If anyone knows this plant's name, please let me know

We've had heavy rain and overcast skies for days in Bangalore and so only a few perennial bloomers like the dancing lady begonia are managing to bloom. Other prolific bloomers like the coral vine are putting out only a few flowers. But today we noticed that a plant I don't know the name of is putting out its little purple flowers--you can just about see one right at the bottom of the picture.  If anyone knows this plant's name, please let me know.

My husband took this shot and also got one of the patio and a corner of the garden. You can't see the potted plants on the patio properly because my maid has lined them up like soldiers on parade. Husband and I arrange them nicely but when she cleans the patio she puts them all back into their strict line-up.

I want to seed some petunias, white and red radishes, chilies and some more tomatoes but am waiting for the sun to make a comeback.

A harvest and feast with thanks to our expert bloggers

Today I want to thank three people who have benefited me a lot with their steadfast blogging and great advice: Raj Panda of Organic Kitchen Gardening, Mani of geekgardener, and Raji of the food blog Talimpu.

I picked some poi saag leaves from a creeper grown from seedlings Raj gave me and made some fritters with them for lunch, using a recipe from the Talimpu blog (http://www.talimpu.com/2010/09/16/mixed-greens-fritters/). The recipe is for mixed green fritters but I used only the poi saag because it was the first time we were eating it and I wanted to know how it tasted. It was wonderful -- mild and sweet, maybe how lettuce tastes when it's cooked but I'm not sure that's the right description. Next I will try a poi saag recipe I got from a blog on Oriya cooking. If Raj sees this post, maybe he'll send me his family recipe!

Poi saag plant 

 

Leaves washed and drained -- some are as big as my hand

Poi saag fritters

The next harvest will be of marmande tomatoes for which I need to thank Raj for the seeds and Raj and Mani for their fabulous workshop at which I learned how to properly grow vegetables in containers. I would  never have got the results below without their expert advice.

Flowers in my garden this September

Nothing spectacular to report  but my pink hibiscus is putting up a good show (for my sun-deprived garden anyway) so I thought I'd record it. And while doing so, I decided to record the other blooms in my garden this September.

Pink hibiscus

Heliconia golden torch

 

Galphimia

The pink wall you see behind the plants is the bane of my life. It cuts out most of the sun from my garden.

On the patio I have:

Voilets . . .

. . . and perennial bloomer dancing lady begonia

Finally, not a flower but a sight that gladdens my heart:

Mandarin orange

The strange thing about the mandarin orange is that some creature seems to be picking off the fruit when they are tiny. A lot of them come out but only a few survive (and there are none fallen below). When the same plant was in a bed next to my patio, I used to get enough fruit to make marmalade. The monkeys leave this fruit alone; they must know it's very bitter. I can't imagine what creature would want to feed on these bitter fruit unless it's some type of bird. If anyone has any idea, do let me know.

Linking to a wonderful garden: Elephant's Eye: September garden walk and our beginning

Elephant's Eye: September garden walk and our beginning

Perspective

As in an earlier post, this time I'm keeping a perspective on my gardening attempts instead of just lamenting my lack of success with vegetables. (At the moment, the only veg growing well are some marmande tomatoes.)

Today there was some rare sun in this monsoon season so I got a few pictures. I also took a 'perspective' shot of a corner of the garden and got in one of some plants I'm growing in water in my living room. This is to keep some moisture in the air for some antique Chinese furniture, of which  you can see a red cabinet in the picture. The wire at the base of the bowl is for a small electric motor that keeps the water bubbling to prevent mosquitoes. The plants don't show up well enough in the picture, unfortunately.

Bamboo, elephant's ear and spider plant growing in water

Dracena and clerodendron enjoying the sun

Philodendron in the sun

Clerondendron tangling with the bamboo  

(looks less untidy in real life)

Philodendron and money plant starting to fill up the trellis

(nothing else will grow since it's a shady area)

A corner of the garden with a 'rustic' gate, palms and other greenery

Schefflera, monstera, heliconia and star jasmine sharing a bed

'Rejoiced' too soon . . .

. . . the cucumber is dying. Not surprising since the vine is more or less dead already.

I'm just going to dust my hands of this episode and replace it with passion fruit vine. That will not only look good but cover my makeshift support, just a nylon net thrown over a line. I've been successful with growing passion fruit in the garden but had to give up because the monkeys raided all the fruit. My sister has grown passion fruit successfully on her balcony, although the fruit were small. But that doesn't matter because it's the magnificent flowers I want. It will be a bonus if some fruit appear and are not looted by the hateful monkeys.

A consolation is that the tomatoes are putting up a fight against the lack of sun and constant rain. Here's a marmande. There are very few on the vine but enough to cheer me up.

Fingers crossed for the passion fruit. Will look up timings for planting on the Net.

Voila . . .

. . . a cucumber. The only one so far. It's been out for some days but I wasn't well enough to photograph it until today.

First cucumber

The cucumber vine itself isn't doing too well; leaves are dying off although strong tendrils remain. I've decided to just watch and wait. Maybe this is just a stage of growth or the vine throwing out one fruit in its last gasp. This cucumber plant has put me through too much. I've decided to remain detached -- give the plant what it seems to need but not get emotionally involved in its fate.

On a more joyous note, my two hydrangea plants are blooming. Other bloggers in Bangalore and elsewhere have reported and posted pics of hydrangea blooming so this must be its season.

Pink hydrangea

The pink colour shows that the hydrangea is growing in basic, not acidic, soil. There are tips on how to get blue hydrangeas but I'm not going to try them. Will probably just kill the hydrangea.

My calladiums seem to be dying out so I'm off to the nursery to get another lot. This time I will ask for growing tips and see what I can learn on the Internet instead of planting them and hoping for the best with just routine feeding and watering.