~ World Of Flowers ~

[MysteRy]

This variety of Champa produces golden yellow flowers. Champa is native to Indonesia, India and other neighbouring areas. It occurs naturally in the eastern Himalayan region. It is a large evergreen tree with a long straight bole of 18-21 m with a close tapering crown composed of ascending branches. The most interesting part of the tree are its flowers which have an extremely heady fragrance. This fragrance has made Champa flowers very popular and they have been part of the culture in India from time immemorial. They are used in religeous offering in various parts of India. On a warm humid night, the scents can easily be enjoyed several hundred feet away. Champa flowers are used to make the world's most expensive perfume 'Joy' in America.

[MysteRy]

Common name: Grape Hyacinth
Botanical name: Muscari armeniacum
Family: Asparagaceae (Asparagus family)

Grape Hyacinths are so named because their clusters of small, bell-shaped, cobalt-blue flowers look like clusters of upside-down grapes. There is a famous planting of them at the Keukenhof Gardens in Holland which is known as the Blue River. This is a dense planting of Muscari armeniacum that winds through the Gardens, past trees, shrubs, and other spring flowers. Year after year, this is one of the most photographed scenes in this park.An additional benefit is that all Muscari have a lovely fragrance. The more you plant, the more fragrance you get. Conical racemes of slightly fragrant, tightly packed, bell-shaped, cobalt blue flowers having a thin white line around the rim of each bell are borne on 6-9" scapes. Each bulb produces 1-3 flower scapes. Clumps of narrow, fleshy, somewhat floppy, basal leaves up to 12" long appear in autumn and live through the cold of winter. Flower scapes emerge in early spring.

[MysteRy]

Common name: Gold Spot Ginger Lily, Butterfly Lily Ginger
Botanical name: Hedychium coronarium var. chrysoleucum
Family: Zingiberaceae (Ginger family)

This is an unusual variety of Heydychium quite popular in many places in NE India, like Manipur. This wild form was collected from northeast India, and distributed in the West by nursery owner Ganesh Mani Pradhan of Sikkim, under the name Hedychium coronarium 'Gold Spot'. As the name suggests, it has a large golden orange mark at the base of one petal. This actually a form of Butterfly Ginger Lily which is a fragrant flower. Takhellei, as it is called in Manipuri, is used in Manipur to prepare what is known as a nachom with chingonglei (flowers of Mimosa Bush. Two or three flowers of the chingonglei is inserted inside the lily and the combination of the two flowers is regarded as divine. This ornamental flower combination is usually worn behind the ear by womenfolk.

[MysteRy]

Common name: Night Blooming Cereus, Queen of the Night, Lady of the night, Dragon fruit
Botanical name: [Hylocereus undatus (Haw.) Britton & Rose] Hylocereus undatus
Family: Cactaceae (Cactus family)
Synonyms: Cereus undatus, Cereus tricostatus, Hylocereus tricostatus

Night-Blooming Cereus is a climbing cactus, native to the American tropics. The stems are 3-winged and green with wings that are 1 to 2 inches wide. Areoles are about 1.5 inches apart with 1-5 spines up to 1 cm long. They climb by use of aerial roots and can reach a height 30 feet or more growing on rocks and trees. As indicated by the name, the blooms appear at night and soon close after the day starts. In late spring to early summer the very large white fragrant flowers adorn the plant. Individual flower are 14 inches long by 12 inches across and very showy. If pollinated, they produce edible curious-looking red fruits up to 5 inches long. Fruit is popularly known as dragon-fruit.

[MysteRy]

Common name: Fragrant Panama rose, Sweet Smelling Rondeletia
Botanical name: Rondeletia odorata
Family: Rubiaceae (coffee family)

Originally from Panama and Cuba, Fragrant Panama rose is an evergreen shrub, commonly cultivated in gardens in India. It grows up to 6-10 feet tall, with opposite sessile, ovate to oblong leaves with wavy margins, 2 inches long. From summer to fall, it blooms with beautiful, fragrant reddish orange, tubular flowers with yellow throats. Flowers occur in many-flowered cymes at the end of branches, up to 5 inch across. The Fragrant Panama rose was first collected by Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland in "Mexico: Guerrero: inter Alto del Peregrino et Río Papagallo", 'between loft of the wanderer (or peregrine's nest?) and the River Papagayo (parrot)'. The botanical name was published by Kunth in 1818 in the fourth edition of Nova Genera et Species Plantarum. The name honored Guillaume Rondelet, a natural historian, physician, and botany instructor at the university in Montpellier, France in the 16th century.

