmine is used it to make perfumes, scented cosmetics, powders and aromatherapy oils. We also have the Jasmine tea which I like very much.


Daughters are given names like 'Melati', 'Mallika' or 'Jasmine'.


A very popular mandarin folk song is tittled 'mo li hua'.

This is the beauty of Jasmine.



Now, back to reality. Based on my own gardening journal, growing jasmine had not been easy for me. This is my third try. The old plants died as a result of pest attack even before it could bear flowers. Even when it is flowering, somehow it attracts a lot of pests that damage the leaves and buds. These pests are very tiny, appear like brown or black dots on the surface of the leaves and secrete a sticky-like substance on the leaves. I sprayed boiled chilli solution on it and applied some purple colour pesticide granules on the soil to ward off tiny snails. The infected leaves and buds have to be cut off.

Regular fertilising is needed. Phew! A lot or work right? Seems to be working so far. Well, bees and butterflies loves the nectar of this flower. I love the scent.

9 comments:

  1. How names were coined after flowers generations ago, especially for the Malays.... Melati, Melor, Mawar...

    Jasmine is quite a popular name too...
    I like the way flowers group together and the white color is so pure ....

    Happy Gardening.
    ~ Bangchik

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  2. I can almost smell these flowers through the screen...one of my favorite as a house plant!
    Lynn

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  3. hello AutumnBelle! very happy that you dropped by my blog. I really loved what you have planted in your garden. I have not seen bunga kantan blooms like yours before. Very nice! I like jasmine too. They really smell good. I would definitely like to come back more often. Have a restful evening ;-)

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  4. Bangchik & Kakdah, Lynn, Stephanie. I am really honoured to have you visit my blog. All of you have great garden blogs.

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  5. I love learning about the different cultural uses of plants. I spent a little while in Bali years ago and loved how plants were such an important part of daily ritual. Thanks for your great post!

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  6. theurbanfieldguide, if you are still single, do consider a Javanese wedding ritual when you get married later. I have seen people and celebrities doing it on TV. Very very magical for the bride and groom.

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  7. hi dear.. im a student and stumble across ur blog... i would like to ask a few things... regarding this jasmine flower... do you happened to know any stockist or where i can get this jasmine flower here in selangor?.. maybe shah alam, klang... or places that is not far from shah alam... im in my final year now and for my final project im planning to do some research about this jasmine flower due to its high quality... but im having a bit of trouble finding the stockist or perhaps anyone who can provide me a sample for this plant (i need the flower along with its leaves and branch)because most of the stall got it from rawang which is for me a bit far. perhaps you can help me with this. any reply you can reply to me via my email. esstherlaryn@gmail.com... your help is much more appreciated... thank you...

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  8. wherw do you get the seeds..please email me iwanacca@gmail.com

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    Replies
    1. Shahrul, in Malaysia, we propagate this species of Jasmine by stem cuttings, not by seeds. We don't have seeds.

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