Tiny Purple Orchids

Although the flowers are tiny, this profuse mass of epiphytic orchids made a dazzling appearance this weekend! I remember this particular cascade "hitched" alongside a bird's nest fern that we bought some years back and mounted on a mango tree in the fern garden. Little did we know it will bloom this profusely! I don't even know what they are called, but I just wanted to post it right away even without properly identifying it.

Bauhinia

Profusely flowering now is our Purple Bauhinia tree (Bauhinia purpurea), on its second year of flowering now since we planted it just a little more than three years ago. Needless to say, it is a fast grower and an excellent shade tree.

It belongs to the same family as the indigenous Alibangbáng; Lorie who joined us some months back (when it was not flowering) insisted this is the tree whose leaves they used to sour their dishes. But it is not this, and I doubt if any part of this Bauhinia is edible at all.

What it does though, is it sheds its beautiful orchid-like flowers and evenly litters the ground with a thin carpet of purple petals. Unfortunately, I cannot capture it well enough and I certainly can attest that it looks much better than the image on the left.

This is also the same flower that is the symbol of Hong Kong, and appears on their flag and many other national emblems.

Blue Ginger

On humdrum weekends in the midst of the monsoon season, when it's just about to be almost dragging to consider going back to the city earlier than planned, the gardens will almost always not fail to entice even the most jaded enthusiast with a new discovery. And last weekend was no exception: it can be tiring to sort bromeliads weekend in and weekend out, and you can only be so thrilled by flowering orchids in a season.

But as I walked past the propagation area to check on pots to bring to Manila, an unusual color jumped out of the green-ness of the landscape: a bluish purple that is unlike any other. This is the first time this Blue Ginger (Dichorisandra thyrsiflora) bloomed since we got a specimen from Baguio eighteen months ago. Initially, I was apprehensive it was too hot in my area for it to flower, but to my surprise and delight, a new color is added in our garden :)

Jacaranda Seedlings

Photo courtesy of bamdogo.blogspot.com

Before any ooohs and aaahs, this is not in the farm. But boy, I think this is one gorgeous driveway! They're jacaranda trees (Jacaranda mimosifolia), a native of Brazil and South America.

I've been trying to source seedlings; even just one, as early as three years ago when I started the farm. But I couldn't buy them: I did find them but they wouldn't sell it to me.


Now some time ago, I managed to collect mature seeds from a flowering tree here in the country and we just germinated them ourselves. So now we have stocks, and not just one but a lot! The pods had multiple seeds inside and we were surprised to find they quickly sprouted faster than other trees.

We'll plant some in the rainy season and gladly sell the rest. Just like in the photo on top, it would look good lining an extensive driveway but it will also work solo in a garden or grouped together alongside other flowering trees.

Bagawak

One beautiful plant about to flower now is a true Philippine native, the Bagáwak (Clerodendrum quadriloculare). It has green leaves on the top side but deep purple underneath, with attractive pink and purple flowers that start to emerge at this time of the year. Strangely, it is not common to find these in local gardens despite the fact that it should grow and flower here easily. 

December 2009

 If you leave it untended, it will naturally assume the shape of a small tree. However, from our pilot specimen that produced a multitude of seedlings, we gathered some and clustered them altogether, trying out its ornamental viability as a hedge or a screen. So far, it has taken root but I have yet to see how it will eventually look like, though I imagine it will have to be big and tall, owing to its thick stems and large leaves. It is also only when it is elevated that you will appreciate the leaves' purple underside. 


The experimental hedge will still take some months to define its shape, but in the meantime I am posting photos here of previous seasons' flowers for you to see how uniquely beautiful the flowers are.

January 2010

The Many Shades of Purple

Spathoglottis plicata

Purple has many shades and a lot of them are named after flowers: "lilac," "mauve," even "violet" is named after a bloom. But hardly any of the names are from tropical plants, when in fact there is a bigger palette of colors in warm climate flora.

Pink Quill Bromeliad/Tillandsia cyanea

This month alone, four plants: a ground orchid (above) two bromeliads (left and bottom) and a flowering vine (below) are making the gardens more mesmerizing with their gentle purple blush. Cool colors are not too common in a tropical garden and they always give an interesting contrast to the warm oranges and bright yellows. In my experience, purple-hued flowers always command a second look, and psychologically calms rather than excites. It is a color that quiets me down, and causes me to be introspective.

The orchid on top is a Spathoglottis species, a low-growing terrestrial that we have begun propagating this year. Just like typical orchids, it had seeds like dust falling off its dried flowers. This one is particularly prolific this year; flowering continuously already for several weeks.


The tiny flower above is of a pink-bract bromeliad from the Tillandsia family. They're best grown potted because of its small size.


The flowering vine below is the infamous garlic vine, pretty to look at but the leaves and the flowers smell like, uh, garlic. At least, they only smell when you pick them, so they're best left high up on a trellis.



A Neoregelia bromeliad (bottom) has mauve-colored leaves when young then changes to stripes with mauve blotches as they mature. This particular one has miniscule flowers, still mauve, in the center of the rosette.

Garlic Vine/Pachyptera alliacea

Neoregelia variety