YELLOW DELONIX REGIA AND CHORISIA SPECIOSA

The yellow form of the Red Flame is hardly as spectacular as the original Delonix regia.

The Chorisia speciosa was also flowering recently. Nice! 

AFTER EARTH

I watched this science fiction movie two weeks ago. Starring the father and son team Will Smith and Jaden Smith, it bombed at the box office. M. Night Shyamalan has repeatedly made movie flops after his famous supernatural movie 'The Sixth Sense' in 1999. He has clearly lost his magic and failed to pull in the crowds despite all the attempts to inject creative plots into the storyline.

I guess this movie was a failure because of the slow pace and sleepy performances of the pair. It was literally a movie made for father and son. Set in the future about a thousand years later, humanity abandoned earth after a series of environmental catastrophes. A spaceship carrying a team of ranger corps headed by General Cypher Raige acted by Will Smith and his son crashed onto earth. All on board perished except the father and son team. Thereafter the movie went downhill as Will Smith was stuck to his seat in the spaceship throughout the rest of the movie looking drugged and drowsy. His expressionless face almost put me to sleep as well. On the other hand, Jaden Smith tried very hard to carry off the rest of the movie but sadly, the one person performance failed to lift the enthusiasm of the audience as he leapt down a ravine, battled baboons, survived after being bitten by a poisonous leech, escaped from a pack of hunting tigers and a giant condor before finally killing the alien Ursa and saving his dad.

These days, I enjoy watching the beautiful scenic view in such movies and if I didn't enjoy the movie, at least this much fascinates me. 

THE GREAT GATSBY

Actually, I watched this movie about 2 or 3 weeks back. Based on a novel and starring the talented Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton and Isla Fisher, the movie tells a tale of love set in the year 1922.

The protagonist was alcoholic Nick played by Tobey, who moved in next to the mansion of the mysterious Jay Gatsby played by Leonardo, who threw regular extravagant parties even though none of the guests had met Gatsby themselves. As the story unfolded, Nick learnt that Jay did all the things he did for one thing - to get re-acquainted with his love Daisy, whom he first met in 1917 but was later already married and lived on the other side of the bay.

The ending is a tragic one and all the actors and actresses put up a good performance to pull this movie off.

One other notable thing worth mentioning are the songs performed by Lana Del Rey, which were hauntingly apt for the movie and beautiful and I attached below the theme song "Young and Beautiful".

TULIPMANIA VIDEO

I know the TulipMania was over for 3 weeks already but anyway, here is a clip of the event at Gardens by the Bay.

http://youtu.be/Od56kA0MYa4

CASSIA x NEALIAE AND VICTORIA AMAZONICA

I have not written for a while since the post on the flowering Tabebuia chrysantha but when I do, it's because there was some flowering phenomenon again in May 13. 

This time round, it was located at the Golden Garden area near to the Victoria Lily pond. It is a part of the gardens that is not often visited right now by many public visitors because of its obscure location partially hidden by the construction hoardings around the Children's Garden.

A row of flowering Cassia x nealiae trees are planted on the outer edge of the footpath around the pond. Known commonly as the Rainbow Shower Tree, this National Tree of Honolulu is supposedly an ornamental hybrid between the more common yellow flower Cassia fistula and the pink flower Cassia javanica. At its flowering peak following a hot and dry spell, the tree may shed all its leaves and be covered with clusters of pendulous pinkish-red floral buds and yellow-pinkish flowers.

Other than the Rainbow Shower Tree, I saw the pink flowers of the amazing Victoria amazonica water lily, which is the largest water lily in the Family Nymphaeaceae. Once named after Queen Victoria, this Giant Water Lily is native to the Amazon River. The flowers first open white at night and emit a strong fragrance that attracts its pollinators - the night beetles. After pollination, the flowers turn pink by the next night. Another interesting feature of this water lily is the large round leaves which may reach up to 3 m in diameter. The rolled up young leaf is heavily covered with spines on its reddish underside to protect itself against fishes and other creatures e.g. terrapins, that try to feed on it. As the leaf slowly unfurls itself and grows, it becomes stiffer and tougher. Hence, it is not uncommon to find photos of the giant leaves supporting a baby or child at its center because they have been documented to support more than 100 kg when fully grown.

PSEUDOBOMBAX ELLIPTICUM

The Pseudobombax at the Hub is growing well and has put out lots of new leaves and I cannot wait to see it grow into a big spreading tree. Unlike the Bombax with big prominent petals, the petals of the flowers of this species are very much reduced and the stamens are characteristic of this tree.

PORTLANDIA GRANDIFLORA

I just updated the post in Oct 12 on the identity of this amazing plant. Known as Bell Flower, Glorious Flower of Cuba etc, this small tree up to about 5 m tall was named after the Duchess of Portland and is known to grow well in alkaline soils. The fragrance of the flowers has been described as a warm, creamy chocolate scent. 

STAR TREK: INTO DARKNESS

I watched Star Trek: Into Darkness today but this isn't the reason why I am so excited that I must post about this today. 

I saw the trailer for the new Superman movie starring Henry Cavill and I feel it is rather promising and seems quite dark compared to the earlier movie starring Brandon Routh, who has a very clean cut image. This Superman did not seem to have it too easy and appeared to have gone through a lot and in fact, seemed to harbour a lot more secrets. Well, this is just my interpretation based on the trailer alone.

Back to the movie I watched today, the newer Star Trek hit the screen in 2009 and this sequel came 4 years later. Starring the same actors Chris Pine as James Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock, this latest movie continues the adventures of Captain Kirk and Spock's as they explore the galaxy although I won't go into the details.

Alright, the new Superman movie will be screening in about a week's time and I am so looking forward to it.

DOOR LOCK

I never imagined that I would be talking about my door lock but here I am, showing a photo of it.

On last Friday, I was locked out of the house because of a jammed door lock and had no choice but to call in a locksmith to help. After some drilling, the locksmith managed to remove the door knob portion of the lock. Following that, he spent quite a bit of time to remove the remaining parts which caused the jam. He said it wasn't an easy task when it came to my door lock because a bar snapped and got lodged in the opening.

Anyway, after about an hour, I finally managed to get into the house. Although the locksmith commented that the Nelon brand is not good, the door lock still lasted about 7 years. I shall see how long the new Yale door lock will last. 

PETREA VOLUBILIS

It is not often that one gets to see the Sandpaper Vine/Purple Wreath in Singapore. Other than HortPark, the other place with an abundance of Petrea is the Indian Garden at Gardens by the Bay.

The leaves may be leathery with a sandpaper feel to it, but the bluish flowers are extraordinary since blue is an uncommon colour for flowers in the plant kingdom. When the inflorescences drooped over the trellis, as seen in the photos, they remind me of the Wisteria, which we cannot grow here in our tropical climate.