Choices for a gardener

So what's new in your garden this year?
Is that a bit late in the day to ask, actually? Well, never mind. I've always gone by the start of Spring as the real new year, so mid-Feb is not too late in my opinion.

This past one year saw me travel a LOT! Then we decided to jump headlong into yet one more new adventure (more about that soon!) which took me away from my blogging, though I had sworn that that was the year I would catch up with my 50+ posts a year.
There's still hope for 2018!

Which made me think this pic of the Striped Tiger butterfly on the Lantana would be the perfect one to lead into this post. Can you think of anything else as garden-y which travels all over the place? (I could think of several vines ... the Thunbergia grandiflora, for one ... which do that too. But I'm sticking with this).

And I love to think of how this much reviled weed has the birds and the butterflies and several more beneficial insects, in love with it! I wouldnt mind letting it take over large spaces just so long as it can get some butterflies to sit still on it.
That's a choice I would make, knowing full well that most of my farmer friends in our neighbourhood think I'm crazy!

Like these Red Pierrots! I have a Kalanchoe planted here and that probably attracted them here. Did you know that the Kalanchoe is one of their host plants? So if you see something weird going on under the surface of a Kalanchoe leaf, dont dump your plant yet. It's probably a Red Pierrot larva busy at work, eating healthy to grow strong beautiful wings.

I know! it's a tough decision. Your lovely plant or these oh-so-pretty butterflies? I very often choose the butterflies. Because a garden without butterflies is just not worth the name, don't you think? But then, the Kalanchoe in bloom is so pretty too!
Choices, choices ...

Some choices are forced on us. Up until a couple of years ago we didn't have a single squirrel in my garden. And this was amazing considering how many fruit trees we grow. The dogs always worked hard at chasing them away and the Black Kites did their bit too. Then, when our old dog, Salsa, died that was the end of the squirrel-chasing. The other dogs just weren't interested. The squirrels have taken over the garden now and I keep finding half-eaten passionfruit and chewed coconuts and other fruit littering the ground.

I always thought that I grew enough for both us and the animals but these squirrels have forced me to reconsider that! Again, not an easy choice because I grew up in a house where we would regularly find baby squirrels that fell out of their nests on the trees and promptly started taking care of them.
Tough choice then, to start thinking up ways to drive them away.

And there are some times when you can just sit back and enjoy the moment. Such as those serendipitous moments when a gorgeous scarlet-clad dragonfly, with the sunlight glinting off its wings, chooses to perch on a twig (in this case, a root from my Pink Cassia that toppled over last monsoon in the super-heavy rainy days) right in front of you.

Simple, pure enjoyment.
That is part of gardening too!

And, even better, the Pink Cassia that I love has started sprouting leaves again and is currently growing sideways, part of its roots in the ground and the rest sticking straight up in the air. It's too heavy to lift up so I've chosen to let it grow and bloom where it has fallen.
A funny choice to many, but I'm happy with it if my Pink Cassia is.

Happiness. Serendipity.
Sometimes great things happen when we just step back and allow them to. That's a part of gardening too.

finding Happiness in the garden

I had no idea my garden was so trendy! The colour of the year is blooming itself silly in my garden.
Oh yes, feast your eyes on the most cheerful, vivacious colour ever. Tangerine Tango is what Pantone calls it. I call it Sheer Pep!
Doesn't it just put a zing in your soul and a swing in your step? They definitely got the Tango part right. Electrifying!

I think if Happiness had a colour, this would be it. Not the insipid pale-pink kind of happy.
No way! this is the in-your-face, ecstatic to the core, bursting-with-happiness, beaming-from-ear-to-ear, hopping and skipping and dancing, vibrantly giddy kind of happy!

And I'm finding all kinds of variations on the theme all over. Don't you just love this pop of colour? Ornamental Musas have a way of being eye-catching even in a garden crammed with colour. But put them in the midst of green foliage and wham! it just pulls eyes to them instantly.

