A Merry Hibiscus Flower Boat

This morning I had an early morning walk with my cats.  We climbed the Vegetation Island No.1 Hill and later they followed me to the east valley area of the farm where I planted beds of hibiscus plants.  The red hibiscus is the national flower of Malaysia and Hawaii as well.  Next to the hibiscus collection was this flowering yellow palm tree ( Chrysalidocarpus lutescens), shown below.  From this plant I took a branch of its half-ripe green fruits which seeemed a likely candidate for today's display.

A few meters away from the yellow palm was this beautiful agave plant.  On closer examination, I discovered that the leavs are somewhat cupped and I thought they looked much like a boat.  Immediately the idea of a 'flower boat' composition filled the air. In the wink of an eye,my attention was re-directed to the hibiscus beds and in a blink, the concept that whirled in my mind was...hibiscus flower boat.

When I was thinking what are the other plants that can be loaded into the flower boat, a butterly flew past me and I followed it to its pit stop. Lucky me , the butterfly was sucking honey at a nearby pagoda flower plant ( Clerondendrum paniculatum) . Well, think no more. The huge panicles of small salmon pink flowers of the pagoda flower would resonate well with the red hibiscus flowers.

Thus within minutes ( I think about ten minutes , no more or else the cats will disappear from sight ) the morning's composition was determined.

Firstly, to provide content or load to the flower boat I placed the yellow palm fruits at the base of the agave leaf . The red hibiscus filled up the middle and top end of the leaf.,like so.

Ok, it looks good so far. I have placed the agave leaf on an upturned banana leaf to obtain the  effect of waves in motion.

 

Then I saw on my way back to the chalet a cluster of dwarf yellow allamanda flowers ( Allamanda cathartica).While the red hibiscus petals are single and funnel-shaped, the yellow allamanda flowers have awhorled-leaf arrangement.

Arrangement # 39

Finally, to add merry making and a  mood of festivity to the occassion, I placed the pagoda flowers in between the red hibiscus and yellow allamanda flowers.Satisfied with the composition.. I named it..a Merry Hibiscus Flower boat.