Intellectual Flowering

Arrangement # 100

I was strolling around and about my garden this afternoon after spending a fruitful half morning of cleaning up my gardening store.  Next to where I was working this vigorous climber called the trumpet flower ( Bignonia magnificia) greeted me in colours of purple. The flowers are bell-shaped and in my garden it never stops to exhibit its flowers throughout the year. I have planted it to climb over the netting of my mini aviary.  What wonderful flushes of purple against a dark green mass of leaves. And what does purple reminds one?  Well for me it was my university's royal colour, the University of Pulau Pinang which later was renamed Universiti Sains Malaysia. Those were the days ( 1971-1973) when I felt extremely stimulated intellectually. You can say it as my era of intellectual flowering.

With a bunch of the trumpet blooms in my hand, I strolled again to search another to make a crowd. What a delightful surprise I got from the climbing oleander which I planted about two months ago. The climbing oleander ( Strophanthus gratus) has just flowered and I know that this is the first bloom ever to be produced from this only plant I bought from the Kuching flower market quite a while ago in my Bintulu garden. The white flower of the climbing oleander has a rosy purple tint to its petals. Finally to add accent to the display I added the colourful orangy and reddish bracts  of the heliconia latispatha and the heliconia psittacorum species.  Happy to recall of my youthful pursuits in the second year of University of  Pulau Pinang 's establishment,  I dedicate this arrangement to ...My Intellectual flowering. 

Red Hibiscus, White Ginger and Wild Banana

Arrangement # 99

It's the Queen of the tropical flowers. The red hibiscus ( Hibiscus rosa- sinensis) is Malaysia's national flower. I saw them a plenty at my garden this afternoon. Besides the red variety I came across too the light orange variety, that is two tiered with one smaller bloom hanging down from the bigger flower like a Japanese lantern. The latter variety has a dark red tinge colouring at its core.

Hibiscus do not release any fragrance. But no worry. I plucked a stalk of the white ginger ( Hedychium coronarium) and more stalks of the white gardenia flowers ( Gardenia jasminoides variegated) to add a lure of scent to the presentation.

Finally I am thinking of making the display look tropical. Therefore I took the variegated wild banana leaves to provide the exoticness to the presentation and placed them in a Sarawak flower vase. This vase has the native Iban design carved on it.  As a signature to the presentation, I let the vase sit on a young coconut frond. That's it, the tropical look is there. Imagine swaying coconut leaves, distant shores ( of course beaches too) and nature in abundance. A perfect tropical getaway.

The Queen of tropical flowers now casts an impressive display of tropical sight seeing, a romance under the tropical skies and Oh! what I call ...ATropical Galore.

A Passion to Die For

Arrangement # 98

First things first. The white caladium was just outside my front door in all its glorious white colour.  It is no wonder that sometimes people refer to it as Angel's Wings (Caladium bicolor). It's large white leaves have green veins radiating from the center. I thought for once to display just white colours, white leaves and white flowers.  Therefore I got hold of the satiny flowers of the white ginger ( Hedychium coronarium) next.  But as I reflected upon it, what are the white corpuscles without its red blood companion? Thus enter the Red Ti ( cordyline terminalis)  leaves to make passion reverberate in my veins . I realised all to soon that the passions must not be too extreme. A slight moderation would be better for my heart. Again I make way for the sassy pink bracts and the orangy heliconia latispatha bracts to weave their way into the presentation.

A pure white and blood red composition I thought would be well remembered in the title...

A Passion to Die For.