October garden musings

Goodbye October, it's been lovely to have known you. Happy Diwali and a happy New Year to all those who are celebrating it now.
As for those who are not celebrating, my wishes go out to you too ; we can all use reasons to celebrate, don't you think?

 Too much travel and a lot of work commitments have kept me from blogging as often as I would have liked. But then, travel is a wonderful thing and I never say "No!" to it.
A bit of work, a bit of pleasure and lots of gardens at the end of it. Mmmm.... maybe I should change the title of this blog to 'The Travelling Gardener' !

Coming back home to my gardens is one of the sweetest pleasures. Do you head to your garden first thing when you get back from a trip? I do!
Which plant is flowering? What new fruit is ready for harvest? What new surprises is my garden throwing up?

Incidentally, did you see the multi-bloom Red Ginger in the first pic? That was a Surprise with a capital S! I've never seen one like that before, with multiple flowers (inflorescences, if you want to be technically correct)  sprouting from a single one.
I've seen little plantlets sprouting from a Red Ginger flower, looking like over-eager babies raring to race before they can walk, but never more flowers from a single flower! What a bonanza!

And it looks just like a sparkler, don't you think? Just in time for Diwali.

The butterflies are coming in too. Not in droves yet as they usually do every year at this time (Remember Butterfly Season and the Butterfly party ? That happened in October - November too). But, I'm giving them time. November is not here yet.

In the meantime, there are still a few butterflies flitting around and posing for photos . But till they show up in crowds, I'm making do (that's a funny term for 'thoroughly enjoying', isn't it?) with the petalled variety. My dendrobium orchids!

Orchid-alicious days

Orchid seems to be the flavour of the season in my garden! It is popping up all over; both the colour as well as the flower. Incredibly flamboyant, eye-rivetingly gorgeous, and so very luxe ... I love it! And I just had to share.
By the way, do you know what I love even more? That they are so very easy to grow and bloom in Mumbai's tropical climate! I know the days are getting hotter and the sun is blazing something fierce, but when I step out into the garden and see my orchids blooming their heads off, I beam a huge smile at my orchid-alicious days.
Mmmmhmm ... life is good!

Orchids like this Vanda (above) love the high heat, high humidity, bright sunshiny days that we grumble about. Maybe Mumbai was meant to be populated with Vandas. What a thought! Can you imagine seeing blooms like this all over the city?

Dendrobiums are some of my favourite orchids. Well, they all are, but dends (dendrobiums, as they're fondly referred to by orchidistas) are a bit more special, if you know what I mean. Because they will always make that effort to bloom and bloom with minimum care. 

This is one of my favourite dends because it is one of the first ones I bought years ago. Free-flowering and with extra-long spikes of blooms (often multiple spikes), it can always be counted on to brighten my day. And to draw a lot of gasps from the unsuspecting stroller in the garden. It fed my orchid fever until I became like one demented, buying orchids wherever I heard of any available and price be damned. 

 Did I say that Dends are my favourite orchids? I'm quite partial to my Phalaenopsis too. My apartment garden with more shade than sun, loves it. But then so does my other regular in-the-ground garden. My regular garden has several large cashew trees with wide canopies that cast a shade that the Phals love. So they've happily made their home there too.
And now the Phals are in full bloom too; those growing in my apartment garden (above) as well as those in my regular garden (below).
Eye-candy all the way to fill my days in clouds of orchid!

(And before you ask... no, my orchids are not a collection of purple shades. I just thought it would be interesting to compare the blooms of the various similar-coloured orchids ).

Pink and Purple Perfection

Every time I see this hot-pink Cosmos beaming at me, I can't help feeling a huge smile building up inside me. It's as simple a flower as can be; absolutely nothing complicated about it. And, it's perfect!
Brilliant colour, easy to grow, a snap to maintain ... what more could a gardener want?
Did someone say 'fragrance'? hmmm ...

I wonder if it's the colour which makes it especially attractive for me?
But no, I'm not that crazy about pinks usually, though I'll always make an exception for Hot Pinks. Or Rani Pink, as we call it in India. Bright colours always get me going!

And then I looked around my garden (and in the hard disk of my computer where all my garden photos are stored) and realised just how many pinks and purples-bordering-on-pink I have cheering up my bit of growing space.

Well, what do you know? Maybe I do have a thing for Pink after all!

