Today’s Blessing

“It’s so curious: one can resist tears and ‘behave’ very well in the hardest hours of grief. But then someone makes you a friendly sign behind a window, or one notices that a flower that was in bud only yesterday has suddenly blossomed, or a letter slips from a drawer… and everything collapses. ” – Collete

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My Pink Angel

I bought a pot of this Pink Angel years ago. When it stopped flowering, I planted some cuttings in two small pots but it took so long for it to show those lovely pink blooms, that is,  until  now. It’s a sort of vine and shrub combined. I never knew its exact name  because I could not find such similar blooms on the net. It’s a Pink Angel, the vendor told me, so be it!

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When You’re Crazy Enough To Do Something Crazy

Don’t laugh…it’s not what you think! Two nights ago (how would you categorize 3:45am…between night and morn?) I woke up to the reflection of the  full moon on my bedroom window.  Everything was bathed in soft light and I just could not resist going to the garden and gazing at the moon. I thought it was too late to go back to bed and still too early to prepare breakfast. Yes, why not, why not take the chance of taking a few shots with only the street lights and the light in our dining  area reflecting its glow at our french windows? Crazy? Well, it was another experiment that I am glad I did.

I like this actually because it turned out like a black and white picture with my gardenia shrub on the foreground.

And this came as a bonus. My Vanda blooms turned out pretty well on a dark background.

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My Red Bromeliad

I always attempt to take a few shots every time this red bromeliad shows its face. I was never lucky enough to capture its essence, either the picture comes blurred or it’s unrecognizable as a close-up shot of a bromeliad flower. Showing its face again made my morning.

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And I Call It Gardenia

Every year, I am gifted with the heady scent of a gardenia bloom. The previous years, I was  just so happy seeing one or two, three at the most blooming all at once. This year though, they bloomed early and almost every tip of my gardenia shrub has buds. I can’t resist making a flower arrangement. These are flowers of my childhood,  mom used to grow them lined at the walkway going to our front door.

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Growth

I planted three cuttings of  the Shanghai Beauty shrub three weeks ago  in a  plastic pot and I was surprised when instead of producing small leaves, the end tip of one cutting  has tender buds about to bloom and the two remaining ones are thriving nicely under the heat of the sun. When you are rewarded by something like this, gardening becomes more addicting, for want of a better word.

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We Simply Call It Sanggumay

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Summer Blooms

With the temperature reaching  to  as high as  34°C here in Metro Manila, it’s definitely the start of summer days. Surprisingly though, it’s  still a bit cool at night with a light breeze to  enjoy the  evening. What comes to mind when summer comes are flowers blooming everywhere. Some plants definitely love the sun and it is a joy to always discover something new.  Here’s the second set of the pictures I took of my blooming lilies. It’s one of my favorites among the three varieties of lilies I have in my small garden – the white, dainty and sweet-scented Amazon Lily. It has Hosta-like leaves and prefers partial shade.  It blooms twice or thrice a year.

I spend part of the morning here watering, digging, weeding or just watching the world go by while having  a hot  cup of black coffee.  And it is a reading nook as well.

And I love those pockets of shadows that say, “welcome the morning with a smile, it’s another great day to garden”.

Even my Ruellia is showing its face everywhere. Ruellias are also called wild petunias. Clustered together, they could be used as ground covers.

Framing our small grotto are these lovely pink  Bougainvillea. 

 

 

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Finally

Flowers… are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty out values all the utilities of the world.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

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Gifts Of The Morning

Before you say I am obsessed, I really am.  I love documenting every bloom in my small garden. My three varieties of lilies are in bloom again, will take shots of the orange ones and the Amazon lilies in a few days.  It’s almost summer now and the few perennials I have in my garden are showing off. Call them Lirio, Bakong, or Pink-striped trumpet lily, these are bulb plants that are so easy to propagate. Put them in partial shade when they are newly planted and let them enjoy the sun all year-long after the bulbs have grown.

Oh, it was a four-day love affair with my camera and these lovely pink blooms.

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