Any plant which is a butterfly and bird-magnet as well as being low-maintenace, ranks very high on my list of must-haves in the garden. With the lantana you get all this plus cheerful colours too.
I have a wild lantana bush growing in the middle of my vegetable patch . It's grown and grown, like the legendary porridge in the magic pot, till it's spilling all over the place. It takes up a good 10' x 20' (or more ... definitely more) of the space but I'm a bit indulgent with it. After all, it's the perfect spot to lurk near in hopes of clicking butterflies. So I let it grow wider but not taller. I keep it pruned (or rather, hacked) to a controllable 6' height or I would have a lantana tree blocking out afternoon sunshine from my orchids.
The one in the photo above, however, is more well-behaved and is bred to stay humbly close to the ground. And I lovvve that colour!

The Pagoda Flower (or Clerodendrum paniculatum) is another burst of colour for the garden. I love mixing it up with shorter plants and then again, it looks great in masses of its own kind too. Like wave upon wave of orange-red fireworks.
Now picture that against a grey stone wall. Or even a stark white-washed wall. Or with a green grass backdrop ... so dramatic!

Oh, and the butterflies love them too. Do you really need any more reasons?

Need more of the 'shake-awake' factor?
If anything shouts "Drama!", it just has to the Anthurium. This one doesn't exactly fall into the Colour Trend of the Year category, but really ... does it need to?!
I love the glossy, brilliantly-hued spathes that sizzle their way to centre-stage each time. Every time.
And know what I love even more? That they're low-maintenance! At least in tropical gardens, they are. And their blooms last and last and last. Perfect for the busy gardener who juggles a hundred chores every day, don't you think? Happiness!

If bright colours are the trend this year, this must be in the Top 10! I love the uber-bright, soft as a powder-puff bloom of the Wax Jambu. I love the fruit too (naturally!) but the flowers are a great taste of yumminess in store.
Did I say taste? The flower is edible too, as any little kid in tropical lands will tell you. It has a slight sour tang which makes it too tempting to leave alone. I remember raiding the Wax Jambu trees in my childhood garden and nibbling on the blooms. My mom never objected because she loved it too. In fact, I think she's the one who introduced me to this tangy flavour.
The squirrels did protest, though. Long and loud!

It's not just colours that make me happy. Growing my own food puts me firmly on that path too. But it's a bursting-with-pride kind of happy.
Leafy greens are some of the easiest edibles to grow. So are the leafy reds. Doesn't the red amaranth growing among the green palak look festive? Especially in Mumbai with the mellow winter sun gleaming on them? Perfect holiday colour!

This Common Sailor butterfly doesn't have the brilliant colouring which seems to be favoured this year.
Or does he? Once he folds his wings you just might be surprised. Take a look here .
Hmmm.... maybe he's a pirate?

A bit drab, did you say? But then, butterflies embody the Happiness factor in any garden (or anywhere else for that matter). Even a sober Grey Pansy butterfly basking in the winter sunlight is enough to make my click-happy fingers tremble with excitement. Love those colours against the vibrant green of the lantana and banana leaves!

And I love those fake eyes on his wing-tips, goggling at the world. Brilliant! Any attacking bird would be misled into going for those 'eyes', giving the butterfly enough time to break free and escape. I love it when the underdog outwits the bigger, tougher adversary!

But if you want to find pure unadulterated happiness, take a tip from this Psyche. She stuck her whole head (not just her proboscis) deep ... way deep ... into this Vinca, immersing herself wholeheartedly into the moment. Until ...

..... aaaahhhh! BLISS !!!

The butterfly farmer

It's a boy!
If you've been wondering what I've been up to lately, well, I've been raising butterflies. In my apartment garden, of all places!

(warning : this post is photo-heavy. It is also definitely not for the squeamish )

I had moved most of my plants to my other garden before the monsoons because the apartment is too close to the sea and all that salt spray flying around in this season is bad news for them. Just 2 pots were left behind. One was a pot which originally housed a small curry leaf plant and I later planted a passionfruit vine in the same pot. Well, the vine took off like a rocket, climbing all over the grilles. So I let it stay.
Actually there was no option. It had conquered the kitchen window, and there is no way I can move that pot without severely pruning the passionfruit vine!
The curry leaf plant, though was not so happy with the situation. Now in the shade of the vine, it settled down to a life as a runt.


Then recently, I saw that my kitchen window had a visitor. A Common Mormon (who doles out these names, I wonder) butterfly was hovering around my Curry Leaf plant.
Now this is one butterfly that I would like to see more of. It is large and has such dramatic-colouring , especially on the female. However, it is also one of the most frustrating to photograph since its upper wings are always in motion.