Like this very small, very pink bloom. 

I had bought the plant along with a bunch of others but hadn't got around to planting it in the ground yet; it was still in a regular-sized pot. And before I knew it, I was dealing with happy blooms. 

Wow! This is one easy-to-please plant!

And when those pretty blooms grow into fruits, and that too on a plant which is just 1'-tall now if it really stretches, then you know you have a winner on your hands.
And when those fruits are such an unusually pretty shape, appealing to the eye as well as the taste-buds, you know it is Olympic medal-worthy.
Oh, how I love thee, Carambola!

Almost as much as I love the Pride of India. May Queen, Queen's Crepe Myrtle ... call it what you will but this is one spectacular bloom to have colouring up your garden. Or rather, drifts of blooms.

 Even if it isn't exactly pink. Actually, there is a pink-coloured variety too but it never ever bloomed for me.

Yes, it happens to all of us!

But why would I quibble over colour when I have these purply clusters of blooms around golden centres and tipped with silvery gray-green buds. What a palette of colours to tease the senses! 

Incidentally, the internet is no longer content with just good ol'-fashioned lilac, mauve, violet, purple, etc. It insists that this shade of purple is 'Orchid' (not the flower, but the shade) . 

Which Orchid?

This one?
 

Or this one?

Or... the mind boggles ... could it be this orchid that they've named it after?

 LOL!

Still, for some strange reason I've always been fascinated by the different names we give to shades, such as ' cherry red' or 'peacock blue' or 'vermilion'. I can't always differentiate the minute variances in shade and hue but I love scrolling through colour charts with evocative names like 'pink cloud' or 'plum pudding' or 'purple fish' (seriously? Purple FISH?). 

I feel like I'm reading a children's fantasy book! Or Dr. Seuss at the least.

Then there is this silvery-leaved begonia which blushes very prettily with  a touch of sun.

Ignore those passionfruits, okay? That was just a hijacker trying to take over all available space. And, also ignore that large hole in the begonia leaf. (I'm told that it is usually a sure sign that chemical pesticides are not used in this space. So, yeah... that's my story and I'm sticking to it!)

A few pale pinks do make a timid appearance in my garden. They're pretty in a way, I suppose, but in my opinion, pale pastels tend to blend into the background in the tropics. It's something to do with the way the sun glares at them. That super-bright light just bounces off those pale petals until it looks like the nuances are washed out and there is only an eye-scrunching blinding white to be seen. 

It's not so bad when they're indoors. Those pale, pale pinks do look much more attractive away from the sun. Or maybe it's just because it's on an orchid that does it. 

But as far as pinks go, I'm beginning to really love this Hot Pink 'n Sulfur Yellow combination. It's like a blast of steamy tropical colour that shocks you out of your soul . But, hey! I'm nothing if not Tropical with a capital T!

Transitions and deja-vu

October heralds a second summer in Mumbai . Shorter, but maybe hotter (or at least, it feels so). Already the deliciously cool, wet days of the monsoon season are a mere memory. And, as the days start trudging from unbearably humid and hot to skin-cracklingly sizzling, I wish that if we had to be gifted a repetition of a season the same year, it would be the monsoon which re-visits us. Definitely NOT Summer!
Every so often my non-tropical garden friends ask me why I get so deliriously ecstatic over the monsoons. I'm at a loss to pick just one reason .

I love it for the heavenly scent of Michaellia champaca that lures and trails me as I walk in my garden in the evening. It even wafts indoors and crooks a perfumed finger at me. And I put everything else aside and follow, losing myself in its heady scent.

... For the unexpected beauty that nudges me out of everyday chores, waiting to surprise me at every turn.
What used to be a very pedestrian driveway gets transformed into a beautiful swift-flowing, cool stream, complete with an offering to the river goddess...

... and dozens of little 'waterfalls' and 'rapids' that fire the imagination and create little adventurers of those brave enough to risk a slip and slide.
There goes all my beautiful garden soil rushing along downstream ... sigh! ... but the sheer fun of seeing a stream come alive in my garden is worth every grain of it. I love the character it adds to my garden space!

