Lovely Pink and Orange Flowers

Today I noticed the cannas are looking good. Since about two months ago I have collected two varieties that I think are excellent for their colours and dwarf-like qualities. They are the pink and orange variety. Cannas love manure as fertiliser and since last month ago the heavy application has done a good job of producing healthy plants with stalks in heavy flowering as can be seen in the picture below.
Thus I had in mind early in the morning to make cuttings of them for today's display. What other plants should I add to the company? The brown bracts of the Calathea lutea looked wonderful to match with the brown vase. Then while walking around for another candidate the fragrant flowers of the pink frangipani stole my senses. In they go. The inset shows the brown vase displayed at the front garden.

View of South Garden (the front portion) with orange canna hybrid in the foreground.

Today, like most days of April and May the weather in Kuching is hot and sunny though it is very likely to rain here in the afternoon even in light showers. It does rain mostly at night too and all these occasional rains have made the plants this month healthy and strong. Other plants that are growing profusely in the garden right now are the multi-coloured foliage of the coleus of which I have collected about 12 varieties so far. Collecting these varieties in Kuching is not a problem at all because the flower market at Satok Sunday market has abundant supplies of them. This is peculiarly Kuching and is probably due to the fact that there are many protocol activities in Kuching that require ornamental plants for official functions. ( Note the colourful coleus foliage towards left of the pink canna above)

Arrangement # 138

In the above picture I have display the arrangement indoors.
The overall effect is lovely. Therefore would name this composition...Colour me Lovely.

Pink flower plants

It has been a while, a long time really since I last posted in this blog. I am back at it again and this time around it gets restarted from Kuching. Our Kuching garden is shaping up slowly as can be seen from the images here. On the left the pink frangipani blooms
are a real treat to the eyes. This plant stock was taken from Bintulu when I first started to landscape the house garden here way back in 2007.

The red hibiscus and the sassy pink heliconia join to make a crowd. Since they are showing their best this morning, I'll make them the focus of today's show.

Arrangement # 131

Pinkgression 1 - the three pink sisters seem comfortable in the long glass vase. Just cut from the garden and looking fresh they all look pretty but there isn't the scent of a woman.


Pinkgression 2 - The fragrant pink frangipani blooms get introduced to the crowd. All seems to be part of the puzzle except one flower that takes a humble seat downstairs. For an excellent show in the pink of health I call this compsosition......Pretty Ladies in Pink.

CU of the composition from a bird's eye view.

Coleus, Pink Frangipani and Costus

This is the fifth variety of coleus that I have in my Kuching garden right now. Coleus plants with its very colourful leaves are a respite to the evergreeness of our tropical gardens and I think they are a must to be planted . Other species that can give the masses of colour to our Kambatik garden are like the caladium, cordyline, psederanthemum, irisine, pisonia and mussaenda among a few.

Arrangement # 125

Here three varieties of the coleus ( solenostemon scutellarioides ) are placed inside a glass vase which is hidden by the mini 'tambuk' . The red terminal bracts of the costus woodsonii are added in to add variety. Finally I add perfumery to the display by throwing in the flowers of the pink frangipani ( plumeria rubra).
Surprised at the rich variety of colours I name the composition....Magic Colours.

Heliconia, Frangipani and Red Ti leaves

Arrangement # 104

This morning I bought a glass vase that is well..sexy looking i.e. by the look of its curves. I was thinking of how to exploit its curvature. For many weeks now I am thinking of other ways to use the dark red/black coloured leaves of the Red Ti ( cordyline terminalis). Today I rolled it up and inserted three leaf blades into the vase to hold together the stalks of the pink frangipani and the heliconia latispatha.Wrapping the flower stalks with the Red Ti leaves in water removed the nakedness out of sight.

By one look there's no doubt that the lady in red is ....well.... Dressed to Kill.

Focus on the Plumeria Rubra

I have been observing the flowering stages of this pink frangipani for the last couple of days.  I anticipated  I would soon use it for the next cutting. Well today it was in relative full bloom. Therefore I rushed to get my secateurs and carefully made my priced cutting for the day.

Frangipanis normally refer to the pink variety of plumeria.  Scientifically this fragrant flowering species are called plumeria by mistake. That botanical name was given for the French botanist named P L U M I E R. But a mistake is a mistake. Instead "plumier" was spelled P L U M E R I A!.Thus to this day the name stays and is used to describe both the white variety ( Plumeria obtusa ) and the other colourful relatives like the sample above known as Plumeria rubra.

For today's presentation therefore the pink frangipani will assume center stage.

Arrangement # 86

Once my mind is decided to make the frangipani the center of appeal, it was easy to distribute its infectious beauty to the rest of the company. First goes the orangy red heliconia psittacorum, then the sassy pink heliconia. But to add freshness to the composition I threw a few young foliage  of a cordyline species. The freshness was accentuated by placing them against a banana leaf background like above.

Have you notice three tiny differences in the display above? Guess what, the background is ferro cement, the glass vase sits on an ordinary banana leaf unlike the first presentation where the wild banana leaves were used. Thirdly, the orangy heliconia has moved places. I did the above just for experimental reasons. ( sentimental me??) Having a perfumed presence as the central focus, I call this composition...A Fragrant Focus.

Bright and Lovely Sunday

Arrangement # 58

I am feeling super great this morning . I have recovered from the long trip to Kuching. And yesterday spent a lovely day at the Kuching waterfront watching long boats, jet skis , kayaks and sampans and lots and lots of people and food was everywhere. I am still feeling the air of festivities today as I wake up late to a lazy Sunday. As I was about in the garden outside, I picked up a spray of pink frangipani and few orange and light red bracts of heliconia. I thought a simple composition will do for a Sunday. So here goes my....Bright and Lovely Sunday.

Happy to be back in Kuching

Arrangement#57

I am back in Kuching and happy to arrive here safely after a nine hours journey by road yesterday. On this trip my four cats joined me to clock their additional 600 km in their attempt to create the Malaysian record for the most travelled cats in Malaysia.

It was a joyful moment when I found after arriving at our residence that the hibiscus plant and the frangipani tree were flowering. My arrival was well greeted by them. I brought them in and immediately placed them inside the vase. For a lovely journey through the length of Sarawak ( almost) I name this composition as...Happy to be back in Kuching.