PHLOGACANTHUS TURGIDUS & CRINUM

Phlogacanthus turgidus

Known as Lavender Bells, the Phlogacanthus turgidus (Family: Acanthaceae) is a rare but beautiful tropical shrub from Africa. I am not sure how big this plant would grow but we shall see.

The green-leaved and purple flower Crinum lily was also blooming recently. 

flowers of the Phlogacanthus

Crinum cultivar with purple flowers

PUNGGOL POINT

Today's weather - sunny

This is one of our last white beaches along the coast. Just looking at this, it is not hard to imagine one is not here in Singapore. How often does one get to enjoy such scenic views and  serene surroundings amidst our busy lifestyle?

Anyway, there are some plants that shouldn't be planted in groups or clusters, such as Jatropha and these Crinum plants. When the pests come a knocking, the devastating effect is unimaginable.

Over on the lawn laid a dead birdie. It looked kind of young and it is always sad to see a dead creature like this.

NURSERY

I love going to shop for plants in the nursery and for that, I feel I should sometimes be banned because everytime I go, I will buy back some plants even though I have no place to plant them at home.

Just yesterday, I bought a Clerodendrum thomsoniae, Strophanthus preussii, Selaginella and last week, I bought the Fuchsia.

These photos were taken from the Spa Nursery and Far East Flora along Thomson Road and they have some interesting plants e.g. Crinum 'Menehune', Clerodendrum speciosum, reddish leaved Saxifraga stolonifera, which I was tempted to buy but did not because of mealy bugs. There was this beautiful succulent and I ended up buying a Dendrobium orchid, a small-potted Gardenia and Selaginella, the latter which I subsequently used for the terrarium demonstration at Suntec Convention Centre, as part of the Active Aging event, on 1 Apr 11. I knew there would be bud blast for the Gardenia with the sudden changes in environment (temperature, humidity) but I bought it anyway because I was intrigued by the miniature-size it came in and the numerous buds it was carrying.

SENTOSA - PART 15

This is the last post on Sentosa! Finally.

We went to the monorail station at the Beach Station and I am always very amazed by their very pristine looking and caterpillar free Crinum xanthophyllum (common name: Gold-Leaf Crinum Lily; Family: Amaryllidaceae). A link on the plant is shown below.

http://marcellescrinums.com/html/crinum-species/crinum-xanthophyllum.html

With that, I was on my way back to VivoCity and was greeted by a huge paper crane pieced together by smaller multi-coloured paper cranes.

CRINUM AUGUSTUM 'EMMA QUEEN'

These are the pink flowers of the purple-leaved Crinum augustum 'Emma Queen' that I posted recently. It is amazingly beautiful, isn't it?

CRINUM & CASUARINA

From the Amaryllidaceae Family, this is a Crinum augustum 'Queen Emma' (common name: Giant Spider Lily, Queen Emma Lily), or so I think, that I love very much due to its large-size, healthy looking purplish leaves and pink flowers. Propagated from a clump at the Irrigation Pond, this clump is growing very, very well. Hopefully it would flower soon.

The next 2 photos are close-up photos of the Casuarina glauca 'Counsin It' (common name: Prostrate Swamp Oak; Family: Casuarinaceae) grown below the Crinum. What are the small structures amongst the needle-like leaves? Are they the miniature cones?

The links on the 2 plants are attached below:

1. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/90355/
2. http://www.tytyga.com/product/Queen+Emma+Crinum+Bulb
3. http://www.alpinenurseries.com.au/product_1-Casuarina-glauca-Cousin-It-.htm
4. http://www.plantthis.com.au/plant-information.asp?gardener=25914
5. http://morrisonsgardencentre01.eprospect.com.au/_product_49298/Casuarina_glauca_%E2%80%98Cousin_It%E2%80%99
6. http://www.ramm.com.au/profile_new.php?plant=461

CRINUM AMABILE

I have always love this Giant Spider Lily or Giant Swamp Lily from amongst the numerous Crinums. It just looks so beautiful with its huge size, arching leaves and subtle pink flowers.

However, I would not plant it in a huge clump like this. Instead, I would plant it singly to give it some space to show off itself to the audience. Moreover, if there is a caterpillar attack from moths, which is fairly common to this genus, the whole bed would be wiped out beyond recognition within a short space of time.

Can you imagine each plant being grown from a bulb which is at most as big as the fist? A link is attached below:

http://www.natureproducts.net/Forest_Products/Ornamentals/crinum.html

NATIVE GARDEN

The Native Garden is maturing very well and I just love to walk into the garden and admire its beauty. You can tell how much I love this garden by the number of photos I attached in this post.

The Ardisia elliptica sprouted new leaves and the fruits of the Ficus deltoidea were interesting with the reddish tip.

The water feature is definitely one of my favourites. The light reflection in the water was beautiful. The Alstonia spatulata was grown at the water edge and interestingly, it was doing very well as evident from the new leaf flushes. Before this, I didn't know of any Alstonia that can take wet feet.

The Curculigo capitulata also sent out small yellow flowers at its base. The Crinum asiaticum also produced clusters of beautiful pure white flowers.

I believe that in time to come, this garden would be more and more interesting and beautiful. As it is, it was already attracting some butterflies, dragonflies and birds to this area.