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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Friday, September 14, 2012

My DIY Home Garden in Malaysia - GBBD Sept 2012

Earlier, I have posted a Youtube video for my GBBD post. Here's my picture lineup for Garden Blogger's Bloom Day - GBBD Sept 2012.

Tell me which do you prefer - Youtube video or blog post of my pictures?

1.
I didn't have much luck when I first started growing anthuriums.
They weren't growing well and they also didn't bear flowers.
I used to wonder why.



2.
In my garden, anthuriums like the cool, shaded areas. I have also since changed the soil and added more sand and pebbles. Some of the roots are visible on the surface of the soil. I think they like it this way. I use liquid organic fertilizer or to be more exact, a foliar spray.

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

3. Sunkist Ixora
This is a dwarf plant and the flowers are pale pink in colour.

4. Pentas

The pale pink colour is my favourite for pentas.

5. Pentas

I love how the pentas could attract different types of butterflies to my garden. They attract bees too. I have seen little birds that looked like olive-backed sunbirds or hummingbirds feeding on their tiny flowers.

6. Medinilla astronioides

I am attracted by the branching structure and arrangement of the flowers, leaves and stems of Medinilla astronioides. They remind me of the molecules and hydrocarbon chains that I studied in school.

7. Sweet Basil

Basil has self-seeded many rounds and I can find quite a number of such plants in my garden. They are growing like weeds or wildflowers in my garden now.

8. Rose Begonia

The golden stamens and red petals of Rose Begonia flowers contrasts very beautifully with the fleshy jade green foliage.

9. Sunflower
(click on link for further details).

10. Sunflower

The seeds were give to me by Miruku's Garden. I didn't have much luck with those I purchased earlier which were sold in seed packets. Sometimes, none of the seeds germinated. This time almost all the seeds that I sowed have germinated and now I don't have enough space to plant all of them. Thank you very much, Miruku!


11. Sunflower

Some of the sunflower plants will just have to share a flower pot. 

12. Sunflowers

When I planted 2 sunflower plants in a flower pot, the size of the flower head is reduced to half of that grown on the ground!

13. Common Lime Butterfly

This butterfly is from a caterpillar reared by me. 
It is the no.12th baby butterfly raised at My Nice Garden.

14. Lime Butterfly

This butterfly is from a caterpillar which had latched onto the leaves of my ground orchid sharing a port with my Mother-in-law's Tongue (Sansevieria trifasciata) plant. I am amazed at how its delicate and fragile looking chrysalis could withstand our hot equatorial sun's rays and thunderstorms throughout the duration of its inactivity. Luckily the butterfly emerged exactly 9 days later.

15. Ixora fruit berries

Does your ixora plant produce fruit berries too? The fruits turn from green to red to a very dark purplish black.

16. Phaleria macrocarpa

Flowers of Phaleria macrocarpa. It is known as "Mahkota Dewa" in Malay, meaning "Crown of god". Out of curiosity of its strange name, I had purchased the young plant from a flower show. It is flowering and fruiting now. I am growing it in a big flower pot.

17. Cat Whiskers

Cat's Whiskers with purple flowers. This purple flower variety tend to grow like an erect shrub while the white flowered one grows like a low ground cover.

18. White Butterfly Pea

Clitoria ternatea - White Butterfly Pea.
It is starting to produce bean pods and I am waiting to collect and save some seeds.

19. Cosmos caudatus

This is Cosmos caudatus or "Ulam Raja" meaning King's salad in Malay. The leaves can be eaten raw. I have purchased a young plant from the nursery hoping that it will self-seed in my garden.

20. Pink Rose

This pink rose is very fragrant.

21. Stevia

I have collected some dried Stevia flowers and trying to germinate some plants. No luck yet.

22. Desert Rose 

This is my Adenium obesum 'Tripple Santa Clause' aka Christmas Santa Claus.
Three of its 5 branches are producing flowers now, each with multiple blooms like this.

23.
This is tripple flower variety.

24. Desert Rose

25. Desert Rose
Another desert rose of mine is blooming now.
 This is a single flower variety. It has thick, "furry" petals.

26. Grasshopper on sunflower bud

The sunflower bud had opened but this poor grasshopper had since disappeared. I guess there were too many predators, e.g. some of those pretty little tweety birds on top of my palm tree, my crape myrtle tree and more of them on my neighbour's longan tree.

27. Impatiens balsamina

This garden balsam with orange-red flowers are grown from seeds from Miruku's Garden.

28. Malvaviscus arboreus fruit

My Turk's cap (Malvaviscus arboreus) or Sleepy Hibiscus had produced a fruit berry this time. The calyx turns from green to white while the fruit changes from white to a blood red colour as it ripens. I read that it is edible, so I tried it and it tasted like pear without the sweetness. 
29. Mirabilis jalapa

Mirabilis jalapa aka 4 o'clock flower. I have the yellow variety now, so hopefully I can get a red flower one soon. The flowers bloom in the evening and remain opened until the next morning.