... For the hundreds of wild curcumas and gazillions of maidenhair fern that sprout on cue all over the place.
I love these plants! Curcumas in every shade of lilac and mauve and rich, deep dark purple and feathery Maidenhair ferns so delicately, exquisitely beautiful. I really miss them when they disappear soon after the monsoons. For me, they are the link my garden shares with the great mountain chain of the Western Ghats and its rich biodiversity. One tiny little outpost on the furthest tip. I can live with that!

... For all those lovely fruits that decide to start yielding now, including the passionfruits blushing among the curry leaves. (I've heard of "currying favour" but "currying passion"? ... that's a new one!).

... For the cool, misty and windy days that morph simple photographs into a blur of poetic colour. I love the fresh-washed green that is a regular backdrop for all the photos taken in this season. And I love how the monsoon light makes the reds sizzle in my garden photos (now you know why I surround myself with so many red anthuriums).

... For the myriad vibrantly colourful, totally unusual creatures that show up now.
Even before I finish marvelling at one, I spot another not too far away.

And another ...
Isn't this tiny Tortoise Beetle the cutest thing you've ever seen? All gleaming gold and tiny pattering feet with its own clear space bubble. Cute!

... For the mossy look that cloaks everything.
Soft, cushiony moss, lending an air of woodland groves, envelops every surface. From bricks on the pathways to the bark on the trees . Cushiony, that's the word, not slippery.
I wonder if there's any way I could get a soft moss bed to sleep on? Just looking at it makes me feel like lying down on it.

.... For the air of supreme fertility everywhere. This anthurium on the right is so ready to pop !

... For the air of supreme fertility.
Oh, did I say that already? What else would one think on spotting the red ginger (Alpinia purpurata) sprouting even as it blooms?

... For all the little babies that show up now.
Monsoon is when my orchids go into baby over-drive. There are little keikis forming on almost every cane of the mature dendrobiums.
It is also the season when my outdoor-grown orchids start fleshing out again after being cooked and dehydrated in our roasting Mumbai summer. Did I tell you that I never pamper my orchids? They actually seem to prefer it that way!

... For the days when it rains and rains and rains. Until it seems as if my world has shrunk into a little cocoon and I'm dreamily snug in my little verandah, blissfully gazing out at my thoughts ... a little world within my world.

Just a few reasons. Not all, but just enough to detail my karmic connection with the monsoon. And now it looks like we're done for this year, so it's time to tuck these memories away. To be dipped into every time I need a serenity fix or a taste of what the next monsoon will do.

Because now it's time for Butterflies

... and Dragonflies

... and Orchids!

Monsoons ... the agony and the ecstasy

Mystical, magical monsoon in Mumbai makes me go "mmmmmm.....!"

Okay, I was just dying to say that. If it's one mmm too many, blame it on the season. The rain does that to me. Beautiful cooling rain after months of broiling in the heat and dust of summer. So very deliciously divine!

And, I love the plants and blooms it heralds. Wildly beautiful Curcumas popping up all over my garden, driving the bees mad with golden pathways to paradise. Safed musli with its spikes of white blooms. And the luxuriant green curtains of maidenhair fern waving from every wall and stone. All growing wild, but as welcome as any expensive plant swooped on from a nursery.

And I love the way the monsoon washes the city roads, transforming the lucky ones into tree-enclosed, vine-smothered jungle trails. (The others, horrifyingly, become mini-lakes but let's not go there now, okay? I'm still in ecstasy mode. )
The dust is gone, leaves washed clean and the dirt is entombed in a soft green sheath.
Green. Every shade and hue imaginable. So very energising.... and so very soothing.

The passionfruit vines are smothered in blooms, filling the evening air with its heady fragrance and dreams of delicious flavours to come. Anticipation is such a bittersweet thing!

My dendrobium orchids are in ecstasy mode too now. The monsoons trigger a heady season of riotous blooming unlike anything else I've seen.

And with every blooming season a mascot (or mascots) makes its presence felt. The vincas are awash with butterflies. This Skipper (Tricoloured Flat, if I'm not mistaken?) was the only one that would sit still for me. The others insisted on eating on the run.
A Common Mormon was visiting the Vinca rosea too, flapping its red-and-black dramatic wings.
Those regular, common-place Vincas seen in every abandoned plot of land all over the place are real butterfly magnets. But guess what ... none of those butterflies would even land on the hybrid vincas which I had planted in the same bed for a splash of colour.
Hmmm .... so much for glamour!

