Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day November 2012

Eeek! I have been home now for nearly three weeks after three months away. Apart from a very wet Saturday last weekend, it barely rained the whole time. The garden is a disaster, and it's Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day!

Thanks heavens, it's that time of year a couple of show ponies make their annual appearance, and they seem to be have thrived on neglect.

I love this red and pink epiphyllum.  It's in a hanging basket at the side of the carport. I forget about it most of the year, until I notice the first buds and then count the days waiting for the display.

Still just a bud in last Saturday's rain.

The oncidium orchids 'Dancing Lady' just inside my front gate are at their peak.

On a whole different scale is this tiny tick orchid Dockrillia linguiformis happily growing on the trunk of my poinciana.

I brought this Zygopetalum inside to enjoy the flowers

In the front garden, the day lilies were doing it tough, but there were still a few flowers. This  is 'Finish with  a Flourish'.

I'm not too sure what this is, probably either 'Isis Unveiled' or 'Mildred Mitchell'.  

The always reliable 'Velvet Rose'

In the rain on Saturday, a not-so-well-camouflaged spider on my spiral ginger.

I think he may have come from the nearby gardenia.

Hope he settles in to his new home.

To see more blooms from around the world, visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens who hosts this meme each month.

Fluttering through Singapore

Well, I have been home over two weeks after my sojourn in Jakarta, and I have been so busy. The garden is a disaster. I hear that it barely rained the whole time I was away, so there have been a few losses. I headed back to work the first Monday after I got back and it's sooo busy, and I still have to submit the final reports for my work in Jakarta, so please excuse me if I have been a little remiss in responding to your comments and visiting my favourite blogs.

As a peace offering I thought you might enjoy these photos that I took at the Butterfly Garden in Singapore's Changi airport. I love Changi. There is so much to do there, it must be one of the easiest airports in the world to while away the hours in transit. My favorite things, apart from the butterflies, are to check out the orchid displays, snap up beautiful Asian trinkets from Madam Butterfly (in two of the three terminals), and enjoy a great meal - this visit it was lunch at a vegetarian Indian restaurant.

But back to the butterflies... I am a self-confessed terrible photographer of any fast moving wildlife, but I discovered there are slow butterflies (my kind), and there are others whose wings seem to be a continual blur. Maybe the slow ones were a bit sluggish after lunch, but all the better for us to enjoy them!

I saw some butterflies like this in Kalimantan (Borneo) on our orangutan trip. They were spectacular and seem to range up to about 7 or 8 inches across.

Butterfly food station - lots of delicious pineapple.

This small, dark and handsome specimen had a bright orange body, beautifully coordinated with the ixora!

Pentas seemed to be the most popular plant in town.

This was one of the more fluttery varieties, so it is a little out of focus, though in my defence,  it did seem to have a preference for dining upside down, which surely added a degree of difficulty.

These were beautifully camouflaged to resemble dead leaves.

An embarrassment of riches

There were also some interesting pitcher plants in the display.

Here the underside of one of the blue patterned butterflies can be seen lower right.

Bali: The Gardens (Part Two)

Just a quick post tonight to share some of the images of Balinese gardens that I snapped during my two brief visits this year - gardeners' eye candy!

This fabulous doorway linked hotel grounds to the beach at Kuta and was just a few doors up from the Ramada, where I stayed for my Kuta conference in June.

A simpler entrance in the same complex

I only saw the one example of this beautiful creeper, but I love it so much I thought it warranted two photos. Can anyone help me out with identification?

Red ginger Alpinia purpurata

This photo and the next half dozen were taken in the grounds of the Hotel Tugu at Canggu where we stopped for lunch after our visit to Tanah Lot.

Landscaping in Bali does that 'secret garden' thing so beautifully.

Yet another of those gorgeous marbled euphorbias.

This and most of the remaining photos were taken at my final location in Bali, Hotel Puri Santrian at Sanur.

The Bael fruit tree Aegle Marmelos  looked stunning when  lit up at night.  The fruit are huge and take nearly a year to ripen. The foliage is a larval food source for some of the swallowtail butterflies.

A bed of plumago

Water hyacinth

 I have such a soft spot for these little squirrels. I was holidaying in  Goa in southern India when I received news of the death of my mother in 2005. Their antics were so life affirming while I took in the news and had some quiet time in the grounds of my hotel.

Spores on the underside of a crows' nest fern.

I think this is Masoa alliacea, the Garlic Vine.

Heliconia

The black and white checked material wrapped around guardian figures is called poleng. The black and white pattern represents the duality of the universe: good and evil equally balanced.  You can read more about Balinese dress and textiles here

There are pairs of wonderful guardian figures in front of many of the temples, hotels, and courtyards throughout Bali.

Marigold garlands in the courtyard of restaurant Made's Warung in Semanyak

Gorgeous banana with patterned upper leaf and red toned underside.

Spotted this lovely tree at Ulu Watu, but they are used widely in street plantings in Jakarta.

Erythrina, the Coral tree

Yellow caesalpinia 'Pride of Barbados'

Love, love, love these birdcage-shaped lanterns at my hotel in Sanur. If I could have packed five to adorn my poinciana back home in Brisbane, I would have.

I saw a couple dining in this beautiful pavilion one evening. How romantic!

Another glorious pink creeper.  I'm guessing this is Congea tomentosa. The pink  blooms appeared to be  bracts rather the flowers themselves like the related blue-flowering Petrea volubilis.

I love these russet-coloured dragonflies.

Here you can see that the tips of his wings are transparent.

Shoreside entrance to one of the hotels at Sanur.

Oh, and if you missed Part One, you can catch up here !