A year in blooms

We Vietnamese plant by the Lunar year, so now it is about the end of our planting year. This entry is a review of what has been blooming the year round in my "cool" garden.
January - Cymbidium


February - A stranger without name


March - A new cultivar of epiphyllum


April - Blue agapanthus


May - Dahlia


June - Hoya kerrii green


July - Perostegia venusta


August - Holiday cactus


September - Daylily hyperon


October - Peach blossom


November - Rose


December - Cherry blossom

Jungle NOID hoya blooms

One of my NOID hoyas from the jungle has given off a bloom cluster after a long wait.


The blooms look rather like those of Pachyclada but it has a "pinkish" hue instead of "yellowish" like that on Pachyclada.


It is the first ever hoya to bloom in my Saigon garden. Too bad that it has no scent though.
This is its leaf.


I hope some kind visitors will give me an ID for this plant.

New additions to my brom family

The three bromeliads that I ordered from Australia arrived today. What a joy to have these new additions to my plant family! They are:
Neoregelia predator




Vriesea kiwi-sunset




Vriesea herioglyphica




And a group shot.


Tada... tada... my brom collection is the "best" in the city, so far! (Or is it?)

Just orchids

Here are the orchid blooms I'm having right now.

Wild nepenthes in Dalat

Before the New Year we had some friends from Singapore coming over for a visit with us in Dalat. We all like nature so we spent our time together wandering in the surrounding wild lands in Dalat.
On one of the occasions, we discovered some nepenthes in their habitat. What a pleasant surprise it was seeing these interesting plants in nature. I got so excited I forgot to photograph them but luckily my friend remembered. This is the photo of one of the neps we found.


Then I talked to another friend about our experience, she got very excited too. She immediately went up to Dalat and went looking for neps. And guess what, she discovered a population of neps and droseras growing in a wet land. Wow... how I regretted that I hadn't come along with her. This is what she found.




I'm glad I have discovered how these neps grow in their natural habitats. Now I can take better care of my pet plants at home by providing them with similar growing environment.

A big surprise!

When I cleaned my back yard last September, I threw a bunch of waterlily shoots into our pond in the front garden. Formerly I did try to grow waterlilies there but the fish got them all. After several floods in our garden, the fish got away I guess, so this time the waterlilies survived.
This morning, after a month away up in Tuysonvien, I was so happy seeing these blooms greeting me.


There's a surprise, however, as the shoots I threw into the pond were from the lavender waterlily but the blooms I have now are white! What happened? Could the soil in the pond has some kind of chemicals that changed the color of the lily?
Anyway, white is so much more unusual so I'm not complaining. Also, both the blooms and the plant in the pond are much bigger and more healthy looking than those planted in the containers in the back yard.


Many friends have said gardening can bring many pleasant surprises, how true!

New year's blooms

These are new blooms in my garden on New Year Day.
I brought this plant back from the States. At that time it had only one fan, but it has grown quite a bit and now a big clump. This time it gives out 5 blooming stalks. I call this plant "Water iris" but I could be wrong. Please help me ID it if any of you visitors can.


My hoya carnosa chelsea is showing off its bloom to welcome the new year. The new blooms look so sweet.


This is the first amaryllis to bloom for me this season. It's a Royal velvet.


Lastly, the fuchsia blooms. In my climate, fuchsias bloom all the year round.


Hopefully, 2010 will be a good blooming year at Tuysonvien.