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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Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - GBBD Nov 2011

1. Pentas

Here's my lineup for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - November 2011.  Currently I am still trying to familiarise myself with Bloggers New Interface. Yours truly still prefer using the good old Google Dashboard but I know the following:

a) You can click any one of the 19 photos in this post to see the full slides layout view, or
b) To view my blog in Blogger Dynamic Views (Sidebar / Classic / Flipcard / Magazine / Mosaic / Snapshort / Timeslide), type the "view" beside my URL as follows:

http://www.mynicegarden.com/view/

Note: If you are using an old computer with earlier versions of operating systems that does not allow you to upgrade to Internet Explorer 9, you may experience problems opening pages and viewing Blogger blogs. You can download Google Chrome for FREE. The pages load quite fast and the screen is wider.




2. Native Plant - Torch Ginger (Etlingera elatior)
It oozes with sweet nectar. Can you recognise the many tiny red flowers among the pink bracts?

3. Native ground orchid - Arundina graminifolia
Bamboo orchids make a good groundcover plant / border.
These native wild orchids are ever-blooming in our tropics.

4. Cosmos sulphureus
Some orange cosmos to brighten up my garden. We are experiencing cloudy and/or rainy weather on a daily basis with hailstones and destructive stormy weather uprooting trees in nearby suburban areas e.g. Subang Jaya.

5. Yellow Rose
I find it more difficult to get yellow roses to bloom. Any tips?

6. Orange Jasmine - Murraya paniculata
Another native plant - this jasmine is very fragrant throughout the day.

7. Angelwing Jasmine

This jasmine is also very fragrant, especially in the evenings and early morning.

“Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - GBBD Nov 2011”, a copyrighted post, was written for My Nice Garden blog by Autumn Belle @ http://www.mynicegarden.com/ on November 15th, 2011.

8. Orange Cape Honeysuckle - Tecoma capensis
This plant is very prone to mealy bugs attack and grows very slowly.

9. Creeping Daisy - Sphagneticola trilobata
Scientific name: Sphagneticola trilobata
Synonym: Complaya trilobata, Wedelia trilobata
Common names: Creeping Daisy, Rabbit's Paw, Singapore Daisy
Malay name: Serunai Laut
Family: Compositae
Origin: West Indies, North South America

This Creeping Daisy has sweet yellow flowers and makes a good groundcover.
They are very hardy and I use it to cover unsightly open areas.
Very easy to propagate, just cut and plant directly on the ground.

10. Spider Plant - Chlorophytum comosum

When I bought the Spider Plant, I selected one that had many baby plants attached to 3 long stalks. Back home, I let them dangle down a tall planter until some of the babies became too heavy and dropped off. Then I planted the babies on the ground. Now, the mother plant is producing another 2 new stalks of babies but this time, there are many pretty white flowers.

11. Angelonia biflora - Lavender pink colour
Angelonias are very easy to propagate - just cut and stick them into the ground.
They are ever-flowering.

12. Christmas Pine

Yay, I have just bought a baby Christmas Tree!
Are you buying a real Christmas Tree to grow in your garden?

13. Orchid - Dendrobium Sonia Royal Pink
This orchid appeared in Oct 2011 GBBD.
It has been blooming for more than a month already.

14. Wrightia religiosa - Water Jasmine
The common name for this plant is "Princess Earrings" in Indonesian language.
 This is a native plant of Peninsular Malaysia.
This is a miniature bonsai with single flowers.
I also have the regular sized plant with double flowers.
The flowers are very fragrant.

15. Purple Cat Whiskers - Orthosiphon aristatus
Purple Cat Whiskers grow more slow than the white flower variety but the colour is very sweet.


16. Native Plant - Calamondin  (Citrofortunella microcarpa)
Remember, once upon a time, I wrote in a GBBD post about my unsuccessful attempt at perfoming euthanasia on my citrus plant? I uprooted the whole plant, beheaded it, cut up its roots, stomped on it and left it in the 'mortuary' for months but it didn't die! It lived on. So I planted it back to the same pot. Now it is once again fruiting, supplying me with limes for my daily culinary uses. It has also been very gracious, playing its role as the occassional host plant for a few reproductive cycles of lime butterflies. And to think that I almost killed it just to recycle a cheap flower pot!

Will you agree if I give this plant a "Lifetime Achievement Award?"

17. Pineapple inflorescence

I grow all my pineapple plants from the crown of store bought ones. This is from my "Seven Princess Pineapples" - the pot with 7 suckers growing at the same time. I secretly wished all 7 will bloom at the same time, giving me 7 auspicious pineapples but they didn't! The plants bloom at different timing.

18. White Cat Whiskers - Orthosiphon aristatus
The white cat whiskers plant. Since it is our native plant, it is not troubled by any kind of pests. In fact, it seems to drive away pests from my sensitive Jasminum sambac plant which is being enveloped by these cat whiskers plants. I can use the fresh leaves, seep and make Java Tea.

