My Nice Garden is Blooming

Do you remember the pineapple influorescence bud that greeted me on New Year Day 2010? Well this is how my 15-day old babies look like now. These many many pretty purple flowers will later become fused together to form my pineapple fruit. The pineapple is a bromeliad plant. Hopefully, more babies are coming out to form a bigger fruit. From my experience, my pineapples could only reach the size of the palm of my hand.
My tip: I read that putting apple peels around the leaves will induce the pineapple to bloom. I tried this when my pineapple plant was around 2 years old and it worked. Coincidence or not, I don't know.

A former colleague told me that there was an old wive's tale saying that the cat whiskers flower makes cats want to make love when they are around this plant. I don't think so because I have never heard any cat calls or seen anything of that kind happening at My Nice Garden. I think she must have got it mixed up with the catnip plant!

Now, these kalanchoe flowers are actually bright red but it became less red and more orange after going through my camera lens screening. I am trying my very best not to murder it with over watering. Last year, I bought a much bigger plant that bloomed profusely for 3 months but my overwatering sent it into ICU. Sad to say, I had to pull out its life support and that was the end of my yellow kalanchoe. I am not giving up yet because I think things are getting better now that I have a better understanding of their special needs.

This is my blooming Asparagus Fern / Foxtail Fern (Asparagus densiflorus "Myersii"), still living and getting along fine here after a few years. Can you see the tiny white flowers?

This is the second generation offspring of my white vinca plant that had self-seeded. I planted the parent plant near some shocking pink, light pink and purple vincas. I had expected some colour mixing but the offspring had turned out to be pure white, just like the parents. Maybe I wasn't that good in biology and genetics after all, so I have mixed up my facts.
When I look at the face of the white vinca, I see yellow sexy, pouting lips, enticing me to kiss it. But beware! It is poisonous. Only a caterpillar can survive its kiss of death.

This dragonfly like to come here in the evenings to perch on my jasmine plant. I had just given some hard prunning on this jasmine because it was sick most of the time. I don't know why but pests, bugs and grasshoppers love this plant. I have tried organic sprays, chili and garlic sprays and fed it doses of 'vitamins' but all the methods doesn't help. Why didn't I throw the plant away? Its because I still think that I can do a better job and make it bloom again. I could photograph this dragonfly because it seems to be sleeping. Just look at its transparent wings which allowed all the light to pass through to the brown woody stem!

My Chlorophytum bichetii (Dwarf Spider Plant/Variegated Spider Plant) is blooming now. The flowers are very tiny.

Actually I quite like this purple balloon flower or chinese bellflowers (Platycodon grandiflorus).

My post today is dedicated to Rainfield of My Journey, the first commenter of my previous post on Trailing Abutilon. I like to hop over to his blog and follow him on his jungle trekking adventures and nature hikes. Reading his blog is as interesting as Sinbad sailing the Seven Seas.

This is my entry for the third Blooming Friday of 2010. My grateful thanks to Katarina at Roses and Stuff for hosting Blooming Friday. To see what others have posted or to participate, click here.
This is also my entry for Fertilizer Friday. My grateful thanks to Tootsie at Tootsie Time for hosting Fertilizer Friday. To see what others have posted or to participate, visit here.
Hey, I am also joining in the fun at the once a month Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - January 2010. My grateful thanks to Ms Carol of May Dreams Gardens for hosting it. To see what others have posted or to participate, please visit here.
This is also my entry for Today's Flowers #75. My grateful thanks to the TF folks: Santilli, Denise, Pupo and Valkyrien for hosting Today's Flowers. To participate or view other floral displays around the world, click here.