Bird of Paradise

I have high hopes this flower will soon be pollinated and become a fruit. The variety I have in the garden is the yellow type. Apparently there is a purple type but I haven’t seen any yet. I love having “lilikoi”(Hawaiian name for passion fruit) in my garden. The fruits I gather can be made…

It’s amazing how fast the color changes in this Poinsettia flower that I have. I was surprised myself. But I’m glad I was a part of this amazing transformation. I just posted this 3 days ago and the color is different now, the bright red color is very apparent. Poinsettia comes in different colors too…

I consider water lily as an exotic flower. It exudes such mystery as their name implies, Nymphaeaceae from the word Nymph which means beautiful maidens in Greek mythology. Just like the flowers of the water lily they are beautiful. Apparently, there are two types of water lily, hardy and tropical. Since we’re in the tropics,…

I took this picture when we went to Laguna, Philippines a few years back. This is a typical sight outside Catholic Churches in the country, vendors selling sampaguita leis. Parishioners likes to buy them as an offering to God or their favorite saints. Sampaguita or Pikake in Hawaiian is made as leis for other occasions…

Ilang-Ilang is probably the most fragrant flower on earth. It’s the secret ingredient in most signature perfumes especially Chanel, I learned. Ilang-Ilang or Cananga odorata is a tropical tree indigenous to the Philippines. It grows tall to about 40 ft. in height. In the forests where they grow well is acidic in nature so they…

I was successful enough to grow this vanilla plant and made it flower hoping I will get the vanilla beans that comes after flowering. But unfortunately, no matter how I tried to pollinate the flowers, no luck with the beans. I guess, I have to look for the bee that does the job properly.