Some Plants...Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day

Some plants just love to be touched by the rays emanated by the sun. For them, the sun is like a gentle kiss from nature’s lips and warm arms that embrace their tiny and delicate petals. Without it, efflorescences lose their vibrant colors, the leaves turn pale, and the stems sag, their buds droop, refusing to open. Plants become glum sans the radiant glow of the sun. Glad I was able to grow some of the sun-loving plants in my humble garden.

White Angel

Yellow Bush

Ploemele Reflexa, Song of India

Schefllera Arbolicora variegated

Some plants do not thrive well in full sun but do well in partly shaded garden. They shy away from the harsh heat because it can burn their delicate foliage and fragile petals. Exposure to too much sun or to very intense light may compromise the vigor of the plant leaving them dry, dehydrated. Some of the plants often bought in Baguio can’t withstand the scorching heat but some were able to adapt the temperature, gradually.

Coleus

Spathiphyllum Wallisii

Some plants choose to grow under canopy of trees. Where the humidity is high and the weather is warm, a tropical climate is an ideal place for them. A sudden change in temperature might put them at risk and prognosis may not be good… The chance for recovery is slim and almost next to impossible.

Staghorn Fern

Wart Fern

Asplenium unfurled frond

All the plants in my garden possess one thing in common: they all grow in the hands of a cheerful and willing gardener. When I was a little girl I was told many times by old folks that talking to plants will help them (plants) grow ten times faster and healthier. I tried to figure out how could that be then I thought that perhaps it has something to do with the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide that takes place between plants and animals. "Talking" to plants show how plants and humans mutually benefit from each other. Plants give off oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide. On the other hand, humans breath in oxygen and breath out carbon dioxide as well. Do I make sense? Any way, I believe in the old Chinese proverb: “The best fertilizer in the garden may be the gardener's shadow.” One's presence in the garden is the best fertilizer other than the chemical and artificial ones growing plants can have.

I may be a little late but still I'm joining Carol at maydreamsgarden for GBBD this June 2012. Thank you, Miss Carol for hosting such a wonderful meme.

This Month of June

If there is one significant month to choose from, I consider it to be month of June. It's been a year since I decided to try on blogging, so I suppose this is my first anniversary in the web blog aside from the fact that hubby and I also celebrated our fourteenth wedding anniversary this month.

Happy anniversary!

Our anniversary started off with a thanksgiving mass at the first hour in the morning followed by a simple dinner in one of our favorite diner fifteen kilometers away from home. The place is cozy where I can have a view of the vast mountains and the lush trees around while enjoying the sumptuous meals they served. Perhaps it was the garden with different kinds of ferns was the reason why we ended up in this deli in celebrating this special moment. Besides, as a coffee drinker, it's the only dining shop I know in town that serves a rare kind of coffee. Find out why...

Kalua Pork with Salmon, Osso Bucco and Chef's Salad in Vinigrette

Cozy ambience

Phymotosorous with Asplenium ferns

Phymatosorous Scolopendria

The best part of the simple yet meaningful celebration was when we get to experience the best tasting coffee we've ever had, the Coffee Alamid. What's so special about the coffee? I guess aside from obtaining them from civet cat's fermented droppings, the coffee blended well with my gustatory cravings for a different kind of coffee. Not the black coffee that I used to have.This beverage tasted like chocolate and....hazelnut?... Sweet, smooth that even my taste receptor cells sent signals to my brain saying they can't be from civet cat's droppings!

Fixated

Every person has to go through some developmental stages as he takes his journey to adulthood. One must experience and undergo the process accordingly or else he may not be able to move on to the next stage of development and becomes fixated. Fixated may also mean focusing one's attention to something...obsessively.

What used to be a boring and long trip is now one of my method of relaxing from a day's work. Suddenly, I find driving fun whenever I see lush trees, ferns and shrubs along the roadside.

If I am fixated with tree ferns at this point in time, I don't mind being such because just by looking at them, they bring delight to my senses and they please my mind. Fixated but not that obsessed, I can only imagine and daydream about them. Scared of taking the risk of growing them in my garden, I think the place might not be suitable enough for them to survive.

Magnificent Cyathea

Dense growth of  ferns swarming over shrubs and trees 

 Shade ferns are replaced by weedy sun ferns 

 Appreciating tree ferns growing wild in the mountains, rainforests and even along roadside trees are good indications of preventing erosion and promotes stability of the soil and fern roots are not invasive. Decline of shade ferns is a result of exploitation of tropical rainforests for timber. It breaks my heart to know that some of them are close to becoming scarce due to deforestation and unauthorized logging.

Erosion of mountains

Forests give an ideal habitat for ferns. Some ferns do well in low light and in high humidity while others thrive under the sun. I saw these type of tree ferns growing in the mountains under dappled shades. The soil was moist, almost clay but porous.

Row of Cyatheas in the mountain

Look at the magnificent tree fern. Who would have thought that beneath the majestic beauty are thorny stalks. Up close, presence of spines were all over the hairy stipes. At first I found them quite scary. Nobody wants to get pricked by these tiny hard thorns...The spiny stipes seemed to protect the delicate, soft fronds from predators and even from intruders.

Spiny stipes

Even the stem of a young frond has thorns around it

Spines with golden thick hair in the stipes of mature fronds

Some ferns grow like weeds but can add interest and drama to a garden when blended with several ornamental plants.