Vanda Orchids

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…

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…

Tahitian Gardenias are one of those flowers considered to be exotic. The smell of the flowers is heavenly. The plant grows tall up to at least ten feet and when it blooms the perfume permeates in the whole neighborhood. It’s a very prolific bloomer and the recent rains make it want to bloom some more….

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…

I like taking pictures of flowers especially ginger flowers. Some are red, some are pink, some are blue and some are white. I particularly like the shell ginger because of the unusual shape reminiscent of a shell hence the name. I like it so much I painted them too. I actually bought some specimens of…

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…