Allamanda

Family Name : Apocynaceae
Common Name: Bush Allamanda， 软枝黄蝉
Origin : Brazil

A long time ago, I bought a pot of flowering allamanda plant from a nursery. It brightened up the garden with its continual flowering until one day, I gave it an overdosage of plant fertiliser. Sad to say, it never recovered from that terrible mistake of mine and withered away. Most of the time, plants just need fresh air, sunshine, water and care. The rest of the time it needs the owner to be knowledgeable about its characteristics and how to take good care of it. For now, I just like to admire the beauty of flowers. Gardening is still far from my mind.

Rain, rain go away

Ixora collection

Flowers that will bring cheer to this blog in these few days of pouring rain and gloomy skies.

Hibiscus mutabilis

When I had least expected to see flowers, I saw this Hibiscus shrub growing exuberantly in front of a shop that was closed. Thank goodness because then I was left in peace to photograph the flowers for as long as I pleased. That was a wonderful break for me (The Ixoras will have to wait).This shrub originates in Southern China and also does very well in the southern parts of the United States where it is known as the Confederate Rose.


When I had spent enough time admiring these flowers through my lenses I saw a man approaching this shrub as I was leaving and taking an interest in the flowers. Whatever it was he was thinking, I was glad that I had influenced one person to stop and take a close look at nature. That was a great feeling.

Resource:
http://www.floridata.com/ref/H/hibis_mu.cfm

Ixora Javanica

I am suddenly in love with Ixoras. So from this post on, it will be Ixoras of different colours till I run out of photos of these flowers or until I see something else that is really extraordinary.Notice that amongst the cluster of flowers is a solitary orange coloured one. That was what attracted my attention to this particular shrub.
Ixora shrubs separating two roads.

Ixora finlaysoniana

Family Name : Rubiaceae
Origin : Thailand

These Ixora flowers are white. Or are they really? In art, we are taught to look at white and see other colours. Look again and you may not see that these flowers are as white as you thought they were.

Hibiscus

One day I hope to be growing exotic looking flowers in my garden such as this hibiscus flower. Until then, I am content to look at other people's garden. Kay Poh behaviour that I am sure pleases the owners when they realise that I am really admiring their plants.

Flowers in someone's garden in the vicinity of the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.

Brownea grandiceps and Brownea capitella

In the Singapore Botanic Gardens I saw the Brownea grandiceps or Rose of Venezuela - as beautiful as the women in a country famed for Miss Universe finalists.Next to this tree was a relative:
The flowers are smaller and the petals are lighter in colour.

What Slurp! said in his comment on this post about the young leaves looking like handkerchiefs. Well, here they are:

A perfectly shaped flower, probably that of the Brownea macrophylla that I came across some years ago at the Marina City Park. I heard that the park is now closed for re-development. It was one of my favourite parks to go to because 1)It was spacious 2)Not many people went there even on weekends 3) There were various types of trees, birds and insects.

Once I saw a group of photographers armed with cameras, tripods and huge zoom lenses trained on a few isolated ducks on the water some distance away. I was impressed and thought that these birds must really be hard to photograph. Then I turned a corner and unknown to these photographers was a family of ducks frolicking in the water that looked like what the photographers were eyeing (video later). Perhaps those were not the ducks they were aiming to photograph. It did not matter because I had fun photographing those I saw and they were only metres away. Now that's luck for me.

Calathea Burlemarxii - Blue Ice

Found this rare beauty in the Ginger garden of the Singapore Botanic Gardens. Pale blue with an ice-princess appearance. Only found out its name while doing a google-search on images of the blue ginger in the previous post.

Blue Ginger -Dichorisandra thyrsiflora

This plant is no relation of the ginger family. I saw a few of these plants growing next to a row of flowering ginger plants in the Singapore Botanic Gardens on day. Initially, I had thought that it was a kind of ginger only realising now that this is not so.

I have never seen this flower before and I must say that it has a kind of electrifying presence because of the deep violet colour of the petals.

Dalbergia latifolia - Flowers in the rain

Just when I had least expected to see anything out of the ordinary, I did. A small tree that looked like it was dusted with tiny white flowers from where I was standing. What a treat on a rainy day. Unfortunately, I do not know the name of this tree and could not get a close-up on the flowers.

Garlic Vine - Cydista Aequinoctialis

Around noon today I came across these attractive blooms in the neighbourhood. Though I have photographed them before, flowers are never the same at another time and place. These were new flowers judging by the deep rich purple colour. Older clusters have a more faded look with lighter shades of purple in other parts of the same plant. These were conveniently located under a tree next to an orchid plant that the owner has hung on one of its branches.

These pictures were taken to celebrate the wonderful day it was today because we had great sunshine. We enjoy nature's love in Singapore and are grateful for that. When I saw these flowers, I only wanted to show off their beauty and I feel privileged to have been there at the right time to witness such loveliness. Despite the heat that came with the generosity of the sun, we are blessed with warmth and abundance in just the right quantity in Singapore. What more can I say for the flowers have said all.

Five days later, these flowers are showing signs of aging:

Family : Bignoniaceae

Origin : Tropical America