the latest from my garden

Hi,
Here's the latest from my garden

 
my first baby corn!

I could not resist removing it the day the silk turned brown






result--   baby corn. Frankly speaking the taste was not all that great, but then I have never cared much for baby corn, preferring the mature corn or 'bhutta' as we call it- roasted over hot coals and seasoned with butter and lemon.... ahhh heaven!

I will harvest the next one at a more mature stage when the silk dries off 

 Butterfly pea new plant- this is the only plant that I have noticed to have two types of false leaves before the actual three-lobed leaves typical of pea family emerge.
Is this true of all peas?- I must check..

 This is the blue butterfly pea- double variety, I had posted about my butterfly pea- single variety sometime back



 

Brahmakamal

'Brahmakamal"/ night blooming Cereus Epiphyllum oxypetalum (Fam. Cactaceae) flowered last week. I had posted about it last year here.

This flower has been blooming regularly each year for quite some years now. It is in the same pot, I often neglect to water it, certainly I never fertilize regularly, but come the monsoons, it sends out 2-5 buds out of which at least two bloom. Maybe if I take better care of it, I might get more blooms- staggered over a few nights. The smell of more than two flowers is overpowering at times.

Balsam- says Thank You

These are balsam flowers Impatiens balsamina, (Fam. Balsaminaceae)
also called Touch-Me-Not, probably due to the ripe pods bursting when touched. It is very common in my garden during the monsoons, they keep self-seeding and I have to remove them from my pots. I must have missed this pot, had planted Indian spinach but the balsam dominated.

Bush rose heavy with the rains 

 



This rose is actually a double color- light pink for the inner petals and red for the outer petals
After a day the whole flower turns red

This is an unknown flower, the latest to join my garden. A bit of googling gave me this name- Ruellia brittoniana ( Fam. Acanthaceae). It is also called as Desert Petunia or Mexican Petunia, but has no relation with the common garden petunia.
What's in a name? -said W. Shakespeare
The flower is a wow!

Anybody to ID this flower- three guesses-
Farmers not eligible!

This is groundnut/ peanut; I just threw in a few nuts as a lark in my vermicomposting bin, and there-- the flowers came in no time.
An interesting fact about groundnut, botanical name Arachis hypogaea (Fam. Fabaceae legume family).

Hypogaea means under the earth, after pollination the flower stalk elongates and pushes the ovary under the ground till it is horizontal where the ovary then develops into a mature fruit pod. This is an example of geocarpy

This was an extremely long post, I hope you enjoyed it, as I enjoyed writing it.
Happy Gardening!

Brahmakamal/ Night blooming Cereus/ Indian Orchid

Today I will write about a favorite of mine, the Night blooming Cereus also called brahmakamal in Maharashtra.
I had this plant for five years and just when ready to give up on it, the plant bloomed. And oh, what a flower!

Initially the buds appear as though they are leaf buds, gradually rounding to the flower bud shape and grow in size till they are the size of your palm.
A few days before flowering, the bud stalk starts to turn till the bud is upright.




The night of flowering is eagerly awaited, I make it a point to have finished my chores and keep tabs of the blooming in progress.

The bud starts opening by 9pm and is in full bloom in an hour. And that is when you get the fragrance! I had five flowers blooming on the same night once and the fragrance pervaded inside till my kitchen.
This flower cannot be described. I am unable to post the fragrance, you will have to grow this plant and realize it for yourself...

Till then happy viewing

Unfortunately all good things must come to a pass. Hence the flower blooms only for 3-4 hours after which it closes and becomes limp by the morning.
There are some common misconceptions regarding this plant. One being that is difficult to grow, flowers only once in a year and requires hilly regions to enable it to bloom.
The plant typically flowers once or twice in the monsoons. I have successfully grown it in Mumbai in a pot which is 12" wide, the size commonly used for roses. Though it asked for a lot of patience as initially you will see only the green leaves/ stems; but then no pain no gain. A handful of compost or cowdung every 2-3 months is all that I used for nutrients.
Propagation is easy - a stem or leaf( I still don't know what they are) will give rise to new plant.
This plant is different from another (Saussurea obvallata) also called brahmakamal which flowers once in 14 years and grows in the Himalayas. A google search will throw up the pictures of both the species. You can decide for yourself which is worthy of its name..
Till my next post happy gardening!
Chitra