30. Magnolia x alba - the scent of JOY perfume

This Magnolia x Alba (Synonym: Michelia x Alba) aka White Champaca, Cempaka Putih, Bai Lan Hua, Bai Yu Lan or White Jade Orchid, is my happiest reward. It is flowering for the first time since I started growing it more than 8 years ago! I am growing this tree which can reach 30m tall upon maturity in a big flower pot. The fragrance from the flowers fills my backyard with the most beautiful scent that lasts throughout the day. I can smell it from a distance. In fact, I like this scent more than the scent of my ever-blooming dwarf Ylang-ylang.  Ha Ha, now I have "Chanel No. 5" and I also have "Joy" perfume in my garden!

I would like to apologise for my delay in returning your comments and visiting your blogs due to my busy schedule at the moment. Lastly, wishing you a wonderful weekend and wishing all Malaysians: "Happy Holidays!" and, 

 "Happy Malaysia Day!" 
(We will be celebrating the formation of our country Malaysia on16th Sept)

This is my entry for Garden Blogger's Bloom Day hosted by Carol of May Dreams Garden.
This is also my entry for Fertilizer Friday hosed by Glenda at Tootsie Time.

26 comments:

  1. I love your collection of flowers and garden Autumn Belle! I prefer blog post over youtube :)

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  2. I love your wonderful blooms and butterfly. Everything looks happy and healthy.

    I need to check out your you tube of these flowers.

    FlowerLady

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  3. Lovely flowers all around. Those desert roses are to die for. Congratulations also on the champak - such an exquisite plant!

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  4. Love all your different blooms. Such a nice collection of wonderful plants.
    Cher Sunray Gardens

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  5. Oh, Autumn Belle, I like the individual photos with your comments that bring them alive. That common lime butterfly is just beautiful, unlike any that we have here. My anthuriums failed; maybe I could follow your instructions and try again. Pale pink pentas are my fav, too, except for the darkest red that have no pale eye which were my first pentas and still going. I plant all the colors in separate swaths -- a wrong color will sneak in sometimes. Butterflies seem to like them equally well.

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  6. Beautiful blooms, Autumn Belle, it is like going thru a flower garden in some beautiful "taman"!! I have some seeds from Miruku too which I ordered and just sowed them a couple of days ago! Hopefully they will grow as well as yours! Have a great weekend!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kitchen Flavours, Miruku's seeds are good quality and fresh. Hopefully, I can successfully save some sunflower and balsam seeds.

      Delete
  7. I grow pentas here as an annual. One of my favorites. Those butterfly pics are incredible!

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  8. You always have such glorious photos to share!!! I love the way you view your flowers and plants!!!
    I shared this post to tootsie time facebook page!!!
    thanks for linking in this week I hope you will again soon!
    hugs from Alberta Canada!
    (¯`v´¯)
    `*.¸.*´Glenda/Tootsie
    ¸.•´¸.•*¨) ¸.•*¨)
    (¸.•´ (¸.•´ .•´ ¸¸.•¨¯`•.
    www.tootsietime.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glenda, thank you very much for sharing my post! You are so sweet.

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  9. If we are near each other we can easily breed your yellow and my orange Mirabilis jalapa, hehe. I haven't seen a white Clitoria only the blue, both single and double petals. My pentas with that pale violet and white colors both disappeared this season, only the orange remain. That first butterfly photo is so vivid, it's good you can come so close to it. Lastly, i love that Adenium I also want one like that!

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    Replies
    1. Andrea, my yellow M.jalapa haven't set seeds yet. If I have I can mail some over to you. I am trying to germinate some pink flower ones. I'd love to have orange too.

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  10. adenium santa clause tu cantik sungguh... bunga cempaka memang lebih wangi berbanding kenanga... arwah nenek saya ada menanam cempaka merah(warna kuning). pokoknya besar. nak ambil bunganya mesti guna galah... dia suka selitkan bunga cempaka celah sanggulnya... memang wangi...

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  11. The pics of the butterflies are wonderful!

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  12. Excellent photos of the Rose Begonia and the butterflies! You asked which we prefer--the video or the photos. I didn't have a chance to see the video, but generally I like both formats so it's hard to pick. It's fun to switch things up now and then. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Beth, the video is in a previous post just before this current one.

      Delete
  13. My friend had given me a Stevia plant but it is slowly dying.
    Any idea how to revive it?
    Can it grow from cuttings?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. James, references say that stevia plants are hardy annuals or tender perennials. I'm afraid mine won't last long too. It is supposed to be able to propagate from cuttings but I don't have enough good stems to do cuttings. It is producing lots of flowers now, so I'm trying to germinate some seeds from the dried flowers. No luck yet.

      Delete
  14. As usual all the wowwwwwws coming to your post. Lovely bright and sunny golden Sunflower may have to pass seeing green hahaNoted will postpone my post on WAKE II after the Lantern festival. tQ

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  15. You really have a beautiful garden! So luch and green with many pretty flowers!

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  16. I love your shots of the butterflies and your flowers are healthy and beautiful. Bless your wonderful green fingers or your sweet cajolings.

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  17. Ms Belle,
    Just found out the common name for Medinilla Astronioides is 'Mutiara'.
    I bought them from the nursery yesterday.
    Love its flowers..so gorgeous!!

    ReplyDelete
  18. You have many little visitors admiring your garden including us as well :).

    ReplyDelete
  19. Another awesome photo gallery of your collection of lovely flowers and nature. Thanks for sharing them, A.Belle!

    ReplyDelete

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