[MysteRy]

Common name: Blood Lily, Football Lily, Powderpuff Lily
Botanical name: Scadoxus multiflorus ssp. multiflorus
Family: Amaryllidaceae (Nargis family)
Synonyms: Haemanthus multiflorus

Blood lily is a beautiful flowering bulb from tropical Africa. The spectacular flowerhead is a huge spherical umbel consisting of up to 100 flowers, held clear of the foliage at the end of a solitary stem. Each plant will produce only one flowerhead in a season. Blood lily is a bulbous plant with leaves on short, speckled stalks. The flower stalk bears a rounded inflorescence, 8-12 cm across. The plant may live for many years and will flower annually indoors. During the growing season the plant needs bright light, if possible direct sunshine for two hours daily. During winter dormancy, light is unimportant but temperature should not drop below 13 degrees centigrade.

[MysteRy]

Common name: African daisy, Rain Daisy, Weather Prophet, Cape Marigold
Botanical name: Dimorphotheca pluvialis
Family: Asteraceae (Sunflower family)

White African daisy is always one of the first spring annuals to flower in Delhi. It is an annual plant, native to Namibia, Namaqualand and the south western Cape. During spring huge fields are covered with this bright white daisy, forming a dazzling mass. The white petals, actually ray florets, are mauve on the underside. For the best display it is important to visit the garden on a sunny day as these sun loving daisies only open with the warmth of the sun from about 10 o’clock in morning to 4 o’clock in the afternoon. As the sun moves across the sky their flowers follow, always facing the sun. African daisy forms a bushy plant that is covered with large white daisies all flowering at the same level. The flowering season is from July to October, depending on the rain. The narrow leaves are light green, about 7 cm long, have indented edges and are alternately arranged on the stem. They are numerous at the base of the stems, becoming fewer and smaller near the top.

[MysteRy]

Common name: African tulip tree or Fountain tree
Botanical name: Spathodea campanulata
Family: Bignoniaceae

African Tulips produce terminal clusters of beautiful blooms held above the foliage appearing in upturned whorls at the branch tips. A few at a time, the buds of the lowest tier bend outward and open into large bell-shaped orange-red flowers with a yellow border on the petals and four brown-anthered stamens in the center. They are followed by 5-10 in green brown fingerlike pods pointing upwards and outwards above the foliage.
Facts About African tulips

The generic name comes from the Greek word, in reference to the spathe-like calyx.
African tulip is native to tropical Africa.
African tulip tree grows to about 7-25 m tall.
African Tulip flower is a decorative tree, because of their beautiful red tulip-like flowers.
African Tulip is also known as the fountain tree because of the water sealed in the flower buds, and if you were to slice it open, it would squirt out like a fountain.
African Tulip flowers are especially adapted for hummingbird pollination.

[MysteRy]

Common name: Silk floss tree, Kapok
Botanical name: Ceiba speciosa
Family: Bombacaceae (baobab family)
Synonyms: Chorisia speciosa

Floss Silk Tree is often rated among the most beautiful trees in the world. Also called Silk Floss Tree, this deciduous tropical from Brazil and Argentina is a large tree rated to over 40 feet. Floss Silk Tree is also well known for the large spikes protecting the trunk and limbs. It has pale green leaves palmately divided into 5-7 pointed leaflets. The young trees start out growing fast, straight, and narrow, then slowly develop broadly spreading umbrella canopies as they age. Silk floss trees typically drop their leaves just before they put on their spectacular autumn display of large five-petaled flowers. The petals vary from pale pink to rose to purple or burgundy at the tips and grade into ivory with brownish spots or blotches at the base. After blooming, pear shaped fruits appear which have a silky floss on the seeds, hence the name.

