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Dixie
garden enthusiast
Waikato-New Zealand
In Love with Tropical11 Jul '06 5:52 am
Dear Jacqeline - your plants are amazing ,with lush foliage ,and rich coloured flowers .You have plants that are unknown elsewhere ,so we appreciate being able to see them .
In Autumn this year ,our town hosted a big Floral festival .EVERYONE was asking what a particular bloom was in an arrangement ,and we were told it had been imported specially for the exhibition .I have just seen it again in your photo ! !
I enclose the photo of your Heliconia in a floral art setting on the right .I think the exhibit was named 'Bird of Paradise'
Dixie
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Liza
gardening consultant
Waterloo, Belgium
I am in love with your posts!11 Jul '06 9:43 am
My God! How many days I 've disappeared (cause I babysit baby, family, garden...)?? And my heart is so fulfilled by the happy energy of your posts! At last, this Diary belongs to all of us , who are in love with the wonders of Nature in this or any other way!
Christopher : Dearest friend, Christopher! How I am deeply touched by your daisies! And how lovely they adopted your garden to express themselves so sublimly! They knew you would cherish them! I am crazy of daisies, I am! I could dance in the middle of daisies in a prairie full of them, exactly in the way Darlene describes! But I saw somewhere else some more sublime daisies of yours! In your Forum garden ! So, I'm coming there right afterwards! And, I adored your poem! You are such a special soul!
Dixie : My good friend!I just love all your expressive, tender,descriptive, romantic posts, and...the Otago/Karitane photos! And I do love all coral coloured flowers! I do!
Naturedar : Aren't you lucky with such beauties growing around you as wild flowers! Thank you for the great photos! This is a dream countryside, with such "wild" flowers!! And the story with the pot Geraniums happens with many friends of mine here in Belgium! As for my own pot Geraniums , they enter pruned in a heated Glasshouse every Autumn, and they are out placed all around the house again ,by mid-May, having been pruned once again by the end of March! I just love the whole procedure! I don't want to throw away my babies...I only add some good fresh pot compost every Spring.
Jacqueline : Thank you So much for posting these beauties! I think Dixie said all I wanted to say! You are so lucky having these divine creations in your garden! I just love their flaming , vivid colours and combinations of them! They also have a magnificent healthy folliage! Wow! Do you have some more? Pleeeease??
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Barbee'
valued helper
Kentucky, U.S.A.
12 Jul '06 4:16 pm
I hardly know what to say: so much beauty, and reverence, innocence and even poetry. I'm without words, and that doesn't happen often. Thank you to all of you.
I don't know how to put captions on photos (wish I did) and do all that like the rest of you. You are wonderful, talented people. I do not know how to create a web site, but I have started a small blog and am trying to learn about such things. It is young, and there isn't much there yet, but I'll keep trying. If you are interested in peeking, it is found here http://gardenat.blogspot.com/
Thank you so much for sharing so much beauty and sensitivity.
Liza, did you ever learn the name of the pretty tree your daughter found - the "blossoming willow"? I think it was you, hope I'm not mistaken. It was posted on my yellow lily page. That forum is very interesting, too.
Good night.
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jacqueline
Thankful Gardener
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Tropical Flowers12 Jul '06 9:44 pm
Thank you so much for your lovely comments, my dear friends Dixie and Liza! You’ve made me so happy knowing that you’re as in-love with my flowers as I am with them. Likewise, I’m as astounded and dazzled with all the beauties that I’ve seen on this forum, shared by all of you, which literally make my eyes pop out in wonder and delight, and my mouth goes “wow..wow..” because most of them are amazingly new to me!! That’s the joy of sharing! 
Dixie, that’s a lovely picture you posted, love the floral arrangements and the charmingly dressed bird  ! Yes, Heliconias are eye-catching with many varied forms and colours. They’re great favourites in Malaysian gardens, easily grown from rhizomes, love the sun and bloom nearly the whole year round. Flowers are long lasting thus great for floral arrangement! Do you know that Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia Reginae) is a lovely upright plant with stunning blooms resembling a bird’s head. I bought 3 little plants last August during a trip to Cameron Highlands, only two surviving now reaching 3 feet in height, but yet to display its first bloom! I’ve no idea how long they’ll need to be 'mama' , but hopefully soon, now that we’re having sunnier weather.
