Bat Lily, three days later

The retirees in the park have finished their daily routines of walking and exercising at the time that I was photographing this flower. It's been three days since I last saw it and it was just beginning to open up its petals. I can't help but think that it is wearing a bridal outfit as the petals look so soft and delicate against the dark green of the large leaves.

Bat Lily about to bloom

A morning walk in the Bukit Batok Nature Reserve on Monday brought on an unexpected find. Towards the end of my brisk walking as I was heading back to the car park, I spotted this Bat Lily bud about the size of a small fist by the side of a foot path. I have seen the flowers in full bloom a few times before on Bukit Timah Hill and at another part of this park and I have also posted an entry showing photos of the flower in an earlier entry. What attracted me to this particular plant initially were the glossy leaves that were larger than similar leaves that I have seen before. They were comparatively huge in size and the flower at this stage of blooming seemed almost inconspicuous.I was so busy photographing the bud from all angles that I failed to notice that there were actually more than one Bat Lily plant. It was only when I had walked away from the plant and turned around to see it one more time before leaving that I saw a whole lot of them - unusual, really so because they were usually seen in isolation. So the NPB has decided to put a whole lot of these rare plants together to provide a feast for the eyes when they bloom, hopefully, at the same time. I hope that people's curiosity will not extend beyond admiration to the unsavoury boundaries of destruction when they see these unique flowers.

Pereskia Bleo - Wax rose

Common name:Wax Rose, Rose Cactus

Family: Cactaceae
Origin: Central America

Photographed in the vicinity of Hillview housing estate, near the Rail Mall.

Clerodendrum paniculatum - Pagoda Flower(佛塔花- fo1 ta3 hua1)

I saw a row of Pagoda shrubs lining the outside wall of a condominium in Sembawang and they were just too attractive to ignore. So I whipped out my handy IXUS 800 that is my constant companion since I bought it a month back. Since the clusters of flowers were in varying stages of flowering, I had to be more selective of which ones to photograph because I had to find one that looked most like a pagoda. It took a while because the symmetrical ones were way above my head. In choosing those that were at eye level I was also able to take close-ups of the clusters. It is really difficult to find a bloom that is perfect in that it contains all flowers and not a mixture of buds and flowers.

Family:Verbenaceae

Origin: Southeast Asia

Lilac-coloured roses

Lilac-coloured roses are not common here, not unless you are used to receiving bouquets of roses as presents ever so often. I have never paid much attention to roses before as we seldom see them grown in gardens here. So I have always associated roses with the commercialism of the various occasions where people pay premium prices for stalks of these flowers for their girl friends on Valentine's day; their mums on Mother's day and their wives on wedding anniversaries. But when three colleagues presented me with this bouquet, I was really touched and the flowers became more than just a table adornment.

These roses are imported and are so lovely that I was prompted to look up a book I bought some time back called "The complete encyclopedia of roses" by Nico Vermeulen. This hardcover book contains over 1000 colour photos of roses. I had not realised before that there were that many types of roses until I chanced upon this book that was on sale for a mere $10.00. What an amazing find! But as I browsed through the book, I found that there were just too many varieties and it was a book that only a rose lover would enjoy. But my interest in finding out more about these roses made this second reference to the book an intriguing exercise. With all the beautiful photos of the roses, I was still unable to identify this particular rose. The closest resemblance is that of a rose called the "Rosa Blue Bajou" but I cannot be certain, not being an expert.

The flowers that complement the roses in this beautiful bouquet:

Poem on my website

An enigma

I was photographing this "flower" when it started to move up the stem of the plant. I did not believe what I saw and prodded it a little and it moved some more. What kind of creature would want to go around masquerading as a flower in broad daylight and why would it do that for? Probably it's for survival but I only have the questions for now.

Orchid tree flower - Bauhinia blakeana

This is a medium-sized tree that is grown in our parks and other public places. The flowers resemble orchids but they are not orchids. The leaves are shaped like butterflies and when the tree flowers, it is a very pretty sight. This photo was taken at Duxton Place in Tanjong Pagar. I have seen these trees in Labrador Park as well as in CHIJMES growing in an open space amidst expensive restaurants.

Fallen Petal - Bauhinia purpurea

Orchid Tree

Bauhinia spp

A fallen petal separated from the rest of the dispersed flower. When it is whole, it is taken for granted and referred to simply as a pretty flower. Seeing a petal lying on the gravel sets me thinking about living in accordance with one's beliefs and truth about oneself. Is it true that we need others and must be part of a community always? Can we not make a choice to break away from traditional networks when it feels right to do so without feeling that the choice is a wrong choice? Nagging questions but then in life when a decision is made, there should be no looking back and the only way to go is, ahead and find wholeness from within. What I seek is the flower - the bloom that evaded me because of diversions I took that led me astray from the truth that was buried by uncertainties in my youth.

Gerbera

http://www.gerbera.org/

My mum grew African daisies in her garden when I was young and I remember how I had always liked these flowers because they were so simple in appearance and yet looked sturdy and strong. Some months back, I bought about 8 stalks of flowers called Gerbera that I later found out were daisies. I also found out how difficult it was to paint cut flowers as the worry is not just with how to manage light and shadows, form and texture but having to deal with the passage of time and the effect it has on the dying flowers.

Purple flowers

There are names to these flowers but for this post, they are
here to be enjoyed first.

Garlic Vine flowers - Cydista aequinoctialis

Garlic Vine flowers

Family: Bignoniaceae

Origin: Tropical America

For a change, flowers that are not red, yellow or orange.

Unknown flowers

I have not seen pictures of this plant in all the books that I have. It appears to be some kind of creeper and the flowers are very small. When I took this picture, the light was bad as it was about 6.45pm. I did not want to use any flash because inevitably the picture will look terrible. So I used a setting of ISO 800 and managed to capture the photo without setting off the flash. I had to photo-edit to increase the sharpness so that details will show up.