[MysteRy]

Common name: Alpine Aster
Botanical name: Aster alpinus

Alpine aster flowers are violet pink and white colored flowers which are good for cut flower arrangements. .This hardy perennial produces an abundance of flowers in shades of violet pink, and white. The Alpine Aster is ideal for rock or alpine gardens and is great for cutting. 3-10" tall.

[MysteRy]

Common Name: Trumpet Lily African Queen
Botanical Name: Lilium African Queen

African Queen offers one of the loveliest fragrances! Its huge trumpets are an exquisite mix of caramel-orange shades that are long lasting and stay true to colour even in the heat of summer.

More tubular in shape, these lilies resemble splayed trumpets and will produce long flowers up to 8 in – 20 cm long. They are intoxicatingly fragrant and will continue grow in height from season to season so be sure to plant them where they will be protected from strong winds. They prefer a rather heavy soil with an ample supply of humus and good drainage. Remove faded flowers and do not cut back stems until autumn. Bulbs should not be lifted but left in the soil to bloom annually for many years.

[MysteRy]

Common Name: Pot Oriental Hybrid Lily Bulb
Classification: Oriental Hybrid Lily Bulb
Bulb Size - Premium-size (16/18 cm) to Exhibition-size (over 20 cm).

Flower Description: A 'Star Gazer' look-a-like, deep garnet-red with a nice white edge, but this new clone is much more compact, but with the same great fragrance and easy-care attributes. 18 inches. June/July bloom.

Compact Oriental lilies are becoming increasingly popular, especially as patio gardens become more numerous. For all potted lily bulbs, use one gallon of a high quality potting soil that DOES NOT have fertilizer added. Read the label carefully, some potting soils have too much nitrogen in their formula to benefit lilies, and in fact, it will harm flowering. We recommend you use a vegetable or rose food for all lilies; one tablespoon per bulb when sprouts first emerge, then again just as buds begin to open. With these smaller-sized bulbs and short stems an 8 to 10 inch pot is fine, taller growing lilies need a larger container. Potted lilies must be protected over winter against freeze-thaw and excessive moisture, our guarantee of hardiness is for garden-planted lilies, of which these are also excellent choices.

[MysteRy]

Name: Alma Ata Oriental Lily

White, upfacing, slightly reflexed blooms on shorter stems for that "front of the border" location with a sweet, spicy fragrance. This Oriental lily bulb does well in hot and humid states. 3 Feet.

[MysteRy]

Common name: Bateman's Lily
Botanical name: Lilium x maculatum Cv. 'Batemanniae' Family: Liliaceae (Lily family)
Synonyms: Lilium elegans var. Batemanniae, Lilium batemanniae

Bateman's Lily is a beautiful cultivar of the Japanese Sukashi-yuri lily. It has flowers which pale orange-red or apricot, sometimes tinged pink, unspotted. Tepals are smooth or nearly so inside, little or no clawing at base, slender. Flowers are borne in clusters of 1-12, each one 3-5 inches in diameter. The plant is late flowering. Stems are up to 3.5 ft and smooth. Leaves are 5-12 cm long, 0.6-1.9 cm wide. Authors have considered 'Batemanniae' to be a later blooming, improved form. Japanese research has suggested that this is actually an interspecific hybrid. It was well known in Japan in the 19th century, and much admired. It was named for Maria Sybilla Bateman, a lily enthusiast of the late 1900's in London. In 1935 it was given an Award of Merit by the Royal Horticultural Society, well after its introduction (at least by 1891), but by 1956 it was considered lost to virus disease.

[MysteRy]

Common name: Forest Spider Lily
Botanical name: Pancratium parvum
Family: Amaryllidaceae (Nargis family )

Pancratium is a genus of about 18 species flowering plants in the family Amaryllidaceae, which includes Nargis and Amaryllis lily. Forest spider lily is an endemic short plant which is seen in the first few weeks of Monsoons. The plants are herbaceous perennial, growing from bulbs and grow up to 30-50 cm high. The flowers are large, white and fragrant. The short lived flowers often appear before the leaves. Leaves are thin, 15-20 cm long, linear-lancelike. Flowers appear in an umbel of 2-4, enclosed in a membranous spathe. The stem carrying the flowers is 15-30 cm long. Stamens are enclosed in a staminal cup, much like Nargis. The plant prefers forested regions. Flowering & Fruiting period is May-July.