Voila! A perfect pearl laid on the newest leaf. And several more to keep it company.
I think butterflies have a sense of order. They like to lay their eggs on the new leaves so the newly-hatched caterpillars can munch on tender food (think of baby food!) and work their way up.

On the third day, it hatched, barely bigger than a baby's eyelash. All bristly and quite frankly, very ugly!
I'm continuously amazed by the ingenuity of Ma Nature. Here was an abandoned baby, all alone in the world (except for his six brothers and sisters on some other leaf, but they don't count... they're too busy eating!). But looking the way he does, which bird or lizard would even consider eating him?
Incidentally, that leaf is less than an inch long so you get an idea of how tiny he is.

About four days later he is much bigger but still quite yucky looking in that gross 'bird-poop' stage.Ingenious!
He can just lie there on top of the leaf, exposed to every insect-loving bird but not one can work up an appetite or the inclination to snap him up. And that, in spite of there being several birds with nests full of hungry, demanding babies close by!

A few days later and a whole lot bulkier, Common Mormon Junior suddenly decides he has had enough of disguises and hiding his true colours. So he decides to do away with his 'bird-poop' look.

Much better! Our Common Mormon has gone green with a vengeance. The old dark skin is left behind while he tries on his new avtar.
By the way, did you notice how big he has become? These older leaves are much bigger than the baby leaf he was on in that initial photo.

Hmmm .... looks like even baby (okay, teen maybe) butterflies have issues with facial hair. And hairy legs. But seriously, I had no idea!
And did you know they looked like this? I didn't!
This photo was taken immediately after he had moulted so there was a break from the non-stop chomping. He almost looks vulnerable, doesn't he?
I am fascinated by his eyes. Who knew baby butterflies have what look like a cluster of pin-point eyes?
I'm in total awe when I discover things like this.

Major house-shifting took place in the next couple of days. I woke up one day to find five of the caterpillars missing from the curry-leaf plants. I suspect the work of some sneaky mynahs which had been hanging around the last day or so. Someone should really teach them the difference between good bugs and the bad!
So that day I got a big leafy curry-leaf twig from my other garden (there's a jungle of them there so I can get as many as I want), put it in a vase of water and transferred the remaining two caterpillars indoors. Sure I had to keep adding new leafy twigs every day but it was worth it! It helped my curry leaf plant in the apartment garden recover a bit too.
Quite frankly I doubt whether I would've let them go on chomping their way to obesity if they had tried it on any of my prized plants. Curry-leaf plants are common here and easy to grow. Plus , my other garden has so many of them that I can easily replace them.
If I were to try raising any other butterfly, I think I would buy multiple host plants so I could reserve 1 or 2 just for them to munch on.

One of them still managed to disappear and I have no idea how. Maybe he fell asleep and let go of the twig and couldn't find his way back later. I think that must be it because I found the last one doing the same and looking comatose and he had to be helped back up the twig later.
Nine days later, this is what I found. He had definitely gone to sleep. Or was very close to it. He scrunched himself up accordion-like and even wove himself a safety-harness so he wouldn't fall off, I guess.
Doesn't he look like he's snoozing in a hammock?
And the eyes ... look at the eyes. They definitely look asleep, don't they?

The next day I couldn't find him. I went into full-scale panic and hunted frantically. Then I spotted him. See if you can.
No? Look closer at the lowest set of leaves on the left, he's the hanging 'leaf' closest to the twig. He'd metamorphised again!
I'm running out of synonyms for ingenious. Seriously!
One good thing, though. I don't need to keep replacing the curry leaf twigs with fresher ones. He's not going to be eating anything more. Definitely not for a long time.

A look from another angle at the Common Mormon pupa. He's still got his safety-belt on!
Don't you think there's a resemblance to Batman here? And I can definitely see what looks like the outline of his adult legs.

Then, on the ninth night after he turned himself into hammock, he started changing colour to a dark blackish-green. For a minute I thought I had killed him. Maybe I had left the air-conditioner on and it got too cold for him?
But no. Then I noticed that the space between the rings or segments at the top were widening. Sure sign that there wasn't much time left for his coming out party.
Oh great! This looked like an all-nighter but there's no way I would miss out on this.

