Bougainvillea, A Beautiful And Easy To Grow Plant

I grew up with different kinds of bougainvillea plants. Those were the first flowers I knew of  as a kid besides bananas and coconuts. I still remember the bougainvilleas my late mother planted in the pots and were put on the sides of our balcony of our traditional wooden house with nipa roof in my home country, Philippines. The bougainvilleas were in white, pink and red colours and they were very healthy as they were fertilized with urine mixed with a lot of water. It was not stinky as it was more with water than with human urine.

My mother is gone to heaven (I hope) but some of her bougainvilleas are still in our garden but no longer in the same house. The bougainvilleas were almost dead when I came in our garden in 2011. I was able to revive them with love and care, with the help of my relatives living in my house. 

This is a bougainvillea I have planted in 2012. I have planted this by just inserting the cutting in a small hole I dug. It was so easy, with luck and with my green thumb as I found out years later. My cousin and I always trim this plant when it blocks the way to our house again. 

This is the same bougainvillea taken from the other side of the garden. You can see the pink Plumeria/Frangipani before it and the yellow cosmos at the back.

This pot of bougainvillea was one of the flowers my late mother left behind. I treasure her flowers like the beautiful orchids she left behind as those are my inheritance from her.


If you are interested, please check these hubs on my main writing site Hubpages:

http://thelmaalberts.hubpages.com/hub/My-Beautiful-Orchids  a poem.

http://thelmaalberts.hubpages.com/hub/How-To-Take-Care-Of-Potted-Orchids

http://thelmaalberts.hubpages.com/hub/The-Flowers-In-My-Garden-A-Photo-Gallery

Thank you very much for taking the time to read my blog. If you have something to say, please comment below. Enjoy your  month of June. Take care!

Copyright 2015 ©Thelma Alberts, All Rights Reserved

How I Planted The Birds of Paradise

Have you heard about the Birds of Paradise? Maybe you have as this tropical plant has many other names. Some of the names are Heliconia and Strelitzia. I can´t remember where I got this plant as I kept on asking and collecting for some cuttings or seeds from my friends and relatives.

It´s common in my home country to just ask some cuttings or seeds from the people who own beautiful plants. I would have paid for the flowers and plants though, as long as I love the beauty of them.

Birds of Paradise was an easy perennial plants to plant. I had a few of those young plants with roots, which was separated from the adult one. I planted them near the bamboo fence side of my garden. I just planted them in line with the fence. I dug the soil where I intended them  to plant (one by one) as deep as 10 inches, put the cuttings inside and covered the lower part with the soil. I watered them after that everyday. 

The weather in the Philippines is so hot and humid. That´s the weather the Birds of Paradise / Heliconia / Strelitzia like. 

The photos above were taken last 2013, 2 years after I have planted them. They grew so fast to almost 2 meters tall, leaves almost as wide as the banana leaves and have given a lot of new plants that they occupied the bamboo fence. Though Birds of Paradise need less care, my cousin and I had to remove the old brown leaves of this plant every now and then.

If you want to read more about my plants here´s a link.

 http://thelmaalberts.hubpages.com/hub/The-Flowers-In-My-Garden-A-Photo-Gallery 

Copyright 2015 ©Thelma Alberts, All Rights Reserved

Torch Ginger Plants

Torch Ginger is one of the flowers I have planted in my garden in 2011. The year I started gardening in my front yard. At first I saw this plant in the front yard of my sister. It was a huge plant and I was amazed by the beauty of the pink flowers. I asked my sis the name of this plant but she did not know. Anyway, it did not matter. I still like the plant and so my sis gave me some of the ginger rhizomes cuttings and I planted them in the ground inside where I put a not used truck tire.

Torch Ginger is a huge plant. It grew so fast to 6 feet tall. I often trim the plant as its young  rhizomes were already growing out of the tire planters where I planted them. Then I search online the name of this plant and found many things about it. 

Torch Ginger is  tropical perennial plant and does not need a lot of caring. The unopen flower is edible and are mostly used by Asian in cooking curries.

I have not tried cooking the unopen Torch Ginger but I will try next time I am in my garden.

This is a video of the blooming Torch Ginger. Courtesy of You Tube.

Here´s the link about  Torch Ginger. Thanks for reading. 

Copyright 2015 © Thelma Alberts, All Rights Reserved

Thelma´s Tropical Garden

Thelma´s Tropical Garden is my niche blog about my garden in my home country Philippines. I will be writing about how I came to like digging the ground of my front yard and creating  the garden that I always wanted to have. Traveling to Great Britain and Ireland has inspired me in creating my own cottage garden.

In 2011, my hubby and I started our journey of living our dream. Living in our house in the Philippines "for good." Well, since that remarkable year, a lot of things happened. We can´t leave Germany for good. We then live in 2 countries, so to speak.

After 2 years of happy digging, my tropical garden becomes the beautiful haven of birds, dragonflies and butterflies.

This is the first photo I took in my garden in 2011. Our dog Angus was "fertilizing" it. That ugly front yard inspired me to beautify this view.

If you want to see more views of my garden, just visit this link

http://thelmaalberts.hubpages.com/hub/The-Flowers-In-My-Garden-A-Photo-Gallery

Torch Ginger, one of the flowers I planted. I planted this just right there inside that tire planter in the photo above where the pots were located.

                                       Above is the video of my tropical garden.


I hope you will continue visiting my blog as I will write more of the plants and flowers I have planted, what experiences I had being in my home country and what healthy  plants and fruits I discovered. Thanks for reading.


Copyright 2015 © Thelma Alberts, All Rights Reserved