19. Dwarf ylang-ylang - Cananga odorata var. 'Fruticosa'

My dwarf Ylang-ylang is giving me a lot of blooms now. From my experience I find that the dwarf plants bloom non-stop and bloom more once it has become established. The Ylang-ylang is a native tree of Malaysia.

That's all for now. Hope you enjoyed viewing my garden flowers.
All the photos are taken today.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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.

This is also my entry for Fertilizer Friday hosted by Glenda, the link is here.

29 comments:

  1. hi,
    Thanks a lot for the tips in changing - upgrading the webhost.
    I now upgraded to Google Chrome and now able to comment and slowly get back to the norm.

    And yeah..
    I too feel handicapped with all the new interface - prefer the good old webhostings.

    Notice your ylang-ylang is doing so well. Believe it or not - you will come to a place where you will take it for granted for they constantly bloom.
    It is really a good plant to invest with. Please note - too much watering may cause those young buds to fall.

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  2. I prefer the old interface for now.

    Love the flowers in your garden. You seem to have quite a variety.

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  3. Another fabulous collection of blooms for GBBD. Love that Orchid and the two Cat's Whiskers!

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  4. Beautiful line up of blooms. Really enjoyed viewing them.
    Cher Sunray Gardens

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  5. Autumn Belle these are stunning pics and flowers...so many I love that I cannot grow...that bamboo orchid is amazing and jasmine is a fav of mine I wish I could grow....quite the line up for GBBD!!

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  6. Ahh, the Angelwing jasmine, so pretty. I used to have it and love the scent that is more delicate that the sambac. Have noticed that the buds always bloom at a particular time, i.e. about midnight.

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  7. Love the cat whiskers especially... hope to try growing it one day here in Japan...

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  8. Oh WOW! Best display for November I've seen so far! So much to love in your garden. Murraya, cats whiskers, the orchids ... and and and! Stunning!
    Happy GBBD :)

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  9. I will not change to the new interface, or i might have more problems. I love your yellow rose and dwarf ilang-ilang. I want to buy it from the last garden show but it's very heavy i can't carry to the province via the bus!

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  10. Tyle pięknych kwiatów, na które z dużą przyjemnością się patrzy, tym bardziej, że u nas nic już w ogrodzie nie kwitnie. Ale bym powąchała jaśmin :-). Pozdrawiam

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  11. That was a beautiful flower mix ..... beautiful blooms in great colors ...
    LG: Karin

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  12. You have captured the beauty of these blooms very well.

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  13. Absolutely amazing! I would love it if orchids lived here as an ever-blooming ground cover! Love your jasmines, too. You must have given your lime plant the will to live! It's amazing that it does so much after almost being sacrificed!

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  14. I use the new interface for a blog where I only post photos. The old interface is preferable for regular blogging, in my opinion.

    All your blooms are just marvelous. I'm glad you started with Pentas. I brought some in and cuttings for the winter. Butterflies are seeking them out when the greenhouse doors are open.

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  15. That's beautiful collection of flowers! The Cosmos does self seeds? Mine never self seeds.....

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  16. So many beautiful blooms! I love the Orchids! I'm a huge fan of Google Chrome, too. It's so much faster. Beautiful post!

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  17. Beautiful! I love the torch ginger, orange cape honeysuckle and white cat whiskers.

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  18. Lovely flowers & pixz. tQ for adding the word 'orange' in your caption else Bananaz would take it as yellow hehe.

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  19. As always AB, a stunning array of the wierdest plants. Love the cats whisker one.

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  20. There's a lot to see in your beautiful gardens! I especially like the orchids and jasmine. I grow angelwing jasmine too but I must bring it inside over the winter due to our cold climate. Happy Fertilizer Friday!

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  21. Hi Autumn Belle, wow, your garden is blooming so well. Love those photos. Never seen the angelwing jasmine...really nice :)

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  22. What lovely flowers you have in your garden. I especially like the purple and white cat whiskers.

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  23. Wow, A.Belle! You've got a great collection of lovely plants and well-captured too. I just love Blogger's New Interface and esp. the Lightbox. What a joy to see your garden photos with this new new photo viewing feature!

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  24. Wow, you have so many beautiful flowers in your garden! Do you know which nursery in KL/PJ can I buy bunga kantan plant?

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  25. Frens, thanks a lot for dropping by and for the nice comments.

    Petite Nyonya, as I know, they don't sell potted Bunga Kantan (BK) in the nurseries but you can go to your local nursery / BK seller from wet market, pasar pagi or pasam malam / friend garden and ask them to get a rhizome for you.

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  26. Ok, thanks for your suggestion. Will prob ask my dad to find it at the morning market in Melaka where there are a few local herbs sellers.

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  27. So many beautiful flowering plants in your garden. They all look so healthy too.

    Speaking of dwarf Ylang-ylang, I wonder whatever happened to ours. I have not heard an update from my mom for quite a while. Maybe they've moved on to plant heaven :)

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  28. Coming to your blog is like a having a sunny and warm winter holiday. Outside my window the trees shrubs and flowers are dormant. A thick layer of snow covers everything. I need to visit your blog more often.

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