Close to midnight, I looked again and saw what looks like his wings. Can you see it? I can even see the dots / scallops at the tip of his wings!
This is so exciting!
Every once in a while there are tiny little jumpy twitches that tell me that my butterfly is in a hurry to come out too. This is infinitely more fun than staring at a motionless chrysalis which I've been doing the last few days. But since that's all that's happening for a very long time, and maybe because I'm long past the age of sitting up all night with a baby, I take long breaks. Awake, but inspecting the chrysalis every hour to check if anything new has happened.
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing really noticeable except for a gradual darkening of the butterfly in the chrysalis (which has by now become almost translucent in areas near the 'Batman ears' so that I can see exactly where the head starts). This is definitely not good for an impatient person.

And then around 6 in the morning, I go to the table where the vase with the twig is kept ... and there he is! Hanging delicately from one of those by-now leafless twigs, waiting till his wings are firm enough to open and he can take his flight into the new world.
After maybe an hour or so of just hanging there and building up his strength, he is ready to flap open his wings. And later, to crawl onto my fingers.
This has to be one of the most amazing moments in my life. To hold a butterfly , or rather, to have a butterfly hug my fingers ... pure magic!

Today, I checked my curry-leaf plant again. There are 3 new baby caterpillars on it. Here we go again ... I'm loving my new role as a butterfly farmer!
Or should that be butterfly nursemaid?

I must add, if anyone is lucky enough to witness the emergence of a butterfly, please do not handle the butterfly in any way. You are likely to damage its fragile wings and leave it crippled for life.
(The second and third photos were taken from an earlier post, "A gardener's dilemma")

Eating Crow ... or maybe not !

Be honest... would you like to see this barrelling towards you at full tilt on a lonely road?
It looked menacing, waving two pointy tentacles at me (loaded with poison, I'm sure! ). There were even more tentacles, all tightly rolled up . A mask that Batman would've loved, slashed across its face and it just kept marching full speed at me.

Didnt it know fear? After all, I'm about a zillion times its size and could squish it to a very messy pulp. Aaah... but there were those tentacles .... extra-long, pointy and bright red at the tip. Just like the poison arrows of all those Amazonian tribes that I've seen in every encyclopaedia in the library !

But on second thoughts, maybe it does look a bit comical. Like a little ol' lady in a frilly, scalloped skirt and with her hair up in curlers. And don't miss those clogs that she's clumping around in!
She just kept going round and round the same pot. Maybe she had lost her way and didn't want to admit it.
But I've got to admit that her tentacles still have me worried!

After a lot of research (thanks Wiki!) I found that I was absolutely right to be worried about her. Or rather, I should have been if I were a bird or other predator.
Apparently this caterpillar of the Common Crow butterfly prefers munching on plants like Nerium oleander, Ficus and others with poisonous latex in them. These toxins are stored in its body and later, even in its adult stage, the toxins make it totally inedible and persona non grata among the predators.
Clever! They're more or less the butterfly equivalent of the infamous Vish-kanyas!

Who are Vish-kanyas? They are literally the 'Poison-girls' (vish = poison, kanya = girl). Indian legends go into graphic detail about girls (almost always beautiful and seductive ... obviously!) who were fed small doses of poison every day until a mere touch or kiss from them was enough to kill.
Stories abound of Chanakya, the very clever and shrewd prime minister (he could've taught Machiavelli a thing or two!) of King Chandragupta, who used these Vish-kanyas to get rid of their enemies.
On the internet I even found a claim that Chandragupta had sent some of these seductive Vish-kanyas to Alexander the Great when he invaded India. Whether it was to aid him or to kill him was not clear.
Then again, I found it on the Net so I'm not too sure ... maybe a cupful of salt is called for here, unless some of my more knowledgeable readers can tell me different?


But coming back to the Common Crow butterfly, it is so confident about its immunity from attack that it has a very slow, lazy flight. Which makes it one of the most easily photographed butterflies in my garden.

Just one thing bewilders me ... what on earth made them call this butterfly a Crow ? Can you see any resemblance at all to the bird in the photo below?

Love is in the air !

In Mumbai, the winter chill is on its way out but the summer heat has yet to show up. Perfect!
Every hue is brighter now, every scent more fragrant. Just what is it about this season that makes every creature fall that little bit more in love with life?

