Visit to Orator Hotel - Part 2

Continuing my series on the visual feast for your eyes and soul at Orator Hotel here are some more photos.

 

 
Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

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My other blogs

· Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/

· The Blood of Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/

· Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/

Mystery Plant 3

Mystery Plant 3

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

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My other blogs

· Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/

· The Blood of Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/

· Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/

Visit to Orator Hotel - Part 1

I have been wanting to take photos of the plants at The Orator Hotel owned and operated by my good friends Jerry Brunt and Charlotte Chan Mow - Brunt at Ululoloa. Jerry is a kindered soul when it comes to plants and when I stopped by to drop some plants off for them I brought my camera to take some photos of some of the many beautiful plants that they have.
Here for your viewing pleasure is the first instalment of that very fruitful photo shoot which includes some of the feline residents one of which was very curious and attentive. I'd like to thank Jerry and Charlotte for letting me wander around the hotel grounds taking photos. I'd also like to thank the friendly kitty that accompanied me through most of my tour.

Snake's Tongue

Lipstick Palm

Flowers of Cordyline frucitosa

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

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My other blogs

· Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/

· The Blood of Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/

· Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/

Rose of Sharon - A rose with multiple identities

After posting a blue hibiscus (Hibiscus syriacus) it was pointed out to me that one of its common names was Rose of Sharon.

Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus)

The name sounded familiar so I looked it up and sure enough aside for finding out that other flowers have been given that name to the confusion of people, there among the flowers sharing the name was the one that I photographed before (Hypericum calycinum).


Rose of Sharon Hypericum calycinum

The name has biblical roots and is first mentioned in the King James bible of 1611. Aside from scholarly discussion as to errors in that translation there is also much discussion as to which flower the original passage referred to. Among the contenders are the Madonna Lily (Lilium candidum) and the Sea Daffodil (Pancratium maritimum), neither of which I have any photos although you can easily do a search on the internet if you desperately want to see what they look like.

Today the two flowers above are also known as Rose of Sharon. For the Hibiscus syriacus several cultivars exist which go by the following names 'Diana' (pure white), 'Oiseau Bleu' (blue-violet with maroon centre), 'Hamabo' (pale pink with deep red centre), 'Red Heart' (white with deep red centre), 'Woodridge' (deep pink), 'Lavender Chiffon' (pale lilac)

I think it would be safe to say that the blue one is "Oiseau Bleu' and this one below is Lavender Chiffon.

Hibiscus syriacus

Such confusion is just one reason that illustrates the importance of finding out and using the binomial/scientific names although it does not preclude the use of the common/vernacular names. In fact it helps to know what other names a plant might have since in many cases aside from some common names having no bearing on each other in other languages languages (i.e. the translation is not literal) there a re many cases of plants being given different names by people of different regions speaking the same language or even people in the same place simply knowing a plant by completely different common names.

Acknowledgments:

Jan Harker Reyes: identification of Hibiscus syriacus as Rose of Sharon

Additional Information:

Binomial Name: Hibiscus syriacus Taxonomy: Phylum: Angiosperms– Class: Eudicots –  Unranked: Rosids  –  Order: Malavales– Family: Malvaceae – Genus: Hibiscus – Species: H. Syriacus Common names: Rose of Sharon, Rose Mallow, St Jospeh’s rod (English); Hibiscus syriacus (French); Rosa de Siria (Spanish); Ibisco cinese (Italian) Tuinhibiscus (Dutch); Straucheibisch, Scharonrose, Syrischer Eibisch, Garteneibisch, Festblume(German)

Binomial Name: Hypericum calycinum Taxonomy: Phylum: Angiosperms– Class: Eudicots –  Unranked: Rosids  –  Order: Malpighiales – Family: Hypericaceae – Genus: Hypericum – Species: H. Calycium Common names: Rose of Sharon, Aaron’s Beard, Great St-John’s wort, Jerusalem Star (English); Millepertuis à grandes fleurs (French); Großkelchige Johanniskraut (German)


Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

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My other blogs

· Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/

· The Blood of Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/

· Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/

Blue Hibiscus in Belgium

Sometimes you find plants growing in places where you least expect or certain species growing where you thought they could not grow. In this case it is various varieties of Hibiscus growing in Europe. Here are photos of two hibiscus plants one the size of a small tree or a large shrub and the other still smallish. We can argue if the shades are blue or lavender or some other shade but I am sure everyone will agree that they are quite amazing and unusual.



Blue Hibiscus

Blue Hibiscus shrub

Blue Hibiscus



Blue Hibuscus

Blue Hibiscus

Lavender (?) Hibiscus

Lavender (?) Hibiscus

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

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My other blogs

· Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/

· The Blood of Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/

· Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/

 

Laying a border with concrete caps stones - Part 3

Finally the border of the enlarged Pink Rain Lily(Zepheranthes rosea) bed was completed. The new bed is about three times bigger than the old one and aside from the nice new border will look even better once the Rain Lilies have grown and multiplied to fill it out. Then when they are in full bloom probably next year when the rainy season starts they will look absolutely stunning.

Completed boarder defining enlarged Pink Rain Lily bed

Here you can see the completed boarder and the difference in size between the old bed of Rain lilies and the new. Below is the bed of Egyptian Starclusters and Ti Plants I started which is parallel to the Rain Lily Bed.

Bed of Egyptian Starclusters and Ti Plants with boarder of old Poumuli trunks

Ti plant ready for transplanting

 If you look closely you can see the Egyptian Starcluster cuttings. I covered the ground with cardboard as a temporary ground cover/mulch. Ideally I would have liked to get lots of coconut husks and use that as a more permanent and much more effective mulch. But sometimes you must make do with what you have. In any case I try to recycle and reduce rubbish that is sent to the rubbish tip by composting or using large cardboard boxes etc in the garden.

Here you can see the use of a large tire and rocks to create the boarder of this flower bed along one side of the driveway. Along the inside edge of the low rock boarder (no concrete was used) are planted Red Ti Plants and Silver Dragon. Inside the bed are a variety of plants including: Calathea burle-marxi "Green Ice" and "Blue Ice", Torch Gingers, Chrysothemis, Indonesian Wax Roses and Ixoras.

Here is the other side of the driveway defined by old tires. I started covering them up with a rock boarder because I did not really like the tires and they were only intended to give some structure to the bed after which the plan was to put a rock boarder to hide the tires.

Above is a view of part of the drive way showing both beds. Another reason I wanted to cover up the tires is so that both borders would look the same. I also was waiting for the Silver Dragon to grow and multiply so I could plant more on the right side.

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

My other blogs

· Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/

· The Blood of Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/

· Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/

Visit to Hyde Park, Sydney - PART 1

Gymea Lily, Doryanthes excels

Gymea Lily, Doryanthes excels

Japanese Sago Palm, Cycas revolute



Hyde Park's Archibald Fountain with Hills Figs, Ficus microcarpa in the background

 
Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

My other blogs

· Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/

· The Blood of Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/

· Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/