Colourful Bracts

In Bintulu now. After spending a month in Kuching we miss the garden flowers here.  Thus early this morning I made cuttings of heliconias, alpinias and crotons.  They were a magnificient show.  Alpinias are ornamental gingers that like semi-shade and its roots love rich and moist soil conditions.  A favourite of mine is the Red Ginger ( Alpinia purpurata) due to its attractive red or scarlet bracts.  Today I saw one inflorescence with a number of plantlets from which I normally propagate the plant apart from the usual way of splitting the rhizomes from the mother plant to mutiply its numbers.

Then I noticed the new variety of heliconia which  I brought from Kuching a few months ago producing red and yellow bracts different from others in my collection so far.  I have yet to find the common name for this species ( see below).

Today I attempt to make a composition in three stages as illustrated below.

Arrangement # 141  ( in 3 stages)

After adding three varieties of heliconias to the single red ginger I find the display lacking in accent.  Thus I added the multi-coloured, variegated, curled and twisted leaves of the croton.

I am settled for this simple composition and glasly name it .... Brilliant Bracts.

Two Hearts

Arrangement # 140

The south garden is shaping up well.  Today I made a cutting of the scarlet inflorescence of the Costus woodsonii ( see picture to the right).  The scarlet cones can last for a week or more and thus ideal as cut flowers.  Then I saw a blooming red rose.  It matched well with the scarlet colour of the costus.  Without thinking further I plunged both of them inside  yesterday's glass vase and thus recycled yesterday's variegated leaves of the Ctenanthe pilosa. It interesting to see the leaves still looking fresh today.  Such a simple and fast composition  deserves a rapid title I think.....Two Hearts 

Full of Luck - Sepenuh-penuhnya!

Arrangement # 139

THe Malays call the Eurcyles amboinensis plant as 'Sepenuh' and is said to bring good luck especially when it flowers. Eurcyles amboinensis is also known as Proiphys amboinensis.  For one thing it is difficult to flower.  Conditions must be ideal. That must be it for the last one week!.  The weather in Kuching was hot yet it rained almost all evenings and there again was accompanied with thunder and lots of lightning effects.  Thus I have been enjoying the white flowers of this beautiful tropical lily plant.  Its wide heart-shaped leaves are dark green and glossy.  I managed to propagate about ten now vegetatively  i.e. splitting its tubers.  Today I decided to team it up with the magical white and green leaves of the Ctenanthe pilosa which is slowly growing into a big clump. The Ctenanthe is related to the 'maranta' and ' calathea' species. 

Today's composition look clean and simple, and would just call it....Plain Lucky.