Everywhere I look I see twosomes busy building nests or just hanging out, like these two. I found these dragonflies hanging from a Dendrobium orchid flower spike . Or were they holding it up?

Others like this Common Crow butterfly seem to have have got in the mood too. What else would explain this perfect heart, the universal symbol of love?

These Pariah Kites that I had posted about a few months ago, have gone through one full cycle together. They built their nest on a coconut tree in my garden, hatched their egg, and now Junior has flown from the nest. They are still together, though. I see them gliding across the sky in a silky-smooth waltz and hear their skeee r-r-r-r calls piercing the distance as they loop the sky in tandem.

Do bees fall in love? If they do, then I think I know what this photo would be showing. A cocktail before a dance, maybe ? And then taking the long way home .

Obviously a full moon sets the mood for romance and a couple of crows can cosy up under its silver glow.

If Love is truly a many splendoured thing, I wonder whether this Handmaiden Moth could be a poster girl for it? She definitely has mastered the many-splendoured part of it !

The birds and the bees.... and butterflies too!

My garden is a very busy place now. The monsoons have taken a break (to draw in a deep breath, I think) and all the insects in the world seem to be holding a convention in my garden. Everywhere I look, there are swarming, flying, buzzing creatures, eager to get on with their busy, busy lives.




This big carpenter bee seems to be determined to mine all the precious pollen from this Sky Flower (Thunbergia grandiflora). I had planted them to climb over my wire fence and to hopefully soften its harsh looks. What I had not anticipated was that it would become the happy hunting-ground not only for a whole bevy of very serious carpenter-bees but also for some gorgeous Purple Sunbirds.

The sunbirds are some of the most exquisite birds I've ever seen. "Tiny little darts of sunshine" is the closest I can get to describe them. The male is a dark purply-chocolate brown, capped with shiny emerald and amethyst on top, with a bright yellow stomach. With every movement of its perky head, the irridiscent green and jewel-purple feathers shimmer and sparkle in the light.

You can get a rough idea of what I mean from this photo of one perched on the root of my Vanda orchid. I'm sorry, it's such an atrocious photo but I was too excited on seeing him pose for me. They normally dart away faster than thought.



His girl-friend is a bird of a totally different colour. As drably dressed as any bird can get but still very watchable because she darts from one flower to the other, dipping her curving beak deep in to sip the nectar.

Can you see her wheeling away from the hibiscus flower she had just been feasting on? In this photo, though, she looks as if she were part of the flower, doesnt she? Go on, click on the photo and you can see a larger, clearer picture of milady Purple Sunbird (though there is nothing purple in her .... her boyfriend flaunts the royal colour !)



The start of the rainy season always sees the Zephyranthes in full bloom. These Rain lilies or Thunder lilies, as some call them, were a favourite in my childhood home. So much so that I made sure I planted a few bulbs in a corner of my garden here. Now the few bulbs are more like a dense carpet of flowers every monsoon.

I was too late to take photos of the Zephyranthes field this year (and I still havent got over that yet). But guess what I did get to record for posterity ...


(Yes, I do know there are weeds in there. Its the monsoon season ... what do you expect? Every year the rains wash off the lovely, rich top-soil, leaves behind the stones, and bring out all the weeds. Aaargh! )


Ma Nature's ingenious recycling project !

These white and orange spotted, chocolate-brown caterpillars were already fat and sleek from all those Zephyranthes leaves they had tucked into. I wonder what the grown-ups would look like. Could it possibly be a Common Mormon?



I cant see anything remotely common about them, though!


In another corner, some wild morning-glories had conveniently grown over my baby anthuriums and lent their dense foliage to shade them from our cruel summer sun . But a couple of days ago, I nearly leapt in fright to see a mob of orange, bristly, violent-looking caterpillars methodically stripping it of all the leaves.





Now just multiply that by about a 100 and you'll begin to get an idea of what is going on there. You think that is scary? Picture one of these bull-dozing its way straight you, letting nothing stop it, and shaking its bristles at you with every undulation.



I didnt see a single bird or animal even beginning to look as if it were interested in tasting it. In fact, my normally crowded garden was looking decidedly deserted when Bristly came out for his cross-country marathon. I'm simply not surprised !

So what stopped me from squishing him out of existence? The dream that some day he would look like this !

( click on photos to enlarge)