Liza dear, I’m amazed at your capabilities! When I picture you babysitting your darling Philippe, as well as caring for your family members (including your pets) and tending to that extensive garden paradise of yours, not excluding your active participation in this forum, I think you’re just awesome. A handful no doubt, but when you put love into whatever you do, everything moves perfectly fine, doesn't it? Last weekend, I spent a joyful time (mornings till evenings only), together with my son and daughter-in-law in tending to their twin princesses, great fun but definitely tired out by evening (and that excludes cooking, gardening, etc.  )
Bobbie, I’ve visited your lovely blog and found it very interesting with wonderful garden pictures and love your thoughts especially about your interest . Will definitely peek in occasionally. You mentioned about wishing to be able to put captions on photos - well, after adding your photo at 'Filename', you just need to type in your caption (comments) in the rectangular box provided adjacent to 'File Comment', before clicking 'Add Attachment'. Hope this helps.
Here's sharing a few more of my tropical flowering plants for all of you, especially for my dear friends Dixie and Liza! Hope you like them as I do 
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Garden crowd as were in late 2004
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These lovely Guzmania Lingulata decided to surprise me with their smiling faces altogether, seemingly happy to be arranged in a circle!
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Soft pink Ruellia Brittoniana Bonita (False Petunia). Love their self-seeding habits!
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Beautiful Pink Hibiscus with leaves that are quite prone to disease! The common ruffled Red Hibiscus is our national flower.
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Allamanda Blanchetii (aka Purple Allamanda) loves to soar skywards, with long 'hairless' legs! I've trimmed down half a branch and propogated a few cuttings into the same pot, hoping to get a bushier look!
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Heliconia Psitticorum cv. Lizette, another lovely variety
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One more striking beauty, Heliconia Psitticorum 'Sassy'
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While waiting for my own Bird of Paradise to bloom, here's one beauty captured at The Cactus Garden in Cameron Highlands, specially for my dear friend Dixie.
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Barbee'
valued helper
Kentucky, U.S.A.
13 Jul '06 4:18 am
Thank you for all your kind and sweet comments, and Jacqueline's how-to tips related to my little blog. Now I don't feel so alone in that endeavor.
Bambi, after we lost my beloved mother-in-law, I found that poem in some of her papers. I’m glad you like it enough to share it with others who would never see it on my page.
We have six grandchildren and I understand how taxing caring for them can be. There is no doubt, it’s a labor of deep love. One friend kept her grandbaby for one day; she said when the parents collected him she was on the bed before they got out the driveway. For me, plants are much like my children or grandchildren, I have no favorite; I agree with the person who said her favorite flower is whichever one she is looking at, at the time.
What strikes me as I gaze at all your beautiful, beautiful plants, is the diversity. The diversity in creation is breathtaking.
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GardenGnome
Happily Toiling Away
Regina, Saskatchewan
Delightfully Unusual!13 Jul '06 6:15 am
Dear Jacqueline, I am so impressed with your lovely flowers. They are so strange to me and beautiful. I live in zone 2B so such tropical plants as you have shown are quite unusual to me.
I just love them.
Christopher
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jacqueline
Thankful Gardener
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
13 Jul '06 9:01 pm
My dear friends, Bambi and Christopher: I'm thrilled that my flowers gladden your hearts and thanks for your sweet response
Bambi, the Guzmania is a type of bromelaid, not succulent. It's an epiphyte, growing on trees, dead wood or fallen branches and rocks without soil, though can be grown on ground (as pictured in my garden) or small/medium pot with any type of soil. You can view some more lovely pictures of bromelaid and further info at this site http://toptropicals.com/pics/garden/m1/bromeliads.htm
Since you're interested in succulents and cacti, I'd like to suggest Euphorbia Milii (Crown of Thorns) which is a non-stop flowering succulent shrub and slow-growing which practically thrives on neglect. There's the miniature variety too, if you like to keep it low and compact.
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I'm off now to do some gardening 
