April blooms

In the past week, there had been heavy rain here in Johor Bahru interspersed with days of hot and humid weather. This cycle of wet and dry days have been good for the plants growing in our garden. A number of the potted plants have started to flower simutaneously. It is the first time in my memory that our yard has this variety of colour.

My largest collection of flowering plants are bougainvillaea shrubs. At last count, I have fifteen pots of various species. Almost all of them are blooming now although some of the flowers are not as dense as I have seen in other people's gardens. I'm still learning about the optimum techniques in fertilization but I'm slowly getting there. I now have bunga kertas flowers in different colours - pink, white, dark red, orange and purple.

I am not, however, sharing photos of the bougainvillaea flowers in this post. I thought I'd like to show pictures of other flowering plants that were taken using the camera on my mobile phone. I took the opportunity to test the macro function when shooting one of the tinier flowers.

I had not known the name of some of the plants. In researching about them using Google's image search feature, I learned many new things. Gardening is such a wonderful relaxing hobby.

1. Oxalis corniculata

Common name : Creeping woodsorrel
Malay name : unknown

Macro shot. Flower about 10mm in size. Actually a weed

2. Clitoria ternatea

Common name : Asian pigeonwings 
Malay name : Bunga telang

See earlier post -> A flower as vivid as its name

3. Stachytarpheta urticifolia

Common name : Nettle leaf velvetberry
Malay name : Selasih dandi

Scavenged from the wild and planted using stem cutting

4. Ixora coccinea

Common name : West Indian jasmine
Malay name : Siantan / Jejarum

White flowers. Large leaf variety

5. Ixora chinensis

Common name : Chinese ixora
Malay name : Siantan / Jejarum

Red flowers. Small leaf variety

6. Wrightia religiosa

Common name : Water jasmine
Malay name : Jeliti / Anting Putri

Very fragrant bloom. A favourite among local bonsai hobbyists

7. Lantana camara

Common name : Big sage
Malay name : Bunga tahi ayam

Scavenged from the wild and grown via stem cutting

8. Begonia convolvulacea

Common name : Shield leaf begonia
Malay name : Asam batu

Local name asam batu covers so many species

9. Gasminum sambac

Common name : Arabic jasmine
Malay name : Melur

Fragrant flower popularly used in garlands

There are a few other plants that are about to flower and whose names I do not know. I would carry out a similar exercise once I am able to photograph the bloom.