My DIY Home Garden in Malaysia - GBBD March 2012

1. Native Plant - Red Ixora

Today, for Bloggers Bloom Day - March 2012, here are some blooming flowers from my DIY home garden in Malaysia.

First in the line-up is my teenage (more than 10 years old) Ixora plant, butterflies big and small love this plant.

Blooming Friday in My Nice Garden

What's blooming in my garden today is my Adenium obesum (Desert Rose) in shocking pink. I'm glad it coincides with Blooming Friday's theme today of "Perfect Pink Pouts".


This the Lagerstroemia speciosa tree in front of my house. It's common name is Pokok Bungor Raya (Malay), Banaba (Philippines), Pride of India, Queen's Crape-myrtle.

It was planted by the housing developer. I took good care of it. It has been blooming intermittently for a few years already. This year, the buds started to form in early February just as I was welcoming Lichun Day and by early March it was blooming profusely. I just love the lavender purple flowers which has 7 petals each. One by one, the flowers will drop to the ground like money falling from the sky. This is because whenever it blooms, good luck comes to me. On the tarmac road, they look like purple cherry blossoms. These flowers attract bumble bees, butterflies and I see birds on its branches too.

Can you see the fruit on my ixora plant? These berry like fruits turn from green to dark purple but they are not edible.

Helen (islandgal246) of My Rustic Bajan Garden once told me in a comment that the best time to photography butterflies is in the early morning. That's the time when some of them has just emerged from their chrysalis and would need to dry themselves just before their maiden flights. And yes, that was how I found this butterfly on my champacca tree, lying quite still on the leaf. It was long enough for me to take a few close-up shots.

Do you still remember my pineapple plant that bloomed in February? Well, after the Chinese New Year season was over, I harvested the small, little fruit and this is what I get. Three slices of sweet, juicy pineapples.

I caught this spider crawling around my window pane. It looks like those spiders that the boys like to catch and bring to school for a game of spider fighting during my younger days.

While watering my plants, I stumbled upon this nest on my flower bed. It looked like it has just fallen from my palm tree above. So, I took out the nest from the bushes and peered inside.

Look what I found! There are 5 little birdies, huddled together in the nest. So, I called out for My Dear's assistance. We took a tall ladder and put the nest back to the palm branch, using a rafia string to tie around its nest to make sure that it will not fall again. We also made sure that its position was at a height that was difficult for the cat to reach. That night, I prayed that it will not rain heavily as I was not very sure whether we had place the nest correctly. Well, it rained heavily that night and I was very worried. The next morning, to my utter joy, I heard the sound of birds chirping happily. Now, I can hear this sound whenever mummy bird comes back with food for the babies. Mummy looks like a little black sunbird. Now I feel so relieved that I had successfully rescued my little friends.

Here's another little friend on my Jasminum sambac. To this little guy, the flower look huge. I wonder what he wants to do.

I would like to dedicate this post to my first commenter, Ms Lona, from Ohio, USA of Hocking Hill's Garden blog. She is posting lovely anthuriums and daffodils with a nice poem.

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.

Ixora

Ixora, from the family rubiaceae, is an evergreen, woody shrub native to the tropical Asia. Flowers bloom all year round. Other names include Flame of the Woods, Jungle Flame, Jungle Geranium and West Indian Jasmine. In malay, we call it the bunga siantan, pokok pecah perium or jarum-jarum (meaning many needles).

I do think that these tiny flowers look like needles, especially the flower buds. Guess what, when I was little, my friends would pluck out these flowers one by one, pull out the stigma and style, and then suck at the centre of the flower. The nectar juice tasted sweet. To be honest with you, I did mimic them and liked the taste too. Maybe you'd think that I am crazy but it is true. Come to think of it, we do learn a lot from our childhood friends, don't we?

Ixora is widely grown as a hedge which can be from 5 to 10ft tall. It is also planted in containers as ornamental plants. We also have the dwarf version where the flowers are smaller. Prunning helps to shape the plant and promote more flowers.

The ixora loves full sun and acidic soil. This is one hardy plant that will not die so easily. It can withstand poor treatment and need minimal care. This is what the nursery owner recommended to me when I first asked his advice on which plant to buy. I said I wanted a plant that required minimum care and no need to water everyday.

This potted ixora coccinea is blooming very well. I found this 'model' at a golf club.

This is a picture of my ancient looking ixora plant. Actually, if you look closely, you will see that the stems are very old and crocket/rugged. It had provided food and a nice home to many generations of hairy caterpillars that has since gone on to become beautiful butterflies. I guess it has so many leaves that even the caterpillars cannot finish off!

Today, my 3 potted ixora plants are still around after more than 10 years. They even followed me when I moved to a new house. I call them my Fu (Good Fortune), Lu (Prosperity), Shou (Longevity), just like the Fu-Lu-Shou deities commonly used in Chinese culture to symbolize the 3 attributes of good life.