African violets

Every two months or so, my African violets put out a flush of colorful blooms.


I have been keeping them on my kitchen countertop where they can enjoy the morning sun through the east window.


The plants are quite picky about their growing medium, especially when they are being watered by wicks. I have to ask my friends from overseas to supply me with Perlite and Vermiculite just so I can make the mix they prefer.


When I first growing AVs, I was propagating like crazy. Eventually I ran out of space and had to pass around a number of plants. Unfortunately all the friends I gave the AVs to couldn't grow them because they couldn't provide the right growing conditions.


Maybe I'm the only person in the whole of Vietnam who can grow AVs to this success! I'm joking calling my AVs "lonesome flowers" as they seem to have no friends from the same species around here!

My night-blooming cereus

I've got this plant for a few years and it has been blooming for me every year. Much to my appointment, however, I had never been around to see it bloom until this evening.
Unlike others' plants who might bloom very late into the evening, my plant decided to open at around 7pm. I wanted to be able to record the opening process of the bloom so I just cut the "leaf" and put it in a vase. These are the photos that showed the various opening stages of the bloom.
This photo was taken at 6.20 pm, when the bud started to open a bit.


By 7.00 pm, I could already see the parts inside when the bud was half open.


Half an hour later, at 7.30pm, the bud was fully opened. At the same time, my living room was filled with a pleasant scent! But I knew, after this photo, the bloom would stay on for about an hour more and then would start its fading process so that it would look teribly life-less in the morning!




Such a beauty but also such short-lived!

More new blooms

I planted a few verbena at my front steps several months ago and they have been blooming faithfully. I have planted them in full sun and mulched them carefully so they survived the heat well.






I also have a few orchid cactus flowers.






My most favorite bloom this week is this dahlia.


Everyone is so pretty, indeed.

New blooms

I returned to TSV on Monday to find my plants growing a bit better thanks to the recent rains here.
There are several new blooms this week in TSV. Firstly the American Sun dahlia is blooming. Surprisingly, in the clump of yellow blooms, there's a "red stripped one".




Secondly this NOID shrub. I planted it several months ago and these are its first flowers.




But the most longed-for blooms are from the Hoya Square leaf. I really love the white blooms and the scent of the plant. Heaven!

They don't mind the heat

We are experiencing record heat waves in HCMC these days but my plants doesn't seem to mind that. I mean they really look good, being protected from the hot sun.
My water lilies are thriving under the sun umbrella, they produce blooms every day. And the group of perennials are flourishing likewise.






The hoya Meliflua, which I have re-located recently, is climbing like made to reach the open sky above the Rangoon creeper arbor and producing 4 peduncles as it climbs.


To add to the hoya season, the Multiflora is still showing off its shooting stars profusely.


My house plant philodendron also shows signs of growth since being outside to get some fresh (or hot?) air. The new leaves are bigger and taller. And, as a bonus, is producing an offshoot too!


While we humans are sweating to death in the heat, the plants seem not to mind it at all!

It's done!

This morning, hubby and I put together the tillandsias and cryptanthus on the tree mount. Here's the finish product, in its location under the arbor.




We didn't have the proper glue so we just tied everyone to their places. Hubby even planted some annuals on the nooks in the base for some colors, too.


I like the way it look. Do you?