Petraeovitex wolfei - Nong Nooch Vine

This vine is easy to grow and propagate. The vines are fine, but has robust growth.  Its growth habit is similar to that of Clerodendrum thomsonae (Bleeding Heart vine). The leaves are tri-foliate, light green in colour and darken over time.

This amazing vine is a stunner when in bloom.

I brought it back home from the nursery as a one-foot high rooted cutting. It grew fast and after several months, it reached my first floor balcony and sprouted these pendulous strings of golden blooms.

It is fighting with Quisqualis indica (Rangoon creeper) for balcony space.

 
A solitary golden strand hangs down between the finger-like foliage of the Norfolk Island Pine.

This Zebra Dove (Geopelia striata) fledging flew against my glass door and dropped down semi-conscious. I placed it  in a cardboard box with bird seeds and water. The next day, I set it out on the top tier of a contianer-planted Norfolk Island Pine to dry as it had spilled water over itself.

It basked in the warmth of the morning sun and allow me to photograph it from all angles.



It finally took off leaving three feathers behind as a momento of its brief stint of domesticity with us.

Some strands dipped into the thick clump of Alpinia purpurata (Red ginger torch)

The real flowers are the white ones but they do not last long. The golden bracts are the ones which last and give it the character that draws much admiration.

A calyx landed on the lawn.

It's Christmas!

This year I decided to use my two-year-old Norfolk Island Pine as a live Christmas tree. I bought this 8 inch tall plant from Ikea, had it planted in a container and now it has about 8 tiers. It is not very tall but I thought that it should suffice for this year.

 Well, next year it will be different as I planned to be more diligent in applying nutrients and molly coddle it for the next 12 months.

 

This plain, chocolatey moth flew and rested on a leaf next the colourful tinsels.

It scrambled around for a while and then laid motionless, which to all appearances has become part of the tree ornaments.

Santa visited this bird nest of three baby birds.

 

Tasha was also enomoured of the ornamented tree.

Tasha getting into the festive mood by

 

donning a diamante tiara.

 

This huge wooden dog door stopper present a merry welcome to guests.
 

This Dracaena draco houseplant was tarted up for the occasion.

Santa teddies on a rope of acrylic garlic.

Dried home-grown bamboo stems are used as props for these ornaments, some of which are decades old.

Some concrete garden animals at the base of bamboo props.

Ornaments on pussy willows from last year's Spring Festival.


The tall one at Berjaya Time Square.


Wishing you a joyous Christmas!

 

Heliconia rostrata - Hot-red Lobster Claws

Clumps of Heliconia rostrata (Hanging Lobster Claw) have been planted around the garden for its long pendulous flowers as well as using them as a living screen. They are also wonderful as cut flowers in large floral arrangement.

Heliconia rostrata thrives in full sunlight,

producing bright red blooms trimmed in yellow and lime green.

The colourful parts are actually the bracts.


 
The green horn aka the bud. 



Ants are gathering in heightened anticipation even before the bracts open up.

This clump was planted in the ground as border plants to function as an effective screen.



As the pendulous flowers elongate, it can become rather heavy and tilting occurs.

I used tie-wires to pulled them upright.

Together with the variegated Crotons plenty of colour was introduced into the garden.

This H. rostrata. is thriving happily in a container.

Three containers of Heliconia rostrata by the poolside afford partial screening and a tropical ambience.

They grew to about 10 feet high in containers and look quite wild.

This common garden snail was found resting on the cut end of a frond.

"Remember when life's path is steep to keep your mind even."

- Horace 

The large frond provide a good platform for sunbathing and viewing for this grasshopper.

The fronds are used as a sliding plane for these living toys.

Up and down they go from one broad leaf to another. The last one left standing is the winner.

A plate of Char Koay Teow a popular Malaysian dish of fried flat rice noodles with cockles and prawns. For added zest, a squeeze of calamansi will do nicely.

Anthurium andraeanum - Life Imitatimg Fake

This is one of the most misunderstood flower. It has often been mistaken for a fake and a popular fake it is. The petal (spathe) is thick and waxy making it a popular cut flower. It is also very often maligned as those with imaginative or 'wayward' minds refer to its vague semblance of a part of the human anatomy.

This vermillion variety is large, loud and a real attention grabber.
 

A less fiery shade of red but just as lovely is presented here.


The dwarf variety is mass planted for visual impact.

Being low and compact they make ideal bedding plants.

Nodding heads of the dwarf variety make a good landscape design statment.

This is an anthurium with a slightly different form and hue. The variations extend to the spadix where in this instance is mostly white with a slight pink flush on its tip. The tiny flowers are carried on the spadix.

This is another dwarf variety with purplish red spathe and deep purple spadix, Anthurium previa.

 

This is a large variety with pure white spathe and spadix, the tip of which is dipped in sunshine; Anthurium carnival.

This anthurium of white spathe with pink spadix provides another permutation of variety.

A teeny weeny damsel fly seen clutching the edge of this anthurium.

This one started off as a white spathe but gradually acquired a greenish tinge as it matured. It provided a broad platform for this gastropod to glide happily on until it ...

reached the tip and then - oops! The equilibrium was lost and it was left swinging and suspended for a while. It was probably having great fun.

“If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.”  - Lewis Carroll

A single stalk of anthurium provide contrast to a single frond of Norfolk Island Pine. These two cuttings last like eternity in my columnar vase of water.

Posted from Cork, Ireland (This is my last week of my one-month sojourn in Ireland).