Hibiscus Flower (Gumamela)

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…

It’s always nice to just go and walk to the beach in Waikiki and come across so many beautiful things like the blue sky and the white clouds slowly moving over a vast ocean of different hues of blue. And then this blue ginger caught my eye and I just have to capture its perfect…

Nasturtiums – Tropaeolum majus – is becoming the number one popular among the edible flowers.  It’s not only tasty and peppery but planting and growing it yourself is almost foolproof.  They don’t need fertilizer and they grow in poor soils and give more flowers than if you grow them in very rich soil.  It prefers…

Euphorbias are plants that might be mistaken to be cactus plants because of their thorns but is considered succulents and have milky sap that is poisonous. The one I’m talking about is the species named crown of thorns. I was not interested in these plants before because of the thorns but my cousin who just…

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,…

Poinsettia is well known as a Christmas plant maybe because it changes color during the Christmas Holidays or winter. This poinsettia was from last year’s Christmas and I just took care of it up to now and I noticed the leaves are changing color. I did not do anything special really. Basically watering it diligently…