Murraya Paniculata

I have been slacking in updating my gardening blog lately. Things have been slow in growth and bloom where my garden is concerned. With the haze and heat, it's difficult to get my plants to grow well, it seems to me.

However, this morning I was greeted with beautiful balls of Murraya Paniculata blooms and busy honey bees and butterflies fluttering around those blooms. Not only they were busy, I also got busy with my camera. At last, I have something to share with my fellow gardening bloggers! What a relief!

Murraya Paniculata is an easy to plant shrub. I have 2 pots of them. I water them once daily and add flowering fertilizers every 2 weeks. They bloom frequently. But I don't get as many blooms as this time around. And this time, the bloom came in the form of a big ball. They are so beautiful to look at. The fragrant is strong and sweet-smelling. They grow well under direct sun! Just the plant that I need as I don't have much shade in my garden.

Here are my Murraya Paniculata for all of you. Hope they bring you joy as much as they brought me.












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I have changed the template of my blog to a simple one that also allows me to post my photos in bigger format. Hope you all will like it.

Yellow Fragrant Blooms

My garden has some sweet-smelling blooms lately. The fragrance is powerful. In my opinion, they smell like perfume.

Every evening when I return to my house, I could smell the sweet fragrance as I stood at the gate. What a welcoming smell to return home to. Although the fragrance is stronger in the evening, you can still smell a light scent throughout the day.

The flowers are very attractive too. When it first bloom, it was white in colour. On the following day, the whole bloom would turn into bright yellow. As it gets older, the flower will turn into darker yellow and orange when it drops off.

Hope someone can tell me the name of this flower.

Mutiara

It has been quite quiet on my end lately. That's because I don't have much to report from my garden. I don't know if any of you have the same issue as I do. Having a small garden, there is not much of happening taking place every day. So I just eagerly wait for a new blossom or growth, or visit from an insect or pop by to my friends' gardens in order to have some materials that I can share here with all of you.

Gladly to find a plant of mine has some beautiful blossoms lately. Again, I am not sure of the name of this plant. I bought it from the nursery in Sg. Buluh because of the fragrant blooms. I was told it is named 'mutiara' (pearl, in English) as the blooms are white and tiny and stringed like a strand of pearls.

Like many of the fragrant blooms in my garden, it is white in colour. That makes me wonder why many fragrant blooms are white? Not other more attractive colours, like pink or red?

Mulberry Fruits

My mulberry plant has produced more fruits since I pruned it. As I was away, many of the fruits dropped off. Fortunately, I am still able to collect some remaining fruits.

These are the ripe mulberry fruits that I plucked. I will keep the fruits in the freezer until I have enough to make jam.

I have also dried the leaves to make mulberry tea. The tea is believed to help lower cholesterol. It is simple to make the tea. Just pour hot boiling water over the dried leaves and consume it.

ACE Hardware

Ever been to ACE Hardware chain stores to get your gardening tools or materials? I did for the first time visit the Sunway Pyramid's ACE Hardware store recently. Thanks to Coleslaw, a fellow member from our USJ.com community forum who told me that it is possible to find some of the gardening materials that I need there.

I bought this bamboo plant stakes to support my plants at ACE.

Usually I will purchase bamboo stake from the nursery in Giant USJ1. The bamboo stake is just smaller pieces of bamboo trunk. It would cost me RM0.30 each. However, since the nursery has moved, I haven't found another source of supply apart from the one in Sg. Buluh. That's a bit too far to travel from USJ in order for me to get just a bamboo stake.

The stakes that I bought in ACE Hardware came in a packet of 25 pieces at 36 inches long. They are thin bamboo stalks, smoothened and painted in green. The packet cost me RM8.00. That means each piece of stake cost RM0.32. That's really cheap.

One can also opt for either longer or shorter stakes. Mine is the medium length that ACE carries. Or one can also opt to purchase single piece of stake made of plastic. If I am not mistaken, it cost RM1.70 per piece. Similar to the bamboo ones that I bought, there are 3 different length to choose from.

The green bamboo stakes from ACE Hardware.

I used the stake to support my brinjal and tomato plants.

I also got this long hook from ACE at only RM1.70 per piece.
I have been searching for a long time for such long hook.
It is useful for hanging potted plants in my garden.

You bet, after finding such useful materials for my gardening hobby in ACE, this will be the start to many more visits to ACE.

Happy shopping, fellow gardeners!

Fan Palm Tree

We saw many beautiful Fan Palm trees while trekking through the Tangkoko National Park in North Sulawesi. The leaf is such a beautiful object to photography.

Check out the photos posted below. What a gorgeous green plant that can be viewed from various perspectives! I simply love it!

Visit to the City of Flowers

I have just returned from a 2-week long break in North Sulawesi. Yup, Air Asia flies to Manado, North Sulawesi and that's why I can afford to go there for 2 long week! I just love Air Asia tag lines that say 'Now Everyone Can Fly'! Coz it's very true. It makes flying overseas so affordable!

We discover the beautiful city of Tomohon, The City of Flower, as it is also known. This hill town has two volcanic mountain, i.e. Mount Lokon and Mount Mahawu. Due to its cool climate (it was about 24C during our visit) and rich volcanic soil from past volcanic eruption, Tomohon's soil is rich for farming and horticultural activities. There are many vegetable farms and nurseries here. Visitors from the nearby city of Manado will flock into this city on weekends for a cool getaway.

Everywhere we go in Tomohon, we will see flowers. They either grow wildly and beautifully without much care along streetside or tendered with care and love in landscaped private garden. For one who loves flower, this is like a heavenly place to be! Here are some photos that I have taken at Tomohon. Hope you will enjoy them.

A vegetable farm and paddy field located next to a Buddhist temple with a high pagoda.

Beautiful flowers lined up outside our chalets. The white ones exude fragrant smile. I have seen them back home but I don't know its name.


A huge bougainvillae at the pathway leading to our chalets.


We can see many of this plant with huge pyramid-form blooms in northern Sulawesi. It's a huge shrub.

Added on 3 July 2009: Thanks to islandgal246, this plant is known as
clerondenron paniculatum or pagoda flower.


Another popular shrub with many yellow blossoms.
Added on 3 July 2009: Thanks to Blur Ting, this plant is known as candlestick flower.


A rose bush in the compound of the temple.


Delicate-looking rose blooms found in the rose bush above.




Many nurseries like this can be found along the main road of Tomohon.


I found this interesting signages in the garden below. The signages are for "Dapur Hidup" (Herbal Garden) and "Apotik Hidup" (Medicinal Garden).

Many gardens like this can be seen in Tomohon.
Check out those healthy heliconia blooms and lush garden!


A beautifully landscaped, neat & tidy private garden.

If you have the time, check out Tomohon and fall in love with the climate, plants and people. After all, Air Asia is always giving discounts for its flight tickets. We met a group of Hashers from KL who paid only RM90 (about USD25) for return flights to Manado! Astonishingly low price!