The passionflower has its share of hungry visitors too. I was really amused to see these bees picnicking. This once they didn't have to delve deep into a flower to get at the goodies. How very accomodating of the passionflower.
I just wish it would choose to bloom during the day so I could get a better shot, though.

Clicking photos on overcast days comes with its own set of agonies. I wish I could capture the mood and ambience of that beautiful time when we're envelopped in dark rain clouds promising to spill over any minute ( no! we tropical folk are not so enamoured of the sun ). My whole garden takes on a slightly magical look in this light but my Old Faithful, a Canon Ixus which has been with me throughout my blogging journey, has turned temperamental and is on its last legs. I suspect a lens problem and have been advised to get myself a new camera. I know I should but I'll miss this one so much.

Just as I'll miss all those unfortunate plants that have decided to join that great big garden in the sky. The monsoon season can be hell on plants too. Especially when it rains non-stop for days on end.
Which is worse, losing them to death by drowning in the torrential rain or by slow rot or by being blown away by the squalling winds? Or by having a big, strong tree topple over , carrying with it all the little plants that grew in its shelter? Or by being chewed alive by creatures that can't even walk? And those that can?
My orchids, especially, are susceptible to these silent killers which makes them so very squish-worthy.. I may (sometimes, if I'm feeling lazy) turn a blind eye to snails in summer but never ever in the monsoon season! They're Enemy No.1 then.

No, I take that back. They share that spot with another dreaded enemy ... the mosquito. You can't avoid them completely in the tropics but in the monsoon season, they become a ravenous, blanketing force driving me indoors as nothing else can. Which makes me so very grateful for two little garden creatures who are Mosquito Hunters Extraordinare :

and

Always welcome in my garden. And always a pleasure to watch.
Sometimes agony does give way to ecstasy too, right?

Orchid stars ... and some extras

My orchids are the superstars in my garden right now. Never mind that the nights have become decidedly chill ... by Mumbai standards, that is. My orchid divas are still dazzling me and showing that they still have what it takes. Oh yeah!

And the older they are, the more flamboyant they get. Like this Dendrobium orchid which has been with me for 10 years or more. Definitely long in the cane, but have you seen such long spikes of spectacular blooms on any fresh young things?

This one got dislocated from the coconut tree where it had been living when a heavy coconut leaf lopped it off. So it was hastily tied on to this cashew tree because it was bursting with buds due to bloom any day. And I definitely did not want to miss out on that!
My usual banana fibre ties were too flimsy so some coir ropes were brought in to help out. That still left something wanting. These lo-o-ong canes were too big for their own good. So, finally they had to be propped up with a slab of rock.
Oh the ignominny!
I definitely have to do something before this diva starts sulking.

Did I say something about 'fresh young things'? This would be one of them. Fresh-faced, pure as a ... well, a white orchid, and so very pretty!

I can't think of any space, no matter how ugly, that hasn't taken a step into the sublime just because of its association with an orchid. Like these iron spikes over a fence. No one notices those because they're too busy being dazzled by the orchid. Now that's called star quality!

If you thought all Dendrobiums looked alike, then take a look at this one. The colour's familiar but if it looks all twisted out of shape, then you've got an antler-type dendrobium orchid. I guess this would be a perfect match for all those wildlife buffs out there. But honestly, doesn't it look a bit like an avenging angel?
Just a bit?

If you thought the dendrobiums are the only ones out there, then you haven't seen my friend, Spathaglottis. One of the most common orchids grown in Mumbai, I think novice orchidists are comforted by its terrestrial preferences. After all, growing a plant which doesn't need soil can seem so unusual . And confusing.
The Spathaglottis, though, thrives in that medium unlike the Dendrobium, Phalaenopsis, Cattleya and others of that ilk.

But commonplace they are not. The Spathaglottis still knows how to spring a surprise. Its multiple hues, if not its ease of cultivation, are enticement enough to make the gardener go back to it again and again.

Yet if you're going by the variety of colours, there could be no one to beat the Phalaenopsis orchids for sheer drama. Purity of shape and theatrical in colour ...

... spotted, speckled, striped and in blocks of colour, the Phalaenopsis is the drama queen par excellence!

Yet every good show must have its villain

and the faithful friend. So too does our orchid.

And like every good Indian film, we just can't do without our glamourous Dancing Girls. Jai ho!